In an unusual weapon of choice, a man in the US is accused of attempting to rob a bank armed with a three-month old kitten that he took from a local animal shelter.

The suspect is believed to have entered an adoption area for rescue animals in a Maryland pet store and making off with Magnolia, before walking across the road to a bank where he attempted to carry out a robbery.

“Magnolia, our sweet three-and-a-half-month-old tuxedo kitten, had quite the adventure today after being stolen from her adoption habitat at Pet Supplies Plus in Beltsville,” a social media post from the rescue shelter Beltsville Community Cats read.

CCTV footage showed a man in a light-coloured shirt and black beanie fleeing the pet store with the black-and-white cat in his arms.

Staff at the store believe the suspect used a key hanging nearby to get access into the area Magnolia was being kept, telling NBC Washington the catnapper had been casing the shop daily for almost two weeks.

The man is then believed to have walked across the parking lot to a bank branch before using Magnolia as an accessory in his attempted robbery.

The shelter wrote: “He asked the bank manager to hold the kitten while he wrote a note, then handed the note to a teller demanding all the cash.”

Stephanie Stullich, the president of Beltsville Community Cats, told NBC Washington she received a call from an panicked pet store employee before dropping everything to drive to the store.

She said: “[I] immediately saw all of these police cars, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a heck of a response for a stolen cat,’ but then I realised they all were going down to the bank.”

After police arrested the suspect, Magnolia was brought back to the shelter unharmed.

“Thankfully, the robbery was unsuccessful, the suspect was arrested, and Magnolia was found safe and sound in the bank manager’s office, where the two had bonded over their shared ordeal,” the shelter said.

“Now that her brief “life of crime” is behind her, Magnolia is back to doing what she does best: stealing hearts.

Magnolia is described as “a true purr machine” with a “big personality”, by the shelter and is still looking for “family that will give her plenty of love, playtime, and snuggles.”