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E-mail tips police to 'bizarre' bank robbery

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MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A Miami Beach bank robbery Tuesday turned "bizarre," police said, after an alleged robber was arrested -- apparently unarmed -- and a man claiming to be his brother-in-law phoned threats to the bank.

The events began around 10:30 a.m. at a branch of the Commercial Bank of Florida, which is near a main road linking Miami Beach to the city of Miami.

Traffic was halted, two schools were locked down and residential areas near the bank were evacuated.

Miami Beach Police spokesman Bobby Hernandez said the robber had no gun and presented no note to employees of the bank.

Although Hernandez would not elaborate, he told reporters that a bank manager had e-mailed a friend, writing that the branch was being robbed.

The e-mail recipient called police, said Hernandez, and police arrived on the scene and arrested the alleged robber.

At that point, a bank employee got a call from someone threatening to shoot people if the person in police custody was not released. The employee handed the phone to a police officer.

Then, a crowd of people rushed out of a building across the street from the bank claiming to have seen a man with a gun, said Hernandez.

But those people may have seen an undercover police officer holding a gun rather than an actual gunman. Police do not know the location of the caller -- who claimed to be the brother-in-law of the bank robbery suspect, Hernandez said.

"We're still looking for him," Hernandez said, adding that the FBI was working with police to track down the caller.

The Miami Beach SWAT team surrounded the building where the gunman was reported and ordered its evacuation along with a two-block area surrounding the building. Employees of businesses in the area waited anxiously behind police barricades.

Children at the two schools eventually were taken to the Miami Beach Convention Center, where their parents later picked them up.

The caller remained in contact with police for hours, making demands, including that he be allowed to talk to his brother-in-law and that the suspect be released, Hernandez said.

"We don't let somebody go like that. ... It doesn't work that way," Hernandez said. "There were some issues with his brother-in-law and he wanted to speak to him. We don't know what that's all about."

The caller, he said, was playing "cat-and-mouse" with police.

The suspect in the bank robbery is not a United States citizen, Hernandez said, but he would release no further details, saying that the FBI, who is taking over the criminal investigation, did not want the suspect's name released.

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