Bank robber sought

The man who robbed a Lakeside bank and is believed to have escaped on a motorcycle Wednesday afternoon is still at large.

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday released three photographs of the suspect extracted from surveillance footage recorded inside Glacier Bank on U.S. 93.

The photographs show a man approximately 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-4 wearing a

red and white motorcycle helmet, glasses, dark clothing and gloves. A teller appears to be placing cash in a camouflage-pattern bag placed on the counter. Time stamps on the photographs indicate the robbery occurred at 3:43 p.m.

Undersheriff Pete Wingert said the man displayed a weapon during the heist, but declined to release exactly what the man used. No one was harmed during the robbery, he said.

He said a customer watched the man flee the bank parking lot on a  white Yamaha 185 motorcycle emblazoned with lime green lettering. According to the witness, the man traveled west on Bierney Creek Road away from U.S. 93.

Based on the witness account, law enforcement focused its search on a wooded maze of trails west of Lakeside.

Wingert said in an e-mail Thursday that an ALERT helicopter was asked to assist in the search, but that “nightfall hindered search efforts in the Bierney Creek area.”

No additional information has been released.

The robbery occurred less than two months after a similar heist at First Interstate Bank in Bigfork. The suspect in the Sept. 25 robbery also wore a motorcycle helmet, demanded money and escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash. He is described as man 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-9.

Information about either robbery can be reported anonymously by calling Crimestoppers at 752-8477.