Boston Police suspect bank robber may have been pregnant

This morning of September 12, 2012, Boston Police have announced that they are on the lookout for a woman who robbed a Citizens Bank and appeared to be pregnant in a surveillance video. Police acknowledged that pregnancy may have purely been feigned as a disguise but are still alerting the public in the hopes of generating information about her whereabouts.

On this past Monday afternoon, September 10, 2012, a woman walked into a Citizens Bank and gave the teller a note saying that she had a gun and that she wanted all of the money in the drawer. The suspect then escaped the scene on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash. The culprit was described as a white woman with black hair and standing approximately at five feet and four inches. At the time of the robbery, she was wearing sunglasses and a shirt that was cream in color with light blue pants.

Police are seeking out any help from the public in identifying the woman. Pictures are available at the links posted at the end of the blog entry. If you do have any information, you are urged to call the District A-1 detectives at 617.343.4470 or text the word TIP to Crime. You may also contact the Bank Robbery Task Force at 617-742-5533. Any information that leads to an arrest or indictment is eligible to be rewarded with $1,000.

After recently writing about the rise of cattle rustling during the recession, I would have thought the trend would be similar with bank robberies. But according to a report released by the FBI at the end of 2010, bank robberies on the whole have been on the decline in the United States. The total amount of robberies from 2009 to 2010 dipped by about 6%. And the amount of money taken from those robberies also dipped concurrently by about 7%. The northeast is still one of the least likely regions in the country for bank robberies to occur, despite Ben Affleck’s The Town. But, for the past two years, seven out of ten robberies have occurred just to the south of us in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Within New England, over half of the bank robberies happen in Massachusetts. The following are some other statistics lifted from the FBI’s report:

• Bank robbers are overwhelmingly male, 94 percent. When categorized by race, the odds of a bank robber being white or black are the same: 40 percent.

• Also according to the report, Fridays, at 20 percent, are the most common day for banks to be hit, which is probably a leftover from the days before direct deposit. The second most popular day is Tuesday.

• The most common time for a bank to be hit is between 9 – 11 a.m., or 28 percent.

• Forty-seven percent of robberies are at banks in cities, followed by 33 percent for banks at small towns. Suburban banks account for 18 percent.

• In 20 percent of robberies, robbers used a gun, but in 44 percent, robbers indicated they had guns, but no weapons were ever seen.

• In 61 percent, the robbers used a note, while in 55 percent the robbers used verbal commands. There is bound to be some overlap in some cases with robbers using both notes and verbal commands.

More information can be found by clicking on the last link in the ‘Sources’ section. And if you, or anyone you know, have any questions or concerns regarding criminal litigation, please feel free to contact Altman and Altman at any time.

Sources:

http://www.examiner.com/article/boston-police-seek-info-on-bank-robbery

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/09/12/boston-bank-robber-appeared-pregnant/KAP8eDaRUXxFa4MwonOGLL/story.html

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/fbi_data_for_2010_shows_number.html

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