Police investigating U.S. Bank robbery on 23rd Street

Lawrence police detectives respond to US Bank at 1807 W. 23rd St., Thursday afternoon, after a reported robbery.

Lawrence police detectives are investigating a robbery this afternoon at U.S. Bank at 1807 W. 23rd St.

The robbery was reported about 1:20 p.m. by bank employees who told police that a man entered the bank and gave a teller a note demanding money. Employees complied with the demand and the man fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash, said Sgt. Trent McKinley, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman.

Police described the suspect as a thin black man, about 40 years old and 6-foot-3 with a mustache, McKinley said. Immediately after the robbery, officers canvassed the neighborhood immediately southwest of the bank, in the direction the suspect was last seen running. The robber did not show a weapon during the incident, and no one was hurt.

McKinley said police have leads on a potential suspect but have not made an arrest. The robber was reportedly wearing a dark pullover shirt, plaid pajama pants, and a camouflage “Gilligan-style” floppy fishing hat, McKinley said, in reference to the titular character of the 1960s television program “Gilligan’s Island.”

FBI agents were on the scene to help the Lawrence Police Department in the investigation, as is customary in bank robberies. Police distributed an image of a suspect from the bank’s surveillance cameras after the robbery, and asked anyone with information about the case to call the Lawrence Police Department at 785-832-7509 or CrimeStoppers at 785-843-TIPS(8477).

The incident would be the third bank robbery in Lawrence this year. In June, a 55-year-old Lawrence man was sentenced to 52 months in prison after being convicted of a Feb. 20 robbery at the Midwest Credit Union, 1015 W. Sixth St. Lawrence Bank, 100 E. Ninth St. had also been robbed earlier that month.