A man who walked limping into a Valencia bank with a cane in one hand and a forged check in the other was chased out of the bank and arrested late Wednesday afternoon, a local sheriff’s spokesman said.

Shortly after 5 p.m., a man identified as someone who had on a previous date recently cashed a forged check at the U.S. Bank branch inside the Albertsons store on Copper Hill Drive returned to the same bank Wednesday with another forged check.

Bank staff who recognized the man phoned the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, then followed the man.

Sheriff’s deputies found the suspect hiding in bushes on the north side of Copper Hill Drive near Tesoro Del Valle Drive.

A bald man wearing a T-shirt and jeans was arrested at gunpoint and handcuffed.

“A guy walks into the bank, signs a check and gets away with it,” said Lt. Bill Weiss.

“He goes back ... and tries it a second time,” he said. “But when bank employees got wind of it, they chased him across the street.”

There was no weapon, no bank robbery as reported by electronic media and no injuries, Weiss said.

“It was a simple forgery,” he said.

“He (the suspect) has a cane, but we don’t know if it was a prop or if he needs it to walk,” he said.

People interviewed at the scene told The Signal the man made off with $3,000 in the previous incident.

Sheriff’s deputies did not identify the man they arrested.

jholt@signalscv.com

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