A quick-thinking McCandless police officer helped collar a man the FBI suspects has robbed 16 area banks in the last 15 months.

Thomas Charlier, 39, was taken into custody Friday afternoon in Ross after McCandless police Lt. Don O'Connor, who happened to be leaving his own bank on McKnight Road, heard a police broadcast about a nearby bank robbery on McKnight and recognized the suspect's description as a "5-foot-5 white" male.

Lt. O'Connor remembered talking to a Mt. Lebanon detective about a suspect meeting that description who robbed the Dollar Bank in Mt. Lebanon on Oct. 25.

That wasn't all he recalled. From various bulletins and the bankguys.us Web site, he knew the short guy also drove a certain make of car.

"I remembered that in one of the fliers he was driving an older, white, four-door American car," he said yesterday.

Actually, it was a Buick LeSabre.

Lt. O'Connor called two other McCandless detectives who happened to be in training to say he thought the serial robber everyone has been looking for had just hit a bank in their jurisdiction.

One of the detectives mentioned he'd noticed a car matching that description as he drove on McKnight on his way to Pittsburgh for his training session.

At that very moment, Lt. O'Connor, who was driving his personal car, said he passed the Roomful Express furniture store and spotted the suspect's car in the parking lot. As the man drove onto McKnight, the lieutenant also got a decent look at the driver and realized he had his man.

"I said, 'That looks like him,' so I started to follow him. He heads out onto McKnight, and he goes into the left lane, the middle lane, the right lane, he's all over McKnight," he said.

Then he got stuck in traffic backed up at a light. Traffic is always bad on McKnight, especially just before a holiday, but in this case it was even worse because Ross police had been stopping cars in the hunt for the suspect.

Lt. O'Connor got out and walked up to the man's car with his gun drawn. "I scared the [expletive] out of the lady next to me," he said.

At first, Mr. Charlier said that he was "Christmas shopping." But the officers recognized a red sweat shirt on the floor of the car, which matched the description of one worn by the robber of the Dollar Bank in McIntyre Square shopping plaza that afternoon.

A teller later identified Mr. Charlier as the bandit.

Mr. Charlier, a crack addict from Kerry Hill Drive in Castle Shannon who is well-known to police there, later "expressed a determination to cooperate about his involvement in numerous bank robberies," according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court.

He is charged in federal court only with the Oct. 25 robbery of the Dollar Bank on Cochran Road in Mt. Lebanon, but the FBI said he is suspected of 15 other robberies and an attempted robbery.

According to the affidavit by Agent Chris Johnson, Mr. Charlier said he planned to rob a bank adjacent to the Dollar Bank on Oct. 25, but found it closed. So he hit the Dollar Bank, handing the teller a note that said he had a gun, and got away with $3,400.

Surveillance cameras recorded the suspect's image, and pictures and a description were posted on the bankguys.us site and another Web site used by police to track robbers in Western Pennsylvania.

Police in Mt. Lebanon and Castle Shannon recognized the suspect, and Castle Shannon officers who knew him from past dealings put out a bulletin to be on the lookout.

At least one alert officer out there was paying close attention. But Lt. O'Connor played down his role.

"It was lucky," he said.