Rolando A. Bolaños Jr., the son of a former Hialeah police chief and a cop himself was arrested Wednesday, accused of robbing a Hialeah BankAtlantic branch.

The son of a police chief, Rolando A. Bolaños Jr. was trained as a police officer.

But on Monday, police say, he tried his hand as a bank robber. He made off with $2,400 in cash, but left behind so much evidence, police say, it took little more than an hour to identify him.

By Wednesday, he was under arrest. The former Hialeah police officer posted bond late Wednesday on a charge of strong-arm bank robbery at a BankAtlantic in Hialeah -- a city where he's well known by police, politicians and attorneys.

''We pretty much knew what we were working with within an hour of the bank robbery,'' said Detective Carl Zogby, a Hialeah police spokesman. ``He left behind enough evidence that led the detectives to know he was the suspect.''

Witnesses jotted down the license plate number on his black 2007 Mercedes-Benz. Surveillance video shows a man who resembles the former cop walking into the bank with a black baseball cap low over his face. He handed the teller a note demanding money, police said, and walked out with cash.

The married 36-year-old is the son of former Hialeah Police Chief Rolando Bolaños Sr., a man who was famous for single-handedly stopping bank robbers in 1996.

By late Tuesday, the younger Bolaños knew police were trying to arrest him and made arrangements to turn himself in, said his attorney, Sam Rabin.

Rabin said his client was not involved in the robbery.

''My client maintains his innocence, and we look forward to our day in court,'' Rabin said.

There are foreclosure proceedings against Bolaños, who works in real estate, and his wife, Mayelin, also a former Hialeah police officer.

Asked about whether his client was in foreclosure, Rabin said: ``I am unaware of the specifics of his financial situation, and there's certainly nothing in his financial situation that would drive him to rob a bank.''

EARLIER TROUBLE

The arrest comes five years after his last run-in with the law, when Hialeah police discovered Bolaños failed to disclose an auto-theft charge when he applied to join the department.

The officer narrowly escaped misdemeanor charges by surrendering his police certification on Jan. 5, 2004.

A year earlier, the police chief's other son, Daniel Bolaños, resigned from the police department as well. The Bolaños brothers were arrested for a 1998 police-brutality incident, and Daniel Bolaños later resigned under pressure from Miami-Dade prosecutors, who agreed to drop the two felony official misconduct counts.

After another incident in April 2003, a jury found both brothers violated a man's civil rights when they beat him during an arrest.

Daniel Bolaños released a statement on behalf of the family Wednesday afternoon asking for privacy and declining to comment on the alleged bank robbery.

''Our family has the utmost love and support for him during this difficult time,'' the statement read.

``We all believe in the justice system, and we are confident that the truth of the matter will be discovered in due course. We also believe that public statements regarding the case would serve no purpose.''

Here's what happened, according to the arrest warrant:

Bolaños walked into the bank at 7775 W. 33rd Ave. and showed the teller a note, demanding money and telling her not to include a dye pack or push an alarm.

He ''kept his right hand inside his jacket pocket as to indicate he was armed,'' read the warrant, prepared by Detective Mario Morales.

After getting the money, the robber asked for more.

''The victim then lifted a coin tray and showed it to the defendant asking him if he wanted the coins as well,'' the report said.

He said no, and left.

Witnesses took down the license plate and police were able to track down the suspect.

ARREST ARRANGED

Wednesday morning, detectives got in contact with Bolaños Jr. or someone close to him and arranged an arrest by 10:50 a.m.

However, Hialeah Councilman José Caragol said anyone who would have seen Bolaños would have recognized him. ''He's easy to find. Everyone knows who and where his wife and kids are,'' he said.

Caragol, who served as the city's spokesman for more than two decades while Bolaños' father was the police chief, said the chief took great care in raising his kids -- and that the bank-robbery charge was a shame.

The former police chief once had an impeccable record with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and during the violent and chaotic 1980s, he ran Hialeah's police department with an iron fist.

Years later, Bolaños Sr. admitted to lying under oath when he told prosecutors he did not know about his son's 1989 arrest for auto theft, which later caused his son trouble when he was accused of lying on his application to the police department.

At the time, the chief told a prosecutor, ``If it came down to saving my son or telling the truth, I would have been happy to lie.''

Bolaños Sr. was Hialeah's first Hispanic police chief, and he briefly gained fame for arresting three bank robbers who happened to rob a Hialeah bank just as he drove by.