A 50-year-old Butler County man is in the county prison today after he was arrested Wednesday night several hours after allegedly robbing a Buffalo Township bank, authorities said.

Some 10 miles from the First National Bank on Route 356, Tarentum police in Allegheny County arrested Bruce Edwin Tyson.

Investigators say Tyson, with $2,000 in loot, drove to see friends in Tarentum and to buy drugs. Police found him with 150 bags of suspected heroin when he was arrested about 10 p.m.

During an interview with Buffalo Township police Lt. Alan Behanna and FBI agent Jim Kelvington, Tyson allegedly admitted to robbing the Buffalo bank as well as a bank in Middlesex Township last month.

"It took him a while,"Behanna said, "but he eventually confessed to both."

Following his arrest, the suspect, who has a criminal record, was placed in the prison on three bench warrants for failing to appear at a court hearing for probation violations.

Behanna said Tyson, a one-time truck driver, told him that he had been staying with friends in Jefferson Township and living out of his car.

"That's why he was robbing banks, I guess," Behanna said, "because he needed money. ... He was unemployed and didn't have a lot going on."

Investigators believe Tyson is the man who robbed the First National Bank about 1:20 p.m. Wednesday.

That heist was "consistent"with the Dec. 18 robbery of the Northwest Savings Bank on Route 8 in Middlesex, investigators said.

Middlesex police suspect Tyson robbed that bank about 12:20 p.m.