Why do bank robbers even bother?
The most astonishing thing about this week’s bank heist in west-end Toronto isn’t the fact that surveillance cameras captured the whole thing, nor that both suspects were soon apprehended.
More surprising is that bank robberies are still being attempted with such frequency in an era of increasingly sophisticated security.
In 2012, there were 591 bank robberies across the country, according to the Canadian Bankers Association. That’s down nearly 50 per cent from a peak of 1,098 in 2000, but still a substantial number. In Toronto alone, there were 74 robberies last year, down from 144 five years earlier.
“There have been some fits and starts, but generally it’s been declining, so I think we can celebrate, actually,” says Bill Crate, the bank association’s director of security.
Long gone, it seems, are the days when bank robbers like Edwin Alonzo Boyd, Willie Sutton or Bonnie and Clyde were celebrated folk heroes and media darlings. They wouldn’t have much of a chance these days.
In recent years, banks have moved to limit the amount of money available at bank branches, and video surveillance has become ubiquitous.
Then there are the so-called “dye packs” — essentially booby-trapped stacks of banknotes that tellers hand over to the robbers along with regular money.
The flexible packs, placed inside a stack of bills, usually contain red dye. Once a robber leaves the bank, a radio transmitter triggers an explosion of dye that stains both money and miscreant.
Both measures came into play last week, since the robbers were not only clearly recorded on video, but found themselves with the red-stained result of their thievery.
Crate won’t say whether all bank branches employ dye packs: “I don’t want to educate criminals.” But the improved security measures likely explain why police eventually make arrests in 90 per cent of robberies.
“The fact that these people are doing bank robberies in an environment where nine times out of 10 they’re going to get caught just speaks to their irrational behaviour, so who knows what they’re capable of doing,” says Crate.
“When they walk into a branch, they have a pretty good idea of the reaction of the bank employees and the customers. But the customers and the employees have no idea who they’re dealing with.”
Bank employees are taught to avoid any confrontation with a thief and en- sure the robbery is over as quickly as possible.
“We’re not hung up on the money,” says Crate. “This is a personal crime. These are people, our tellers and customers. It’s all about intimidation.”
But last week’s robbery did involve one aberration: Customer Carl Fraser, a 53year-old roofer, confronted the robbers, wrestling with them twice — inside the bank and again later in the parking lot — before being shot in the abdomen.
The vast majority of robberies rarely involve such physical violence, since bank employees and customers have long been conditioned to avoid anything that might escalate the situation.
Fraser instead managed to commit fully half of the “ten catastrophic mistakes” listed at BankersOnline.com. He created a surprise situation for the robbers, made sudden movements, argued, then physically struggled with the robbers before pursuing them outside the bank.
The other variance from the norm was that the bankers’ association offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, something it does only at the request of police.
“When we do (rewards), I think in terms of the audience being potential criminals,” says Crate. “We want to send a clear message that if you rob a bank, we take that pretty seriously and if there’s violence involved, we take that very seriously.”