Bank robber gets away with $250,000
Expert says security measures should prevent theft of such large sums

June 17, 2006

By Vic Ryckaert
vic.ryckaert@indystar.com

Banks must take steps to segregate cash using devices such as time-delayed locks so robbers can't steal amounts like the $250,000 taken Friday from a credit union in Lawrence, an industry official said.

"Tellers are managed to minimize cash at the teller window. . . . There are also branch limits that vary from location to location," said Paul Freeman, executive vice president of the Indiana Bankers Association. "The image that one gets from TV or movies where you open a vault door and there's shelves of currency, that's not the way it is in real life."

But an armed robber walked into the Forum Credit Union at 5760 Sunnyside Road shortly after it opened Friday and escaped with $250,000. Experts say it is unusual for robbers to make off with so much money. The typical bank robber's haul is $4,221, according to the FBI's 2004 statistics, the most recent available.

Andy Mattingly, senior vice president for Forum, said the institution is cooperating with investigators and declined to comment on what security measures were in place.

Lawrence police and the FBI have clear surveillance images of the robber, who did little to disguise himself.

He pointed a semiautomatic handgun at the bank manager, handed him a roll of duct tape and ordered him to bind another bank worker, two adult customers and a 9-year-old boy, said FBI agent Wendy Osborne.

The robber then ordered the manager to clean out the cash drawers but leave the dye packs, authorities said. Then he emptied the vault.

"He said, 'I don't want no funny monkey business, no dye-pack money. I just want to get to the safe,' " said Lawrence Police Deputy Chief Bob Bowser, who confirmed $250,000 was taken.

The Indianapolis area has not seen a bank robber this organized in quite some time, Osborne said. She said agents have circulated the robber's picture to see if he may be linked to other robberies in Indiana and elsewhere.

A witness spotted something suspicious in the credit union Friday and flagged down an off-duty Marion County sheriff's deputy, Lawrence Police Chief Jack Bailey said.

The deputy, who was wearing civilian clothes and was not identified, parked her squad car near the corner and called for backup, Bailey said.

The robber was gone by the time she and other officers entered the building, the chief said.

Witnesses said the 6-foot, heavy-set robber fled north on Sunnyside in a small car.

The theft took place not long after a nearby Starbucks was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money on Pendleton Pike. But police do not believe the two crimes were related.

Security-minded financial institutions keep the money they need for the day in one secure part of the vault, said the bankers association's Freeman, while the money they need for the month is held in another, more secure part of the vault.

The use of time-delayed locks and other methods limit how much robbers can take before the police cars start pulling up, Freeman said.

"Money should be in a half-dozen locales and not readily visible," Freeman said. "If in fact a quarter of a million was obtained, it is my opinion that there was a breakdown in bank security procedures."

Call Star reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2761.

Star reporter Aldrich Tan contributed to this story.