Chattanooga has experienced a variety of property crimes recently ranging from bank robberies to home invasions, and police say the economy may be one contributing factor.

Chattanooga police and the FBI began investigating the third bank robbery in as many weeks Tuesday morning, this time at the SunTrust Bank at 3535 Brainerd Road.

A man entered the bank, asked a teller for $2,000 in $20 bills and said if she complied there would be no trouble and no one would get hurt, Chattanooga Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Jerri Weary said. The man did not show a weapon, she said. After getting the money, the man left the bank, driving away in what police believe was a red car, Sgt. Weary said.

In recent weeks, there also have been three bank robberies in a two-day period in late September and a home invasion and a robbery at a Family Dollar Store last weekend.

“The economy definitely has a lot to do with it,” Sgt. Weary said. “But I won’t say it’s just the economy. What factors go into it is up to the individual.”

In connection with Tuesday’s bank robbery, police are searching for a white man with a medium build; short, curly gray hair and wearing a T-shirt and jeans, police spokeswoman Lt. Kim Noorbergen said.

The robber was spotted moments after the robbery at the Walgreens on Germantown Road, leaving with a barefoot white female wearing a tan shirt and brown capri pants, Sgt. Weary said.

Chattanooga police arrested a man Sept. 26 in connection with two bank robberies that same day — one at the SunTrust on Third Street and another at the Regions Bank on Tennessee Avenue.

Property crimes investigators also are looking into a home invasion Friday night in the 3600 block of Navajo Drive in the East Chattanooga area. Two women told police that two men kicked in their door and demanded they take off their clothes and give them their money and valuables, Sgt. Weary said.

The women were put in a bathroom and, shortly thereafter, a man and another woman arrived at the home and had a gun pulled on them, Sgt. Weary said. The man scuffled with one of the robbers while the two women already in the house escaped out a back bedroom window, Sgt. Weary said.

The man who scuffled with the intruder was shot in the leg, she said.

Police initially did not send out a report to the media about the incident because the public information officers didn’t receive a report as they usually do, Sgt. Weary said. The media report was issued Tuesday.

No one has been arrested in connection with the crime.

On Saturday, police responded to a robbery at the Family Dollar Store at 3635 Brainerd Road. Witnesses told police the manager was confronted in the store’s back office by a gunman who demanded money from the safe and cash registers, Sgt. Weary said. The man took about $600, she said.

Police still are seeking the gunman, and anyone with information is urged to call the Chattanooga Police Department at 698-2525.

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