Security camera footage captures the chilling moment a bank robber held his finger to his lips to try to silence a terrified bank teller.
In a note handed to the Bank of America employee in New York City, the well-dressed thief threatened to kill everyone unless the clerk handed over the money.
His plan backfired however, when the woman who is in her 20s, started yelling Oh, my God!' as she read the note that was scrawled in black marker pen.
As the worker screamed, the robber held his finger up to his lips, telling her: 'Shhhh.'
But the teller continued to scream and ran for cover under a desk at the other end of the bank on Third Avenue.
'She was legitimately scared,” a law-enforcement official told the New York Post. 'The guy caught her off guard, and she freaked out.'
In sunglasses and wearing a suit, hat and tie, the 5ft 8in to 5ft 10in robber handed over a note that warned: 'I have a gun and will use it. You have 5 seconds to hand over 100s, 50s, 20s before people start getting hurt.'
After the bank clerk ran away, the would-be thief, who weighed about 180lb, stood in shocked silence for a few seconds, before running empty handed out of the branch and heading south towards East 54th Street.
At the time of the attempted robbery, which took place on Wednesday at 10.10am, the only people in the branch were two bank tellers and the manager.
Bank robberies have increased in New York City, with a 69 per cent rise between 2010 and 2011. Overall in the US, there were 5,041 bank robberies in 2011, with thieves taking more than $38 million in cash, FBI figures show.
he New York police department rejected claims by the FBI that the increase in robberies in the city was due to a crime task force being disbanded.
'One armed robbery is one too many, but the high-percentage increase produced by a low [number of robberies] has nothing to do with the task force status,' Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told the Daily News.
The NYPD has released pictures of the man wanted for the attempted robbery at Bank of America, and called on the public to help identify him.
Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers on 800-577-8477.
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