A little more than 12 hours after a Lawrence credit union was robbed, police arrested a suspect early Saturday as he stood outside a Wendy’s restaurant near Sixth Street and Kasold Drive.

The suspect, a 36-year-old Lawrence man, was booked into Douglas County Jail on suspicion of aggravated robbery, said Lawrence Police spokesman Sgt. Dan Ward.

Police had been working on the case since 11:30 a.m. Friday, when a man entered Midwest Regional Credit Union, 1015 W. Sixth St., and demanded money from a teller.

The robber showed credit union employees the outline of what could have been a handgun under his jacket, police said. No employees or customers were harmed during the robbery.

The robber, described by police as a white male wearing a yellow jacket, maroon stocking cap, sunglasses, blue jeans and brown shoes, fled south on foot from the credit union after taking an undisclosed amount of cash, Ward said.

Police arrested the suspect about 12:15 a.m. Saturday just more than two miles west of the credit union on Sixth Street. No details about what led authorities to him were released. Ward would only say that information about a suspect was developed during the investigation.

Witnesses said that earlier in the evening, police appeared to be staking out the strip mall area near the restaurant where the arrest was made.

Police had notified the FBI of the arrest, Ward said.

Robbing a financial institution generally is a federal crime. Charges could be filed at both the federal and county court levels.

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Later Saturday, the suspect was being held in jail and was scheduled to appear Monday afternoon in Douglas County District Court, according to jailers. No bond had been set.

Friday’s stickup was the third robbery of the credit union in five years. In 1999, 22-year-old Christopher Nemmers held it up as part of a four-bank crime spree in Overland Park and Lawrence. In January 2003, 29-year-old Quentin Wayne Kivitter escaped after an early-morning robbery of the credit union. He was arrested nearly a month later after robbing a bank in Lyon County.

The Journal-World’s policy is generally not to name suspects unless they are formally charged in court.