KEY POINTS:
A cleaner laughed in the face of a bank robber after he asked her for the keys to a central Palmerston North bank vault.
The knife-wielding man followed the 54-year-old woman as she arrived for work at the National Bank on Broadway Avenue on Friday night.
He tied and gagged her with tape in the foyer before dragging her to a rear stairwell and fastening her to a rail.
Detective Dave Wishnowsky told NZPA that after realising all of the bank's money had been locked in a vault, the man asked the woman if she had the key to open it.
"She just laughed at him and said 'I'm the cleaner'."
The man fled the building empty-handed through the front door.
Mr Wishnowsky said police had viewed the disturbing attack was on bank security footage.
He described the offender as a slim Maori, with black curly collar-length hair, wearing dark clothes and a beanie.
Mr Wishnowsky said they were examining a distinctive tread mark police had found of the man's shoes.
"I'm trying to identify that brand. Shoes can often link us nowadays to offenders."
He said the man's beanie was also of interest to them as it had a distinctive circle and square design on the top of it.
Even though the woman was tied up in a lit lobby where members of the public could have seen in, Mr Wishnowsky said he believed nobody saw what was going on.
"I don't think anybody could have seen what was going on and ignored it, because it's quite an amazing incident when you see it on video."
He said they were hoping someone may have seen the offender enter or leave the building without his beanie across his face.
The victim alerted the police, using her cellphone after the attacker left.
Police had to force their way into the building where they found the woman bound on the stairway.
Police would like to talk to anyone who used the cashpoint machine between 7.45pm and 8.45pm on Friday night.
- NZPA
