FALMOUTH — With a helicopter lending a hand in the air, state and local police were searching for a man who robbed the Rockland Trust Bank in Falmouth on Saturday morning, authorities said.
A man entered the bank around 9:10 a.m. Saturday armed with a handgun and threatening that he was carrying a bomb, according to accounts from Falmouth Police and the Massachusetts State Police. He fled after a teller handed him an undisclosed amount of money.
Following the robbery, the suspect fled in a stolen 2019 Ford Flex SUV, said Procopio in an email. State police later found the vehicle abandoned on Teaticket Highway in Falmouth.
Massachusetts State Police officers, and a K-9 team were searching the area surrounding the highway. A state police helicopter also helped in the search. Air Wing units conduct incident, scene and surveillance assessments, according to the state of Massachusetts, and collaborate with state and local police to locate wanted, missing, or endangered persons.
Customers who attempted to enter the bank were turned away by Falmouth Police.
There were no injuries during the robbery, according to Emily McDonald, vice president and marketing manager for Rockland Trust Bank. She declined to say how much was stolen during the robbery.
At about 9:10 a.m. Saturday, Rockland Trust Bank at 20 Davis Straits was robbed by a white male, according to Dave Procopio of Massachusetts State Police.
“We’re grateful to the authorities who worked swiftly an diligently to respond to the incident,” said McDonald in an email. “We will continue to apply stringent security measures to safeguard their wellbeing.”
The Falmouth branch will remain closed for the remainder of Saturday, said McDonald, but didn’t indicate when the branch would re-open.
Rockland Trust Bank has been hit before
Last month, three men were indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston in connection with the Nov. 17 armed bank robbery of Rockland Trust Bank in Tisbury on Martha’s Vineyard, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Miquel Antonio Jones, 39, of Edgartown, and Omar Odion Johnson, 32, of Canterbury, N.H., were each indicted on one count of armed bank robbery and aiding and abetting.
Romane Andre Clayton, 21, of Jamaica, was indicted on one count of being an accessory after the fact to armed bank robbery.
Jones, Johnson and Clayton will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date, according to the Justice Department.
On Nov. 17, at around 8:15 a.m., the Rockland Trust bank in Vineyard Haven was robbed at gunpoint by three people. According to police, robbers wearing dark clothing and masks that looked like an older man with exaggerated facial features entered through the back of the bank and held semi-automatic weapons. They forced a teller to open a vault at gunpoint, stealing $39,100. They also tied up employees with plastic ties and duct tape. They stole a vehicle from a teller, later driving it to Manuel F. Correllus State Forest next to Martha’s Vineyard Airport where they abandoned it around 8:30 a.m.