Serial Bank Robber Hits Fourth Arlington Bank

A serial bank robber struck at a fourth Arlington bank on Thursday, holding up a BB&T on Lee Highway for a second time this summer.

"He's getting kind of brazen," Arlington County Police Detective Crystal Nosal said. "I don't know if some of it comes from the media attention. Sometimes they feed on that."

The man -- who appears almost as a grandfatherly tourist in the latest security camera footage -- entered the BB&T at 5515 Lee Highway at about 2:19 p.m.

He announced that he was robbing the bank, demanded money, and fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Nosal would not say how much money he got away with, citing department policy.

Federal and local investigators believe this same man robbed Arlington banks on , June 16 and . He is believed to be behind the heist of a Wachovia in Clarendon on Wednesday.

"The banks care about their tellers," Nosal said. "They don't want to get into a shoot-out situation. I'm sure banks have very specific rules about what they're supposed to do. I'm sure they're concerned about these robberies… But at the same time, they're more concerned about the safety of their patrons and tellers, and that's why they give it up."

The suspect is described as a white man in his late 50s, about 6 feet tall and weighing about 180 pounds. This time, he wore a light hat, glasses, a neon green shirt and khaki pants, according to a news release.

In Thursday's robbery, the man did not imply he had a weapon, Nosal said. No one was injured.

Local police are working with the FBI on these crimes. The FBI classifies a crime as "serial" once it has occurred two or more times.

Arlington police do not have a threshold to classify crimes that way, Nosal said.

"We go through spurts of robberies," she said.

This is the sixth bank robbery in Arlington in just over two months. Investigators believe two of them are unrelated to this case.