AUBURN – A local man was charged Friday with attempting to rob the Rainbow Federal Credit Union on Thursday and robbing Gowell’s Variety on Jan. 11, police said.

Andrew Franco, 37, of Auburn, was arrested Friday on charges of attempted robbery and robbery in the two incidents, police said.

According to police, Franco brandished a knife, approached a credit union employee in the parking lot on Washington Street at about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, and demanded that the employee unlock the front door. He was let into the credit union, police said, but before he could get access to the vault, the employee fled from the building and flagged down help outside.

When police caught up with him Friday, they said there was information linking Franco to a robbery at Gowell’s Variety on Hampshire Street on Jan. 11. In that heist, a man entered the store, threatened a clerk with a knife, and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.

Police charged him with robbery in that incident.

Franco was being held Friday night at the Androscoggin County Jail on $15,000 bail. Police said additional charges are likely.