After pulling off one bank heist and attempting another Saturday morning, a Brighton man has been arraigned on bank robbery charges.

37-year-old Robert Joseph Markus was arraigned today on two felony counts of bank robbery and felonious assault. Livingston County Sheriff’s deputies responded at about 9am Saturday to a report of a bank robbery at the TCF Bank on East Grand River Avenue in Genoa Township. Investigation revealed that a white male suspect entered the bank wearing blue coveralls, a black hood and black ski mask and announced to tellers it was a robbery. Witnesses said he implied that he had a weapon, although none was shown. He then fled on foot toward the Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot with an undisclosed amount of cash.

About fifteen minutes later it was reported that the suspect, had also been at the Lake Trust Credit Union on M-59 in Howell Township. He was wearing the same clothing, but was met upon entering the bank by an employee and directed to remove his mask and hood. The suspect fled the bank shortly afterward without completing the robbery.

At about 9:23 a.m., deputies located a pickup truck matching a description provided by witnesses on Highland Road near Michigan Avenue in Howell. Deputies made a traffic stop and took Markus into custody. He remains jailed on a $300,000 bond. Markus has a Probable Cause Conference set in front of Judge Shauna Murphy on January 29th. (JK)