Two area banks — one in Cincinnati and one in Covington — were robbed Friday, but the Cincinnati robbery was quickly solved.

        Cincinnati Detective Mike Graise noticed Friday morning when a man started running through alleys of Over-the-Rhine, looking over his shoulder all the way. The detective followed the man, catching up with him and the plastic bag of money police think came from a robbery minutes before at the nearby Foundation Savings Bank.

Griffith

        The arrest of Roderick Griffith, 22, of Republic Street in Over-the-Rhine, brings to eight the number of Cincinnati bank robberies this year that have been closed with arrests.

        Friday morning's robbery was the second for the Garfield Place bank in three weeks, the 22nd in the city so far this year.

        Greater Cincinnati continues to experience a dramatic increase in robberies, with 49 this year, compared with 28 in 1999. Those numbers do not include Northern Kentucky.

        In Covington, police responded to the Bank of Kentucky at the corner of 19th Street and Madison Avenue, about a block north of the police station.

        Officials were seeking a man with longish gray hair in that robbery.

        No one was hurt in either robbery.

        The man indicated he had a weapon, he said, by holding his hand inside his coat. But no weapon was found when he was arrested.

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