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St. Joseph Police detectives Greg Lewis and James Langston survey the scene of a bank robbery Wednesday morning at 1701 S. Belt Highway. A white man fled the scene on a bicycle.

A man on a bicycle robbed a branch of the Nodaway Valley Bank on the South Belt Highway on Wednesday.

The robbery occurred at 9:27 a.m., when a white man dressed in black clothes robbed the bank, said Andrew Thomure, an FBI special agent.

The man, about 6 feet tall and 225 pounds, was spotted leaving the scene behind the bank on a bicycle, said Jim Connors, the patrol division commander for the Police Department. No one is saying how much money was taken.

A few minutes after the robbery, Buchanan County sheriff’s deputies found a GT Saddleback bicycle northeast of the bank, behind the strip mall where the Westlake Ace Hardware store and other businesses are located. The back of the mall sits on a ridge above 38th Street, one block east of the Belt Highway and about a half-block from the bank.

Police officer Henry Pena found the suspected bike behind the Rents 1st store in the mall. Bank employees identified the red-and-gray bike as the one they’d seen with the robber.

The suspect is believed to have ridden through the parking lots behind the Pizza Hut, a car wash and a Burger King before going behind Rents 1st onto a grassy slope. He left the bicycle because the chain broke, Mr. Connors said.

Nearby on 38th Street, police found a parked black Pontiac with a change of clothes, including large shoes.

“It just seems out of place,” Mr. Pena said.

Police hadn’t determined Wednesday why the car was parked on 38th Street or if it had anything to do with the robbery.

Police officer David Loyd, Mr. Pena and sheriff’s deputies began interviewing neighborhood residents to see if they had noticed anything suspicious.

The FBI allowed the bank to reopen about 11 a.m. The suspect remains at large, and anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI, police or the TIPS hot line at 238-TIPS.

Marshall White can be reached at marshall@npgco.com.