Alaska police stop bank robbery suspect on bike

[May 28, 2010]  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A man robbed an Anchorage bank and escaped on a bicycle but didn't get far, police said Thursday.

The suspect crashed his bike into a patrol car, slid across the hood and took off running but was detained half a block away five minutes after the robbery, Anchorage Police Lt. Dave Parker said.

Police identified the suspect as Christopher Todd Mayer, 45, of Anchorage. He was turned over to the FBI, which will conduct the investigation.

Mayer had not been formally charged as of Thursday afternoon, and it was unknown if he had an attorney.

Police took a call at 1:15 p.m. from a customer who saw a man wearing a camouflage bandanna confront a teller at a downtown Wells Fargo bank branch. The witness reported hearing the man say, "This is a robbery. Give me the money fast."

The teller stuffed money into the man's backpack.

"There was a weapon implied," Parker said. "No weapon was seen."

A second witness told a police dispatcher the man's getaway vehicle was a bicycle.

Officer Aaron Roberts, responding to a holdup alarm, spotted a bicyclist several blocks away passing through an intersection. The cyclist wore a camouflage bandanna around his neck.

He refused to stop, police said, so Roberts chased him until he could maneuver his car into the bike's path.

The suspect didn't slow down and struck the patrol car, Parker said. The bicyclist slid over the hood but lost his backpack. "He ended in a heap with his money pouring out of his pack," Parker said.

The man did not seem fazed, Parker said.

"It didn't hurt him at all," he said. "He popped up and ran away."

Roberts, who stays in shape with martial arts, ran him down after about half a block, Parker said.

Witnesses from the bank identified Mayer as the suspect, Parker said.

[Associated Press; By DAN JOLING]

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