'Note Job' Article Excerpt

"A guide to bank robbery investigation and prevention put out by the U.S. Department of Justice lists some steps banks can take to deter robbers:

-- Installing glass "bandit barriers" or bullet resistent acrylic between customers and tellers;

-- Restricting bank access to customers with key cards or other identification;

-- Banning customers from wearing hats, sunglasses or other apparel that conceals their facial features;

-- Using "dye packs" that explode and cover the money and robber with red ink once they leave the premises;

-- Designing bank that are less attractive to robbers, such as those that have a great distance between teller windows and exits.

And none of them will eliminate the problem of bank robbery, Rehder said.

"As long as you're dealing in cash, you're going to have this problem," he said. "

Any cash-handling business has a greater risk for robbery.

Bank Robbery 'Note Jobs'

REGION: 'Note jobs' on the rise in area bank robberies

By COLLEEN MENSCHING - Staff Writer | Sunday, July 27, 2008 11:01 PM PDT ∞

A note job is when someone, most often a man, walks up and gives a bank teller a piece of paper. These are the most frequent type of bank robbery. Note jobs decreased nationally in 2007.

While the majority of bank robbers are drug addicts, a robber likely to attempt a note job is often a subsistence bandit. They are not robbing to support an addiction but because of a job loss, divorce, mounting credit-card debt, said William Rehder, a Los Angeles-based bank robbery consultant formerly with the FBI.

"More recently, of course, they face the home mortgage foreclosure problem," he said. "There have been a number of these folks that maybe wouldn't consider bank robbery ever in their lives ---- but they're facing the world-shaking desperation of these problems and they see this as a last resort."

Note jobs are not usually lucrative, they net no more than $2,500, Rehder said. "Take-over" robberies net much more money and are often planned by street gangs."Take-over" attempts usually entail 2 or more people entering a bank and then trying to control everyone within it. This type of robbery is the most likely to resort to violence, he said. While "take-over" robberies are rare, they are increasing.

The complete Bank Robbery article was is available from the North County Times. By COLLEEN MENSCHING - Staff Writer | Sunday, July 27, 2008 11:01 PM PDT ∞

'Note Job' Article Excerpt

Any cash-handling business has a greater risk for robbery.

Bank Robbery 'Note Jobs'

REGION: 'Note jobs' on the rise in area bank robberies

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