BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Detectives have identified a man suspected of robbing a bank inside a Beaverton Fred Meyer store and leaving behind a suspicious package, police said Thursday.
Police are looking for 57-year-old Robert Kuch in connection with the robbery.
Kuch might be in Portland but has ties to Vancouver. Police said Kuch recently said he "was not going back to prison alive."
The robbery in Beaverton caused Fred Meyer to temporarily close its store Wednesday.
Officers were called at about 12:30 p.m. to the Chase Bank branch inside the Fred Meyer store at 11425 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. The suspect implied he had a gun and escaped with an undisclosed amount of money, police said.
The store was evacuated and closed for about an hour and a half to allow for an investigation. An explosives disposal unit was called in to handle the suspicious package left at the bank, police said.
No injuries were reported in the robbery and there were no explosives in the bag, police said.
Police said the suspect is a white male, 6 feet tall and 165 pounds. He has brown eyes, gray hair and a thin gray mustache with a small goatee.
The man was last seen wearing a blue shirt, blue jeans and a green and tan baseball cap.
Shaun Lowcock was working on the store's remodel and said he was near the bank when the robbery happened but didn't see anything suspicious.
"I mean, I didn't see anybody running off the property or anything like that. I was inside just moments after the robbery and I didn't see anybody suspicious," Lowcock said.
The number of bank robberies in the Portland area is up this year, according to the FBI.
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