Bank robberies on the rise on North Coast

A rash of unsolved bank robberies in Sonoma County has prompted bank managers to review safety practices at branches as police search for leads and connections in the four cases.

?It does appear that bank robberies are picking up,? said Renee Rayhill, CEO of Sonoma Federal Credit Union, which was robbed in January. ?I don?t know if it is the economic situation, but it is awfully scary.?

Since January, four bank robberies have been reported in Sonoma County. Only three were reported in all of 2008.

Law enforcement officials say it is too early to call the uptick a trend, but warn that bank employees, and customers, need to be extra vigilant.

?As far as a trend or there being a real reason to be worried, I don?t see that. My concern would be with the recent rash in bank robberies that it would give more people copycat ideas,? Sebastopol Police Sgt. James Connor said.

The first robbery was Jan. 21, when the Sonoma Federal Credit Union in Santa Rosa was robbed just before 5 p.m.

The suspect, described as a Latino man in his early 20s with a thin build and wearing black clothes with a hooded sweatshirt pulled up over his head, showed a handgun and demanded money, Santa Rosa police said.

?He said, ?Give me what you?ve got,? Rayhill recalled. ?He asked if we had a vault, how many people were in the building. He moved us to the conference room. He had a very big weapon, a gun, and he held it at people. It was very invasive.?

The suspect has not been identified, and there is no fingerprint evidence ?as yet,? Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Steve Fraga said.

Rayhill said the robbery left employees shaken.

?We are scared every day. In 45 years we?ve never had one before. We?re scared it could happen again,? she said.

Other area robberies followed.

On Feb. 27, Westamerica Bank in Sebastopol was robbed at 11:30 a.m.

The suspect, described as a white man possibly in his 30s, brandished a handgun and took an undisclosed amount of cash, Connor said.

According to witness descriptions and surveillance video, the suspect was wearing black pants, a black down jacket, black gloves and a full-face, white motorcycle helmet. He left on a white, off-road-style motorcycle.

Several customers were inside the bank at the time of the robbery. None were injured.

On Feb. 28, Wells Fargo Bank in Oakmont was robbed at 6:01 p.m. The man displayed a gun and was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and skeleton mask, police said.

There is no fingerprint evidence on that case yet, Fraga said.

On March 17, Bank of America in Windsor was robbed at 4:50 p.m. A man handed a note to a teller and demanded cash before escaping on foot.

Authorities believe he is the same suspect in three bank robberies in Ukiah, Napa and Willits that occurred in the two weeks after Windsor?s robbery.

Authorities in the four cities are ?actively working together? to solve the cases and since publicizing surveillance photos of those robberies, agencies have received several valuable tips, said Sgt. Tim Duke of the Sonoma County Sheriff?s Department. He did not elaborate.

An Aptos man, arrested Friday in Marysville after a robbery there, initially was linked to the North Coast holdups, but FBI and local officials since have said he is not a suspect in those cases. Michael Anthony Koselka, 54, is suspected of robbing 17 banks in Central and Southern California since Nov. 26.

That means at least four bank robbery suspects on the North Coast remain at large.

?This is absolutely out of the ordinary,? said Michael Leonard, assistant vice president and security officer at Exchange Bank. ?There are getting to be more and more of these in which a weapon is being used, and that does, in fact, create a great deal of concern.?

In the FBI?s San Francisco Field Division, which stretches along the coast from Monterey County to the Oregon border, the San Rafael-to-Eureka region, which includes Santa Rosa, has had the fewest bank robberies over the past two years.

The FBI reported 13 bank robberies in the region in 2007 and 16 in 2008. The FBI declined to report 2009?s figure so far.

A total of 273 bank robberies were reported in the division in 2007 and 300 in 2008, dominated by robberies in San Francisco and the East Bay.

In 2007, 5,933 bank robberies netting $72.7 million were reported in the United States. Final figures for 2008 are unavailable, but through September 2008, 4,368 bank robberies totaling $41.2 million were reported.

About 60 percent of bank robberies end up solved, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

?In these economic times, people are falling on financial difficulties, and based on the current economic climate we may begin to see an increase in these crimes,? Duke said.

At banks that means more discussions and drills about what to do when there is a robbery, local employees said.

?We just have to be more vigilant, we have to prepare our employees so they know what our procedures are, make sure all employees have been to training and know what they are supposed to do,? Leonard said. As to what they should do, Leonard said that was confidential.

In general, he said, ?the idea is to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible without anyone getting hurt.?

Rayhill said Sonoma Federal Credit Union?s robbery came shortly after a robbery drill.

?It was fresh in everybody?s mind,? she said, adding that the credit union will likely now hold more drills.

Robbery procedures vary from bank to bank, but law enforcement officials urge employees to ?be our eyes and ears but nothing more,? Duke said. ?Why jeopardize their safety??

Connor said customers can ?be on the lookout for people that appear unseasonably or unusually dressed.?

?If someone comes in wearing a mask or a helmet, those are things that should at least draw your attention,? he said.

Others advised checking your surroundings before entering a bank and cooperating with directions from law enforcement, bank staff or a suspect.

Special Agent Joseph Schadler said the FBI does not comment on trends and said 2009 robbery numbers were ?too small a snapshot? to comment on.

But, he said, bank robberies are crimes that can be solved by traditional investigation.

?We want to interview anyone who was there, watch surveillance video from the bank. If there are good photos or video, we like to release them to the public,? he said.

And because bank robbers often are responsible for more than one robbery, authorities? chances of arresting suspects is higher than in other crimes.

?People that rob banks tend to rob more than one, and then they are more likely to get caught,? Schadler said.

You can reach Staff Writer Laura Norton at 521-5220 or laura.norton@pressdemocrat.com