A Lawrence bank was robbed for the second time in less than five months on Wednesday afternoon.

But this time, the culprit was caught.

Lawrence police responded about 3:30 p.m. to a call at the Central National Bank branch at 603 W. Ninth St., after a man walked into the bank and demanded money from tellers, who complied with his demands. He then left the bank with an undetermined sum of money.

A police officer in the area spotted the suspect, a 25-year-old Lawrence man. He was apprehended after a brief foot chase and taken into custody without further incident. Charges have yet to be filed against the suspect, according to the FBI, and Lawrence police declined to release more information about the case.

The bank was also robbed on July 14, when a suspect, described as a white man in his mid-20s, about 6 feet tall, with brown hair, wearing a green cap, blue jeans and a black zip-up coat, evaded capture after taking an undisclosed amount of money. Another unrelated bank robbery occurred the next day in Ottawa, and that suspect, Timothy Glen Caskey of Minnesota, was arrested in Texas days later, after allegedly kidnapping his wife and fleeing south.

FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said her agency dispatched agents to assist with the investigation of Wednesday’s robbery. Robbing a bank is a federal crime.

“Robbing a bank is violation of federal statute so it does fall in the FBI’s jurisdiction,” she said. “But we have to have our local law enforcement with us; they are always the first responders to these (cases).”

Patton said she had no information that yesterday’s attempted heist was related to the July robbery. She said the FBI routinely compares similarities in all cases to look for possible links. There were 33 bank robberies in the Kansas City area last year; Patton said it is likely that 2011’s totals will be slightly higher.

Representatives of Central National Bank were unavailable for comment.

Reporters George Diepenbrock and Shaun Hittle contributed to this story.