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Union Township police responded to a panic alarm from the Morris Avenue TD Bank on Wednesday around 3:50 p.m., the department said in a press release.
Once there, employees provided them with a description of the suspect who fled with cash.
Officer Sal Valentino responded to the area in the midst of the storm when he saw a man matching the description on North Avenue, police said.
Valentino tried to stop the man, but he ran into the wooded area near the east campus of Kean University. The officer chased the man through the woods but lost him near the Elizabeth River.
Valentino later discovered discarded clothing along the route that the man had left behind while he was running.
With the help of officers from the Elizabeth Police Department, the Union County Police Department and the Kean University Police Department, authorities set up a perimeter around the large wooded area.
A drone captured the man hiding behind a Mary Alice Court home, police said. Officers were able to locate the man there and arrest him.
The robber was identified as Frederick Herman, 50, of Elizabeth, and $500 was recovered. Herman also confessed to a previous bank robbery at the same branch in October, police said.
Herman was arrested on charges related to robbery, drugs and eluding, police said.
He was being held at police headquarters pending additional charges to be take to the Union County Jail.
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