Port St. Lucie police are investigating a bank robbery that took place early Thursday morning - before employees could even open for business.
It happened at the TD Bank on Port St. Lucie Boulevard - just a block away from the police station.
For Felix Cameron, who has lived in Port St. Lucie for decades, it came as a bit of a shock.
"I'm here to do some business with the bank, and I ran into this," Cameron says, glancing over at the scene. "I wasn't expecting this."
Police say at 7:40am, a man approached a female bank employee coming into work.
"He pushed her to the ground, knocked her to the ground, and forced his way into the bank," says Master Sergeant Frank Sabol with Port St. Lucie Police. "He was wielding a black handgun."
The masked gunman told the two employees inside to fill up his duffle bag with money before taking off.
Police don't know if it was by car or by foot.
"We had a perimeter set up, with police officers and K-9 to track, but we were unable to locate which direction he went," Sabol says.
A family member of that employee who was pushed to the ground telling us later that she's shaken up, but ok.
"This poor woman is making a living, and now she's probably going to be scared," says bank customer Vicki LaBianca, who also arrived to find crime scene tape.
LaBianca, has a son and daughter who both work at a bank.
"It's scary to even know that they're working there, and they have someone that could come on there and do something," she says.
For Felix, it's another unfortunate example of how much society is changing.
"You look left, you look right, and you don't know who you stop beside or who stops beside you."
"It's no way to live! I wish I could change it."
Police say the robber is a black male, 6’1” tall, weighing approximately 180 pounds, wearing a long sleeve button up shirt, light blue jeans, a Patriots red and white ball cap, blackish-grey tennis shoes with yellow stripes, and a blue face mask.
Police say he is armed and dangerous.
If you have any info, contact law enforcement.
EARLIER STORY
Police are investigating a violent bank robbery Thursday morning on the Treasure Coast.
A masked-man armed with a handgun confronted a TD Bank employee arriving for work around 7:40 a.m., according to Port St. Lucie police.
The gunman knocked the female employee to the ground and forced his way inside.
Another employee was inside and the masked man forced them to give him cash, according to police.
He then left the bank in the 400 block of SE Port St. Lucie Blvd., but it's unclear if he escaped on foot or had a getaway car nearby.
Police describe the gunman as a black man, about 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing 180 pounds. They said he was wearing a long-sleeve button-up shirt, light blue jeans, a Patriots red and white cap, blackish gray tennis shoes with yellow stripes, and a blue face mask.
If you have any information please call the Port St. Lucie Police Department at (772) 871-5001 or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-800-273 TIPS.