A man wearing a wig and carrying what he claimed was a bomb walked into First National Bank at Hermitage Towne Plaza Friday morning, asked for the bank manager by name and walked out with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Traffic on East State Street was halted for more than three hours as police waited for a bomb squad from Allegheny County to arrive to check out the threatened explosive device, which police later said was a hoax.

"(The bomb) appears to have been just an old VCR tape inside a box," Hermitage Police Chief Ed Stanton said.

The man walked into the bank around 10:15 and asked for the bank manager by name, Stanton said. He was wearing a rumpled business suit that looked as if it had come from a thrift shop, Stanton said. The man, who was white, was also wearing a black wig, which came down over his ears, and black-rimmed glasses. Police had earlier said, but could not confirm, that the man was of Asian origin.

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