VICTORIA – Would-be bank robbers, listen up. If at first you don’t succeed, don’t go back to the scene of the crime to check on the progress of the investigation.

A 39-year-old Victoria man is getting a chance to mull that lesson from behind bars after being picked up in the B.C. capital on Tuesday afternoon.

Police didn’t have to go far to find the suspect because an alert bank employee spotted him peering in the bank’s windows as officers were responding to the attempted heist earlier in the day.

A quick comparison with bank surveillance photos and police were certain they had the right man.

Investigators say the bizarre circumstances of the arrest at the downtown Victoria bank were in keeping with the earlier heist.

They say while a teller was conducting a transaction, the suspect told her he was attempting a robbery and wondered if she would give him some feedback on how it was going, but he fled when confronted by the teller’s withering silence and a notable lack of cash.