The Procedures Involved In Robbing A Bank With A Note
Elangovan, October 2, 2019May I reiterate my stance that to catch a thief, you must learn to think like one. If no, all your efforts would always be futile since you will be operating in theory while they will outwit you with their practical demonstrations. These days, bank robbers no longer go with weapons; robbery is done through the use of notes—they pass the notes to the teller who does their biddings. So, our main preoccupation is to know the processes that are involved in robbing a bank with a note. So, activate your brain to think like a criminal for the meantime.
Rebecca Lomax (2015) penned down an article that detailed how bank robbers make use of mere note as a weapon. She based her piece on Clay Tumey’s response. Clay is a retired bank robber who was very successful in it before hanging boot and his spoke on reddit’s ‘ask me anything’ question and answer session on how he succeeded.
According to Clay, here are the blueprints to a perfect crime:
“No gun. No threats. No Hollywood drama. No mask. No disguise. Nothing.
Just a [be a] regular customer. In and out in the same amount of time as if I was making a deposit.”
1: Stand in line like a regular customer
2: Wait for the next available teller
3: Hand them an envelope and tell them to give me their $50s and $100s (usually this was written on the envelope rather than me verbally saying it)
4: Turning around and walking out like a regular customer
So that’s it. No glamour, no team of criminal masterminds. Just stroll into a bank and ask for the right notes – it turns out $20 bills in the US are where banks hid the ‘bait’ – ink packs to catch robbers like Tumey. He estimates he walked away with about $5k from each hit but didn’t reveal how many jobs he’d done (Lomax, 2015).
So although Tumey never got caught he has served time for a small number of the robberies he committed.
“I always figured prison was in the cards for me – even before I was doing crime – so it made sense to turn myself in and get it over with, but most of all, I became a father and wanted to just do my time while my son was a baby instead of the cops accidentally figuring out who I was and taking me to jail when my son was older.”
Bank workers joined the AMA and confirmed Clay’s approach would work. Reddit user ‘varcas’ confirmed: “[I] used to be a teller, we were told just give them what they want, but if you manage to slip in the $50 dye pack (looks like a sleeve of $1,000 in $50’s) we’d get a $100 bonus.”
Though not every bank employee he encountered played along with Tumey’s plan.
“One teller skimped out on me and didn’t give me all I had asked for, and I told her, “You can do better than that.” She just shrugged — palms up like a little kid –and said, “That’s all I got.” Pretty ballsy on her part.”
The plucky bank clerk even pocketed a $100 bill which according to Tumey eventually meant she got fired (Lomax, 2015).
“When my lawyer first brought all my paperwork to me, I noticed that the amount was $100 off for that particular bank. I told him I was 100% sure that they had the amount wrong. So he told the police, the police told the bank, the bank checked the video…
…and they saw her take it.”
Another procedure adopted that worked for him was that he studied failed bank robberies online to perfect his master plan. Though he never carried a weapon as such, he did have all angles covered …
I strapped a hammer to my leg under my pants just below my knee in case I needed to break out of a locked door or something, but I never used a gun or anything like that.”
With his stretch in jail behind him, he claims to be a reformed character and has written a book about his experience – The Blue Chip Project. Tumey’s using Kickstarter to fund and self-publish his book (Lomax, 2015).
There is a reason behind the successes of Tumey and his cohorts.
Bank tellers are trained not to resist and the note allows nervous robbers to get their message across without stumbling over words or tipping off others in the bank. Robbers are looking for a quick and easy, in and out move that doesn’t attract a lot of attention, said Gail Madziar, the vice president of communications for the Michigan Bankers Association (Mickle, 2008).
The Michgian Bankers Association did not have recent statistics on whether the number of bank robberies is increasing, but Madziar acknowledged that notes are the most common form of robbing a bank. In recent years, there’s been “The Tweety Bird Bandit,” a Flint teacher who robbed six banks using a note threatening to blow up the banks, and “The Checkbook Bandit,” a Montrose drywaller who robbed six banks by concealing his demand note in the cover of his checkbook (Mickle, 2008).
The CNS in 2018 shared the story of a man that used demand note to rob a bank:
A thief wearing sweatpants and a hooded jacket used a demand note Wednesday, 7th November, 2018 to rob an El Cerrito-area bank. The man, who appeared to be in his 40s, presented the written message to a teller at the Union Bank branch office in the 6000 block of El Cajon Boulevard at about 11:30 a.m., according to San Diego police. The robber fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, Officer Dino Delimitros said (CNS, 2018).
So, the procedures are numerous and banks only need to be proactive in the protection of their workers. Unlike some businesses that fortify themselves against robbers with heavy, bullet-resistant windows, Genesee County Sheriff, Robert J. Pickell, said banks don’t want to sacrifice their open atmosphere. This must be taken care of in order to make the banking sector a secure place for people and businesses to thrive.
References
CNS (2018). Man Uses Demand Note To Rob Bank. Retrieved from https://fox5sandiego.com/2018/11/07/man-uses-demand-note-to-rob-bank/
Lomax, R (2018). An Ex-Armed Robber On How To Successfully Rob A Bank. Retrieved from https://sabotagetimes.com/life/i-learned-how-to-rob-a-bank-and-get-away-with-it
Mickle, B (2008). Robbers Find Banks Are Easy Targets With Only A Note As A Weapon. Retrieved from http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2008/04/robbers_find_banks_are_easy_ta.html
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