A robber struck a bank inside a Cub Foods in Crystal, only to be caught up the highway a few miles and minutes later at a fast-food restaurant in Brooklyn Center with an accomplice, authorities said Monday.

The heist occurred shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday at the TCF branch inside the grocery store off the 36th Avenue N. exit from Hwy. 100, Crystal police said.

According to police and the FBI:

The suspect passed a note to a bank employee demanding money and implying the threat of a weapon, police said. The suspect then fled with an undisclosed amount of cash on foot.

Acting on information from police in St. Louis Park, officers tracked the getaway vehicle to an Arby's about 3 miles to the north, off Hwy. 100 in Brooklyn Center. That's where the suspect who was in the bank and a cohort were arrested with no resistance.

The FBI said the two men are a 24-year-old man from Chicago and a 48-year-old man from St. Louis Park. They have yet to be charged and remain jailed.

The St. Louis Park man has been convicted three times in Minnesota since 2012 for theft.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482