First came the armed robbery of an Academy Bank branch inside Longmont's Walmart Supercenter on Feb. 18 that investigators say was an inside job. That was followed last week by three bank robberies in two days, at two Boulder establishments and a Longmont bank.
And then Friday, the branch inside Longmont's Walmart was hit again -- this time the suspect was not believed to be a bank employee.
Both Boulder and Longmont have noted a marked increase in bank robberies so far this year over 2010, a surge FBI officials say they can't explain.
Boulder has had two bank robberies so far this year, up from none during the same period last year.
Longmont has had four bank robberies -- twice as many as the city had in all of last year.
"When you only have two (bank robberies last year), that's a huge increase," said Longmont police Cmdr. Jeff Satur. "We're hoping they'll die off and slow down."
Authorities are looking into whether some of the 2011 cases might be linked.
Satur said his department is doing extra training with bank employees and considering a community policing project specifically aimed at preventing bank robberies.
"We are trying to come up with some things to make banks look less desirable," he said.
The FBI's Denver field office, which didn't assist on any Boulder County bank robbery cases last year, already has been called in to help investigate the two bank robberies in Boulder and the four in Longmont, according to spokesman Dave Joly.
"For you guys, that's a huge increase because we've had two in Boulder and four in Longmont, and we're not even out of the first quarter yet," he said.
The FBI has been involved in more cases outside Denver this year, Joly said, but his agency "can't find a pattern that would lead us to believe this is something we will keep seeing."
Boulder police Cmdr. Kim Stewart said the economy might be to blame for the recent rise in bank robberies.
"In tough economic times, you do see a rise in these types of crimes," Stewart said.
Tim Wadsworth, University of Colorado assistant professor of sociology, said statistics on a national level have not shown an increase in criminal behavior since the economy started its slide. But, he said, statistics show a large portion of the people arrested in connection with bank robberies and burglaries are unemployed.
"So there is a relationship between unemployment and crime," he said. "But whether that's the result of a bad economy or personal characteristics that make it difficult to hold a job is sometimes hard to tell."
Read more: Bank robberies surge in Boulder, Longmont - Boulder Daily Camera http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_17577319?source=rss#ixzz1GQ3QaGtq
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