PORT TOWNSEND – Port Townsend police are seeking a man who robbed the local branch of Washington Mutual Bank Saturday morning and fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of money.
No one was hurt during the robbery, police said.
Police described the robber as slender, white and about 5-foot, 11-inches tall.
He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with a denim jacket over it when he robbed the bank.
The man entered the bank soon after it opened at 9 a.m., and approached a teller, said Port Townsend Police Sgt. Mike Evans.
The bank, located at 419 Kearney St. at the corner of Sims Way, had no other customers in it at the time, he said.
The man said he had a gun and that he was robbing the bank.
He did not show the bank employee a gun, Evans said.
Once he was given the money, he walked out the door.
Bank employees saw him walk in the direction of Kah Tai Park, which is adjacent to the bank, and disappear behind trees.
Port Townsend Police Department officers arrived after the bank’s alarm sounded and searched Kah Tai Park and trails near Kearney Street.
They found nothing, they said.
Bank employees declined to comment.
Because banks are federally insured financial institutions, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were notified and were dispatched to the bank on Saturday.
The Port Townsend Police Department and the FBI are jointly investigating the robbery, said Evans.
The investigation is ongoing, he said.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Port Townsend Police Department at 360-385-2322 or the FBI Seattle office at 206-622-2960.
This is the fourth bank robbery on the North Olympic Peninsula since February 2006.
The Port Hadlock Bank of America was robbed in August.
On Feb. 8, 2006, the Kitsap Bank in Sequim was robbed and on May 30, 2006, there was a heist from the Port Angeles Kitsap Bank.
