BY BILL GEROUX

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

VIRGINIA BEACH -- A 20-year-old Norfolk man was arrested in Richmond and charged with robbing a Virginia Beach bank via the drive-through window.

Virginia Beach police spokesman Adam Bernstein said that on Saturday at 11:33 a.m., the robber drove up the bank in a white Lexus sedan and used a vacuum tube to send a note that demanded money and said he had a gun.

The bank teller sent an undisclosed amount of cash through the tube, Bernstein said.

Although the robber did not display a gun and the drive-through window was made of bullet-resistant glass, the teller was following bank procedures designed to discourage robbers in such cases from trying to enter the bank, Bernstein said.

Surveillance photos from the drive-through were aired on Hampton Roads TV stations, said Bernstein. Police received numerous tips and arrested James Robert Crowder yesterday in a Richmond hotel.

"Sometimes it helps us if the criminals aren't too smart," Bernstein said.

Richmond-area residents may recall a series of five drive-through robberies committed by a young woman in 2003.

She was caught after employees of the fifth bank got a good look at her and her vehicle, authorities said.

She was convicted of three counts of robbery and five counts of grand larceny and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Crowder was being held yesterday without bond in the Virginia Beach jail, pending a court appearance.

Contact Bill Geroux at bgeroux@timesdispatch.com