HANCOCK COUNTY – The man accused of robbing a Cumberland bank earlier this summer is now in the Hancock County Jail, set to make his first appearance in a local courtroom.
Police say 47-year-old Harold Bryan, 522 N. Lebanon St., Lebanon, was the suspect who entered the Greenfield Banking Co. branch in Cumberland in early June and handed a teller a note demanding cash.
On the day of the robbery, the suspect fled the scene before police arrived, taking more than $1,000 in cash with him. Investigators put security-camera images of the suspect on social media in the days that followed the crime, asking for help identifying the man.
It was officers from nearby police departments who pointed to Bryan, according to court documents. The officers told Cumberland investigators they’d dealt with Bryan before and recognized him, court documents state.
This led Hancock County prosecutors to file a single Level 5 felony count of robbery against Bryan.
But between the robbery on June 2 and charge being filed on June 11, Bryan was arrested in Boone County in an unrelated case, records show. He’s been in the Boone County Jail ever since, but was transferred to Hancock County earlier this week.
He was set to appear in Hancock County Superior Court 1 before Judge Terry Snow Wednesday morning, according to court records.
The charge Bryan faces carries a penalty of up to six years in prison.
Police say no weapon was displayed during the robbery in June and no one was injured.
Bryan allegedly entered the bank around 11:30 a.m. that Saturday morning, wearing a tan jacket, a blue T-shirt, gray shorts, a baseball cap and sunglasses, police said.
He waited patiently while a teller helped another customer, then approached the counter calmly when it was his turn, court documents state.
The bank teller told police she wasn’t immediately concerned when the man handed her a note. She’d had deaf and hard-of-hearing customers visit the branch in the past, who prefer to use written notes to communicate.
But when she told the man she couldn’t read his writing, he leaned in closer to her and whispered, “This is a robbery,” the teller told police, according to court documents.
She handed over the money he demanded, and the suspect then left the bank in a dark-colored SUV or mini van, police said.
The suspect was seen climbing into the passenger side of the vehicle, according to 911 dispatch records. Witnesses were unable to provide a description of the driver, records state.
A few days after the incident – after police told Cumberland officers Bryan might be a suspect – investigators showed the teller and another woman working in the bank that day a photograph lineup on possible perpetrators.
Both women, separately, pointed to Bryan’s photograph without hesitation, saying he was the man who carried out the robbery, court documents state.