WATERVILLE — A woman was robbed Thursday night as she was about to deposit money from a local business in the night drop box at Kennebec Savings Bank on Main Street, police said.

The 59-year-old woman was walking up to the drop box at 7:48 p.m. when an “unidentified white male” came up behind her and forcibly took the money bag from her, according to Waterville Deputy police Chief Bill Bonney.

“He took off running on foot and she called us and reported the robbery,” Bonney said Friday morning.

The after-hours deposit box of the Kennebec Savings Bank, as seen from Pleasant Street, where a woman who was about to make a deposit was robbed Thursday evening, according to Waterville Police.

Bonney declined to say what business she was from or how much money was in the bag, but contacted Friday morning, Gerry Michaud Jr., owner and founder of Big G’s Deli in Winslow, confirmed that a manager at the business was the person who was robbed. He did not want to make her name public.

“She’s really having a hard time, especially in that two or three days afterwards are bad for victims of this,” Michaud said. “Not a lot of money was taken — under $2,000 — and the police are on the job. They’re really on the job. I was impressed with how quickly they have worked. Kudos to the police and condolences to the manager and her family. We’re going to talk about a different way of making our deposits.”

After the robbery was reported Thursday night, police went to the bank at 226 Main St., at the corner of North and Pleasant streets, and are still investigating the robbery, Bonney said.

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“We sent pretty much the whole shift over to work on canine tracking and did everything we always do when there is a robbery,” Bonney said, “and called Detective (Damon) Lefferts, and he’s been working on it pretty diligently since the call came in last night.”

Bonney asked that anyone with information about the robbery call police at 680-4700 and ask for Lefferts.

The drop box at the bank is on the west side of the building, facing Pleasant and North streets, Bonney said.

He declined to release any more details about the description of the robber while the case is being investigated.

Bonney confirmed there is video available of the area where the robbery occurred.

“Obviously, we’re working on any leads possible, so we’re working on any surveillance video in that area,” he said.

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He said the woman who was going to make the deposit was not hurt in the incident.

Across Pleasant Street from the bank Friday morning, Mathieu Pletcher, a 36-year-old clerk at Mobile Mart, said he was working Thursday night when a woman came into the store and asked him to call police, as she had just been robbed.

“She was terrified,” Pletcher said. “She was in here, she was shaking, she asked me to call the cops. They were here within like a minute or two. She sat on a bucket and talked to an officer in front of the sandwich fridge. The paramedics came and checked her out and one of the officers talked to me. I told him what I knew and they were out here for a good two hours, helping her, and they were scouring the whole area.”

Asked if he was scared by the robbery, he said he was not.

“I was scared for her, but I wasn’t really scared for me. I was more concerned about her than anything else.”

Meanwhile, Michaud, Big G’s owner, said the manager who was robbed will take about a week off from work and he will help her in any way he can.

“The money isn’t the issue — it’s the human suffering that’s the problem,” he said. “We can recover from that (the money loss). I love my employees that have been with me a while. It’s a family at Big G’s and we’re all sorry it happened.”

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