Fort Worth police looking for suspect in brazen afternoon bank heist

The First Convenience Bank inside the Kroger Grocery store on Beach Street is the latest in what has been a string of bank robberies this month.

The suspect walked into the Kroger in the 6600 block of Beach Street about 4:30 p.m. Saturday and showed the bank teller a note, according to the police call log.

It is unknown if the suspect displayed a weapon, but he did threaten to hurt the teller if she pushed any buttons or said anything, the log stated.

The suspect took an unknown amount of cash that was stuffed into three white envelopes, according to the call log.

The suspect is described as a heavy-set Hispanic man wearing a blue Texas Rangers baseball cap, and is about 5-feet, 6-inches tall.

Saturday’s robbery comes as Fort Worth police have seen a marked increase in robbery calls. The department took an estimated 150 robbery calls in July, which police said was about a 25 percent increase over a normal July. Just three were bank robberies.

But from Aug. 2 to Aug. 5, six more bank robberies or attempted robberies were reported in Fort Worth.

The department reported 38 robberies during the first eight days of August.

Those numbers don’t include Tuesday morning’s break-in at the BBVA Compass Bank at 8875 Camp Bowie West. The bank was closed when three men tried to get into an ATM safe with a blowtorch shortly before 5 a.m. There was no imminent threat to a person, which is a primary difference between a robbery and a burglary.

This story includes information from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published August 12, 2017 at 9:20 PM with the headline "Fort Worth police looking for suspect in brazen afternoon bank heist."