Twin Cities bank held up twice in one day

WEST ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- The TCF Bank in a Cub Foods here was held up twice in one day -- by different robbers.

Kyle Loven, a supervisory special agent at the FBI's Minneapolis office, said the first robbery happened around 9 a.m. Tuesday, when a man presented a demand note to a bank teller and implied he had a gun.

The man got an undisclosed amount of cash, then left the grocery store and ran away to a wooded area. Police West St. Paul police officers, FBI and a canine team searched the area but could not find the suspect, West St. Paul police Chief Bud Shaver said.

The law enforcement officers left after the first robbery, except for one West St. Paul investigators who stayed to gather more witness statements. He left the bank about 1:50 p.m. to get more paperwork out of his unmarked car.

That's when the second robber struck.

"I kid you not," Shaver said. "When he got back a few minutes later, a bank employee said, 'We've just been robbed. Again.' "

The second suspect showed bank employees a handgun tucked into his waistband, then also ran away into the nearby woods with an undisclosed amount of cash.

He also wasn't caught.

Loven said FBI agents had just gotten back to their office when they heard about the second robbery. "When we were told the same bank had been hit again, we were a little stumped," he said.

Loven, who has been with the FBI for 12 years, said he has never heard of the same bank being robbed twice in one day.