Suspect Arrested After Attempted Bank Robbery

A man began an attempt to rob Eastern Bank in Harvard Square on Friday, but got spooked and ran out of the bank before completing the crime. A bank employee then called the Cambridge police, who apprehended a suspect matching the man’s description.

According to branch manager Ramon Marrero, the man entered the bank, which is located in Brattle Square, at about 12:45 p.m. One other customer was in the bank at the time.

Marrero said that the suspect placed a note on the counter, then apparently thought better of it before the teller picked up the paper.

“He got scared and he decided to grab the note and run out,” Marrero said.

Aided by a bank employee’s description of the man as short and dark complexioned with an orange shirt and hooded sweatshirt, Cambridge Police Department officers located the man about nine blocks away at the intersection of Mass. Ave. and Putnam Ave., according to Cambridge police spokesperson Daniel M. Riviello.

A witness from the bank identified the suspect as the same man who had attempted to rob the bank, and a police search turned up preexisting warrants for his arrest, Riviello wrote in an emailed statement. He was placed under arrest.

Eastern Bank was robbed of $3,000 this past summer. Marrero said he was unaware of any new security measures implemented after that incident, nor did he plan to change any procedures in order to forestall future robberies.

—Staff writer Julie M. Zauzmer can be reached at jzauzmer@college.harvard.edu.