By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

A GUNMAN held up a female teller at Scotiabank telling her “this is a robbery, do not scream, just fill up the bag.”

The brazen robbery happened at the bank’s Soldier Road branch around 1.55pm yesterday.

Police said a lone gunman, wearing a thick, heavy black jacket, entered the bank pretending to be a customer.

He walked up to a female teller where he produced a handgun and an empty bag and whispered to her “this is a robbery, do not scream, just fill up the bag.”

The teller emptied her till into the bag and the suspect fled on foot in an unknown direction.

No one was hurt during the robbery. The bank was closed for the rest of the day.

Half an hour after this robbery, a man was robbed of his vehicle in the parking lot of Scotiabank on Wulff Road and Jerome Avenue.

Police say the victim was getting out of his vehicle, when he was approached by a man, armed with a handgun, who demanded the keys.

The suspect stole the 2000 Honda, but abandoned it a short time later after he collided into a sidewalk and fled on foot.

Police say the incidents are not related.

Investigations into both matters are continuing. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 911 or 919, the Central Detective Unit at 502-9991 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 328-TIPS.