If at first you don't succeed, rob another bank

A goateed man wearing dark clothes and a skull cap robbed a BB&T bank in the Camp Springs area Tuesday, just minutes after he unsuccessfully tried to rob a different bank up the road, police said. What’s worse is that the man might be tied to three other bank robberies since December, police said.

The man, believed to be in his 30s or 40s, operates largely the same way each time, police said. He passes a note to the teller demanding money, then leaves with cash, said Officer Henry Tippett, a Prince George’s County police spokesman. In the most recent case at the BB&T, the man implied he had a weapon, but he has never actually flashed one, Tippett said.

“He’s basically demanding large bills,” Tippett said.

The man first struck just after 4 p.m. Tuesday at the SunTrust bank on Temple Hill Road, though he made off without any cash, Tippett said. Minutes later, he showed up at the BB&T bank in the 6300 block of Allentown Road, Tippett said. This time, he got away with money.

Tippett said investigators are exploring the possibility the man is connected to three other robberies in which witnesses described a man of similar age and appearance using the same methods. Those robberies occurred Dec. 29 at a SunTrust bank on Watkins Park Drive near Largo, Feb. 23 at a Chevy Chase bank on Marlboro Pike near Upper Marlboro and Feb. 24 at a Wachovia bank on Apollo Drive near Largo, Tippett said.

-- Matt Zapotosky