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[/media-credit]Madison experienced its 20th bank robbery of the year Monday at Home Savings Bank, breaking the 2001 record of 19 robberies in just one year.
Mike Hanson, the Madison Police Department's Public Information Officer, said the robbery occurred at 9:37 a.m. at the Home Savings Bank on 3762 E. Washington Avenue. The suspect, a 6 foot tall, 200-pound black male with dark hair, walked into the bank, presented a note to a teller and demanded money. The man implied the presence of a weapon but did not show it.
The suspect ran away, he said, with an "undisclosed amount of money," but no one was hurt in the encounter.
According to Hanson, officers brought a police dog to the scene in order to track the suspect, but were still unable to find him.
With four bank robberies occurring in Madison this fall alone, Hanson said detectives are looking into the possibility the events are somehow related. Though he added nothing is certain yet, most of the other robberies this fall were conducted in the same manner — demanding money, presenting a note and implying the presence of a weapon.
"The possibility the incidents are related is something that investigators are looking at," he said. "But it would be premature for us to link [the crimes]."
Hanson said no further information about the robbery will be released at this time.
Yet MPD Sgt. Sue Armagost added detectives spend a great deal of time investigating bank robberies, and said the success rate for catching suspects is fairly high. She also said spectators are rarely harmed in robberies, even though presence of a weapon is usually implied — bank tellers are always instructed to cooperate so no one gets hurt.
"[The MPD] pours a large amount of money into tracking and finding robbery suspects," Armagost said. "A lot of times we have more physical evidence because [banks] have very good surveillance systems."
Anyone with further information on the robbery is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at (608) 266-6014.
