With four robberies of local businesses within the last month, the State College Police Department is operating under the assumption that at least two of them are connected, Sgt. Dana Leonard said.

AmeriServ Financial Institution, 734 S. Atherton St., was robbed Dec. 22, marking the beginning of the recent wave of robberies in the local area. Police said a man entered the bank at 2 p.m. wearing light-colored pants, sunglasses and a red-colored bandana as a mask, and demanded money.

He did not brandish a weapon, but kept his hand in a brown plastic bag during the hold-up.

Dec. 31, a Uni-Mart at 1200 S. Atherton St. and another on Route 322 in Boalsburg were victims of a man armed with a handgun within 15 minutes of each other.

Choice Cigarette Discount Outlet, 2110 N. Atherton St., became the latest victim of an armed robbery at about 7:15 p.m. Jan. 12, when a 5-foot-5-inch man wearing a ski mask, blue jacket and holding a gun got away with an undetermined amount of cash, police said. The Patton Township Police Department is investigating this latest robbery and has asked anyone with information to contact them at 234-0273.

Leonard said while it is too early in the investigation and the descriptions of the suspects are not specific enough to connect the robberies, his experience tells him the Uni-Mart robberies probably are linked.

"That's the investigative theory we're working on given that the robberies occurred on the same stretch of highway, two miles from each other and 15 minutes apart," he said.

Leonard said the robberies are a high priority for law enforcement because a gun was involved.

"Anytime there's a weapon involved it's a high priority, because we don't know the demeanor of the perpetrator and we don't know how desperate he is," Leonard said.

He added police have leads on the cases, but it is too soon to tell how promising they are and no arrests are pending.

Anyone with information on the Uni-Mart and the AmeriServ robberies can contact State College Police at 234-7150.