Hermosa Beach Police evacuated a portion of a strip mall in the 1100 block of Pacific Coast Highway April 30 after a man, who is still at large, robbed a bank using a hand grenade, police said.

According to Detective Brian Smyth, a white man, who is described as being about 30 years old and about 6-foot-2 with a thin build, walked into First Federal Bank at about 5:15 p.m. He placed a hand grenade on the counter and demanded that the teller give him all of the bank’s $100 bills.

“He was given a stack of money — $10 bills and $20 bills – and one of the stacks contained the security device dye pack. This guy took off and left his hand grenade on the counter,” said Smyth. “There is a dye pack that is concealed in a stack of money and there is a sensor in the bank that once that dye pack passes that sensor it activates it. There is an unspecified amount of time before the dye pack explodes with a colored powder that gets on the suspect and his clothing.”

The man fled the bank and ran up an enclosed hallway behind the strip mall. A witness told police they saw smoke coming from the area and police discovered the dye pack that had exploded.

Since the suspect left behind his grenade, Hermosa Beach Police called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad. The agency partitioned off the strip mall and evacuated several businesses. The bomb squad arrived at about 7:30 p.m. and determined the grenade was a fake.

“It looked real but it was not capable of detonating,” added Smyth. “It was a homemade-fashioned grenade, but it looked real and if it had the proper mechanics, it would have been able to explode.”

Police also enlisted the use of a bloodhound that arrived at the scene and tracked the suspect’s scent to the Quality Inn hotel in the 900 block of Aviation Boulevard. Officers knocked on all of the hotel’s doors there but were unable to locate the suspect.

According to Smyth, the bank has been the site of several recent robberies including one two months ago. Those with any information related to the case are asked to call Smyth at 318-0330.