Police are searching for a suspect who lay in wait Monday morning for an employee of a Pinehurst bank to arrive and then robbed her at gunpoint

The suspect had broken into the RBC Bank on Chinquapin Road in downtown Pinehurst and was hiding in the basement when an employee arrived just before 8 a.m. to open the bank, according to police.

"He entered the building through a locked basement window," Pinehurst Police Chief Ronnie Davis said.

According to a police report, an officer responded to an alarm activation coming from the rear door at the bank at 7:42 a.m. The officer reported he "didn't notice anything suspicious "

The responding officer checked around the bank and said, "Every-thing appeared to be secured."

According to police reports, the bank employee said she arrived about 7:50 a.m. and was in the break room throwing away old newspapers when the suspect opened the basement door and pointed a gun at her and said, "I don't want to hurt you, I just want the money."

The employee stated in the report that the suspect told her, "I got some buddies with your family so open the safe, and don't give me any funny money." She then opened the safe and her particular drawer and put the money in a small black duffel bag he provided, as instructed by the suspect, the report says.

The employee stated she did not give the suspect a dye pack that was also in the drawer. The suspect asked about it, and she responded by telling him that he "didn't want that one."

She said in the police report that she didn't want to give him the dye pack because she was afraid the suspect would get angry and possibly harm her when the pack exploded.

In the report, the employee said the suspect asked about money in the other teller drawers and in the big safe. She told him she couldn't open the other drawers and that there was no money, only safe deposit boxes, inside the safe.

According to the report, the employee said she was taken down to the basement, where the suspect secured her hands with a black flex cuff, put her in a corner, and told her not to move.

"Just give me five minutes," he told her. "My buddies are still with your family."

The suspect exited back through the basement window. He fled the scene on foot with an undisclosed amount of money.

The bank employee freed herself and went back upstairs and activated the alarm at 8:06 a.m.

Davis said the employee described the suspect as "very polite."

He is described as a slightly built white man standing 6-feet tall and weighing 175 pounds. He was wearing a dark jacket, blue jeans, black gloves, a black ski mask and brandishing a black handgun.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Pinehurst Police Department at (910) 295-3781.

Contact Tom Embrey at (910) 693-2484 or by e-mail at tembrey@thepilot.com.