'Takeover' heists spike at banks here
By Robert Patrick
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/28/2009
Two men burst through the door of a Clayton bank earlier this year, waving handguns in the air.
One, wearing a ski mask, jumped the counter and headed for the vault, while the second man, wearing a baseball cap pulled low and a stocking mask, stood guard. An accomplice waited outside. All were gone within minutes.
Most bank robberies, while traumatizing for employees, don't involve shouts and guns. But the March 26 robbery at a Bank of America in Clayton was far from a fluke this year.
The FBI has counted eight "takeover-style" robberies in the St. Louis area so far this year. That means the robbers were armed, displayed the weapons and took control of the bank. Last year, there were no such robberies in the area.
"My bank robbery guys say they've never seen it like this," said John Gillies, head of the St. Louis office of the FBI.
There has not been a similar spike in overall bank robberies, at least not yet. So far this year, the FBI has reported 22 bank robberies in St. Louis and surrounding counties. There were 44 in 2008 and 48 in 2007.
Special Agent Paul Fairbanks, with the FBI division in Springfield, Ill., which includes the Metro East, said there have been 20 bank robberies in his area this year. That's ahead of the pace for 2008, when there were 31, but behind the pace for 2007, when 61 were reported.
In most bank robberies, tellers never see a weapon, and injuries are rare. Most robbers hand a teller a note or demand money with a threat. Violence breaks out in only 4 percent to 5 percent of robberies, FBI statistics show. When there are deaths, the robbers themselves are typically the ones to die, often at the hands of police officers.
But takeover robberies are highly combustible events and have more potential for violence because they involve weapons and more people.
"Those are the worst kind," said Clayton Police Chief Tom Byrne. "Those are the ones where people get killed."
Officials declined to speculate about a cause for the increase in takeover robberies.
University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist Richard Rosenfeld said one reason could be desperation stemming from stronger bank regulations. Many banks have started banning customers from wearing hoods, hats or sunglasses, which takes out the option of surreptitiously passing a note to a teller while disguised, he said.
Whatever the cause, officials say they are trying to stop the robberies from escalating further.
"There is a joint effort by the banks, the FBI and local law enforcement to do whatever it takes to stop this. We've had numerous meetings, and we're going to take some proactive measures," said Clayton police detective Julie Marlow.
She would not elaborate.
The three men charged in the March 26 robbery in Clayton — Shamir Houston, 27, Ura Clerk, 26, and Michael Wesley, 45 — have been also charged in federal court with the robbery of a Commerce Bank in University City three weeks earlier.
The take: $10,890 on March 6, and $95,100 on March 26.
With the help of tipsters who identified Clerk and Houston from surveillance photos, police and the FBI arrested the two men April 30. Clerk, believed to be the getaway driver, confessed and implicated Houston, charging documents show. Investigators were then pointed to Wesley as the third man in the robberies, court documents show.
Houston was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon and attempted kidnapping in Cape Girardeau County in 2001. In 2004, he was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Wesley has been previously convicted of five bank robberies, documents show.
Lawyers for Wesley and Houston did not return calls seeking comment. Clerk's lawyer, Douglas Forsyth, said he was still waiting to see prosecutors' evidence against his client, who has pleaded not guilty.
Police and the FBI continue to investigate the other takeover robberies.
