Centralia police hope to obtain bank surveillance photos to help identify a man who robbed a West Coast Bank branch Tuesday.
Nobody was injured and no weapon was displayed when a man walked into the bank just west of Centralia's Harrison Avenue exit off Interstate 5 and robbed it early Tuesday morning.
Police describe the suspect as a white male, about 6 feet tall and slender, in his mid-30s. He was reportedly wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with a blue checked coat over it, and blue jeans.
Centralia police Officer John Panco said the robber was also wearing wrap-around type sunglasses.
Centralia police detective Steven Dawes said Tuesday afternoon that officers notified neighboring police agencies and would contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation in their effort to locate the suspect. Police are asking anyone who has information about the incident to telephone the Centralia Police Department at 330-7680.
"The bank is just very fortunate and very happy that everybody involved is safe," said West Coast Bank's Regional President Tim Dowling from his Olympia office late Tuesday.
No customers were inside the bank during the incident. Police were called at about 9:45 a.m. The branch opens at 9 a.m.
Dowling said manager Arnie Guenther and his staff did everything they had been trained to do under such circumstances.
"We train for these situations," Dowling said. "Unfortunately, they do happen."
The facility on Harrison and Belmont avenues is one of nine West Coast Bank branches in Washington. The Lake Oswego, Ore.-based bank has 44 branches in the Pacific Northwest.
Both Dowling and Centralia Officer Panco said they aren't aware of the Centralia branch ever being robbed before.
Dowling said a different branch was hit several weeks ago in Washington, but declined to identify which one.
"There have been several (bank) robberies in the Olympia area," he said.
Police said the robber obtained an undetermined amount of money from the bank. Detective Dawes said the robber only got the cash from one female teller's cash drawer.
He left the bank through the south door and was last seen walking toward Harrison Avenue, police said. Officers didn't know if he got into a car, got on a bicycle or fled on foot.
An officer from Chehalis and two from the Lewis County Sheriff's Office assisted with "containment" while Centralia police Officer Tracy Murphy and police dog Bak tried to track the suspect, according to Dawes.
By 10:30 a.m., the bank's drive-through lane was open, but the lobby was closed while officers interviewed employees inside and checked for fingerprints. The lobby portion of the bank reopened later Tuesday morning, according to the bank manager.
Centralia Officer Panco said in his 13 years with the police department, he could recall "a few" bank robberies in Centralia. A bank that once occupied a spot across Harrison Avenue from the West Coast Bank was once robbed, he said. And Security State Bank in Chehalis was robbed a few months back, he said.
Earlier this year, the top FBI agent in Washington state told a Chehalis Rotary Club gathering that Washington state has more bank robberies per capita than any other state, with more than 300 each year.
Sharyn L. Decker covers law enforcement and the courts for The Chronicle. She may be reached by e-mail at sdecker@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8235.
