Bandit struck twice in a month, swathed in a hat and scarf, a blue and white umbrella in hand. Both times, the culprit produced notes demanding cash and fled on foot with the loot.Police said the first hit was at Washington Mutual Bank in Port Jefferson in December. The second, at a Chase branch in Mount Sinai on Jan. 7.
Textbook bank robberies, except for one fact: The robber is a she."Females account for maybe one or two cases a year, on the average," said Suffolk County Det. Sgt. Robert Doyle, commanding officer of the major case investigations unit. "It happens infrequently." Except recently, when three female robbers struck banks five times over four months in Suffolk, and one in Nassau. And in each case they have been the main or sole operative in the crime, bucking the usual M.O., of females working as accomplices. Such a trend - although it's over a short period of time - mirrors what experts say is occurring nationally."You are more likely now to have a Bonnie without a Clyde," said Rosemary J. Erickson, a South Dakota forensic sociologist and security consultant who has interviewed hundreds of bank robbers.Nationally, bank robberies by women have risen slightly from year to year since 2002, though they still now account for only about 6 percent of all bank robberies, according to FBI statistics. Female bank robbers are unusual enough that they often earn their own monikers, from the glamorous "Starlet Bandit" who robbed a bank in California last year; the "Barbie Bandits" in Atlanta, two giggling 19-year-olds who robbed a bank in 2007; and the "Cell Phone Bandit," who struck four banks in Virginia in 2005, all while talking on her cell phone.Robert McCrie, a professor of security management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said it was unusual to have several female robbers in a relatively short period. "I'd call them uncommon as sole operatives," said McCrie.
He said he wouldn't be surprised if the number of female bank robbers rises, as it's a "fairly safe kind of crime to commit in terms of personal risk."
"It's now a situation where it's becoming an equal opportunity crime. There's no barrier to women being bank robbers. It's not something where you require more muscle mass."
Suffolk police say that despite the recent spike, they haven't seen a long-term increase in female bank robberies or attempts. Nassau police also report few female bank robberies or attempts - but in all but one case in recent years women acted alone, said Det. Sgt. John Giambrone, commander of the Nassau police Robbery Squad. Only once did a woman produce a weapon. None of the Suffolk suspects used a gun.
Tod Burke, a professor of criminal justice at Radford University in Virginia, said female robbers rarely produce a weapon. "Females are really big into notes," he said. "They'll flip the note to a teller."
Giambrone said few of the female bank robbers in Nassau have been driven by drug addictions, a common reason cited by male bank robbers.
Suffolk police say crack cocaine was behind one woman's robbery of one bank and attempted robbery of another.
Jessica D. McNeil, 21, of Medford, was charged with the Sept. 23 robbery of the Bank of Smithtown branch in Centereach.
McNeil, who is out on bail, answered the door cheerfully in a bright pink robe Thursday at her grandmother's house in Medford. "It was basically just the drugs," the woman said when asked about the robberies, as a young child looked through the door. "I have to go feed my daughter," she added, before her grandmother yelled at her to come inside.
McNeil and a male accomplice were also charged with the attempted robbery of the Roslyn Savings Bank in Centereach on Sept. 25.
In the Sept. 23 case, McNeil placed a small piece of paper on a teller station, according to a witness statement.
"I have a gun," the note said. "I will shoot you. Give me all your money. Put in bag."
'Hatchet' Gerard Kavanagh shot dead in Costa del Sol pub
-
Gerard Kavanagh was shot dead in a bar on the Costa del Sol Notorious
gangster Gerard “Hatchet” Kavanagh was gunned down by two masked assassins
yesterda...
0 comments:
Post a Comment