A man is being sought after he successfully used Craigslist to cover up a bank robbery.

He posted an advert on the popular classified web site offering landscaping work on a road maintenance project in Monroe, Washington for $28.50 an hour.

One man who contacted the advertiser about work was told to meet the rest of the crew outside a Bank of America branch wearing a yellow vest, safety goggles, a respirator mask and a blue shirt.

The man met a dozen other men waiting to start work on the job, all dressed in a similar fashion. No hirer appeared and the men thought they had been stood up but later discovered they were unwitting accomplices in a bank robbery.

As the men gathered outside, the robber went into the bank wearing the same clothes as those stood outside. He pepper-sprayed a guard, snatched a money bag and made his escape.

The robber, described as 'a white man in his 20s, between 5ft 7in and 5ft 10in, wearing a dark blue shirt, jean shorts and a mask' is now being sought by the police. He was last seen floating down Woods Creek on an inner tube.