Heritage Oaks Bank robbed in SLO

An armed bank robber made off with about $5,000 in cash after demanding money from a teller in San Luis Obispo on Monday afternoon.

Nobody was hurt in the robbery, and San Luis Obispo police had made no arrests as of Monday evening.

At about 2:22 p.m., police received a report of a silent alarm activated by one of the tellers at the Heritage Oaks Bank in the 1500 block of Froom Ranch Way in San Luis Obispo, according to a department news release.

While en route, officers were notified that the bank had been robbed and the man had already fled the location.

Witnesses later told officers that the man entered the bank and approached one of the open teller windows, displaying a handgun and demanding money. The cash was placed in a bag the man brought into the bank, police say. He then demanded more money from a second teller, who complied, according to the news release.

Lt. Jeff Smith said Monday afternoon that the man then walked out of the bank and toward the nearby Home Depot, but it was unclear if he left the shopping plaza in a car or on foot.

Investigators remained at the scene throughout Monday afternoon and were searching for the robber, Smith said.

Smith described the man as in his late 50s to early 60s, wearing a black hat, black jacket, black T-shirt and jeans. He was wearing amber-tinted eyeglasses and had a gray beard.

The man matches the description of the sole suspect in the armed robbery of a Union Bank branch in Goleta on Nov. 2, police said. The robber in that incident was last seen leaving the area in a dark-colored, four-door sedan, possibly a Nissan, with paper license plates, Noozhawk reported at the time.

Anyone with information about the man is asked to call the San Luis Obispo Police Department at 781-7317 or Crime Stoppers at 549-STOP.

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Heritage Oaks Bank robbed in SLO."