Crime & Safety

Emmaus Police Respond to Robbery at Sovereign Bank

Police, dogs and a helicopter are searching for a suspect.

Police dogs and a search helicopter were deployed this morning for a manhunt in connection to a bank robbery at , 1215 Chestnut St, Emmaus.

Police are searching for a man wearing a black T-shirt and grey sweatpants. He is suspected of robbing the bank with a silver, semi-automatic handgun.

Police did not disclose how much money was taken.

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Reports also indicated that police and SWAT teams surrounded a cornfield along Lower Macungie and Riverbend Roads.

Police acted on a call after the robbery about a white man in a black T-shirt who was seen running through the cornfield.

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"He did not look like a farmer," the caller said.

Police also searched the apartment complex behind the bank and across from Emmaus High School.

was put on lockdown and the summer school students were kept inside until the area was cleared.

At the bank, yellow crime-scene tape surrounds the scene. After the robbery, officers interviewed employees inside the bank.

One Sovereign employee was allowed to leave just long enough to give a hug to her mother, who had parked her car in the lot, waiting to get word from her daughter.

There have been no reports that anyone had been hurt.

The Lehigh County Communications Center confirmed the call came in at 10:30 a.m. That was about the time when David Gross, manager of the in the East Penn Plaza Shopping Center, was dropping off his morning deposit at the bank.

Gross said the door to the bank was locked, and the manager waived him off from inside. As Gross walked back to the Smoke Shop, Emmaus police arrived with guns drawn.

The bank has been closed since and was being used as the command post.

K9 units from Emmaus and Allentown were deployed in the effort to catch the robber. Salisbury Police, State Police and many other area municipalities were also called in for help.

The same Sovereign Bank on July 2, 2010. And today's call comes seven months after the on Main Street in Emmaus that involved a shoot-out with police.

The held a press conference in the parking lot of Emmaus High School at 3:30 p.m., and confirmed that the robber got away with some money. The suspect remains at large.


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