Vicious Breed of Robbers Striking Southland Banks : Holdups: Bandits terrorize employees and customers as number of ‘takeover’ heists increases dramatically.

In the space of just a few hours last month, five groups of bank robbers wielding handguns and high-powered weapons invaded Los Angeles area banks.

They blasted out a thick glass door, shot one customer, terrorized dozens of others and led police on one high-speed chase. By day’s end, three suspects were under arrest, at least 16 more were at large, and the toll had sealed a place in history for May 29, 1992: It was, as far as officials can tell, the worst day for “takeover” bank robberies in the history of Los Angeles, which holds the title of America’s bank robbery capital.

“It was an incredible day, just incredible,” said FBI Special Agent William H. Rehder, who has investigated bank robberies for 24 years and who coordinates those investigations for the Los Angeles field office of the FBI.

Yet, that Friday string of holdups represents the latest confirmation of an alarming trend, a dramatic upsurge in takeover robberies--terrifying invasions in which banks are commandeered by groups of criminals intent not only on stealing money but on terrorizing employees and customers.

These skyrocketing crimes have bedeviled Southern California law enforcement agencies for the last eight to 12 months. Even as authorities scramble to make arrests in those cases, they warn that takeovers may continue to escalate because thousands of weapons stolen during the Los Angeles riots are thought to be in the hands of gang members--the same people who are behind much of the new rush to robbery.

“Takeovers, right now, scare us the most,” said Jerry D. Thornton, an assistant special agent in charge at the Los Angeles FBI office. “They’re increasing at a precipitous rate, and the people doing them are much more violent.”

Rehder agrees: “We’ve got a hell of a problem,” he said. “It’s a prairie fire.”

Traditionally, almost all bank robberies have been committed by criminals who quietly slip a note to a bank teller and flee as inconspicuously as possible. Note-passers sometimes display a weapon but almost never fire it.

Takeover holdups are different, combining some of the worst elements of theft and street-level terrorism.

Rather than working quietly, takeover robbers intimidate their victims. They sometimes fire shots into the ceiling to get the attention of customers and employees, whom they often force to lie on the floor. They harass and occasionally injure people. Some fondle women, drag people by the hair and hold cocked guns to their heads.

In some cases, they pause long enough to steal watches, wallets and jewelry.

“Prior to 1991, these guys were interested in obtaining the money and getting away,” Rehder said. “Now what you have is mugging situations inside banks. They seem to enjoy terrorizing everyone. It makes them larger than life.”

According to police, FBI agents and bank security experts, the growing emphasis on violence in bank robberies is partly because gang members are committing many of the takeovers, and they bring their brand of street crime with them. The Eight Tray Gangster Crips and the Rollin’ 60s, a pair of notorious South Los Angeles street gangs, are thought to be heavily involved in the new wave of violent bank holdups, said Los Angeles Police Detective Jim Grayson, who has been assigned to investigate bank robberies for more than a decade.

FBI officials say that many of the takeover suspects they have arrested have admitted gang affiliations.

Older gang members often orchestrate the attacks, according to FBI robbery experts. In many cases, the older gang members send in teen-agers to commit the robberies because juveniles usually get lighter prison sentences if they are caught. The youths hand over the money to their elders, who in turn give the robbers a share.

Banking experts say they always have had to deal with a smattering of takeover robberies--John Dillinger, for one, practiced the craft with aplomb until he was gunned down in 1934. After the Civil War, Jesse and Frank James raided banks and stagecoaches throughout the South and Midwest, robbing themselves a place in Western lore.

But takeovers historically represented a tiny sliver of bank robberies.

A decade ago, when a report of a takeover robbery came into the Los Angeles FBI, “you’d drag the whole office out” to the scene, Rehder said.

Takeovers edged up in recent years, but as recently as the mid-1980s, the FBI’s Los Angeles office--which oversees a seven-county area stretching from San Luis Obispo to San Clemente--would have been stunned to field more than 30 or 40 takeovers in a 12-month period, officials said.

That all ended in late 1991.

In the first five months of this year, FBI officials recorded 126 takeover robberies in the area overseen by the Los Angeles office. That is three times as many as were committed during the same period a year ago.

Total bank robberies also are on the rise--the annual number of Los Angeles area holdups broke 2,000 for the first time in 1991 and the area is headed for another record this year. But takeovers have grown almost 10 times as fast as other bank robberies.

No place is immune. On the record-breaking day of May 29, takeover bandits hit banks from Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley to Temple City in the San Gabriel Valley to Highland Park.

“There’s no question at all that this is a very serious concern to us, especially as they increase so quickly,” said Ed Pistey, senior vice president and director of security for First Interstate Bank. “This kind of robbery creates the greatest amount of trauma, and, from a standpoint of losses, we sustain our greatest damage.”

Neither banking officials nor law enforcement authorities will discuss losses except in general terms because they do not want to encourage robbers. In fact, some officials attribute the recent increase in takeovers to news reports in September, 1991, that mentioned the large sum of money one group of robbers had stolen during their takeover of a Wells Fargo bank in the San Fernando Valley.

Word of that holdup spread quickly, officials say, and drew new criminals into the takeover business.

“We were extremely upset that that information was released,” said Bill Wipprecht, director of security for Wells Fargo. “When one understands the money that one can get from a financial institution, that’s a real incentive.”

LAPD’s Grayson says many gang members see takeovers as a way to terrify some customers and make off with big money at the same time.

“Every clown in town has figured out that this is an easy way to get $50,000 or $100,000,” he said. “It isn’t, because we end up catching almost all of these guys. But they think it is, so that’s why they keep hitting these banks.”

Authorities got a rare break from takeover robberies during the Los Angeles riots as banks closed and National Guard troops took up positions throughout the city. But once the troops departed and the city got back to business, bank bandits returned in force.

And many are even more heavily armed than before the riots. Thousands of guns were stolen during the unrest--as many as 1,700 were taken from one store--and police say many of the weapons were taken by gangs.

Officials warn that it is too soon to tell whether those guns are being used in crimes such as takeovers, but Grayson says he is seeing new, more powerful weapons than he did just a few months ago.

“These guys are tired of just sitting around the house and looking at their new guns,” Grayson said. “They’re putting them to use.”

In the last few weeks, takeover robbers have commandeered 16 Los Angeles area banks, more than one a day.

The prospect of more of these crimes chills bank security experts, who have long wrestled not only with the financial losses but also with the trauma that their employees experience.

“You’ve got some idiot with the IQ of an ice cube holding an automatic weapon to your throat. That’s very traumatic,” Grayson said. “I’ve talked to some people who couldn’t go back to the bank after they were in one of these.”

Officials at several large banking organizations said the number of employees seeking counseling to cope with the psychological impact of takeover robberies has increased sharply during the past year. Problems can range from shaken nerves to serious psychological trauma.

Some banks have created programs to offer assistance to their traumatized employees.

“A lot of our people are young college students. They’ve never experienced anything like this,” said Joe Ares, vice president and manager of corporate security for Bank of America’s Southern California operations. “We’ve formed a special task force of trauma counselors who come into our banks right away and offer assistance.”

Although takeover robbers inflict greater damage and sometimes get away with more money, they also take chances that note-passers do not. They spend more time in a bank, draw more attention to themselves and rocket to the top of law enforcement’s priority lists.

The walls of Rehder’s office are covered with security camera photographs of bank robberies and he meticulously logs descriptions and habits of each robber on a computer. The takeover bandits get higher priority because they are considered the most likely to hurt or kill someone while holding up a bank.

Aided by that information and by the sloppiness of most takeover bandits, the Los Angeles FBI office arrests 80% to 85% of all bank robbers. It can take months or even years to nab some of them--but with time, authorities expect to catch nearly every one of the takeover bandits whose pictures are on Rehder’s wall.

“We are the original elephants,” Rehder said. “We never forget.”

A Dubious Distinction

Los Angeles has long led the nation in bank robberies, and FBI officials say they now are deluged with a fast-growing and violent version of the traditional holdup: the takeover robbery.

The number of bank robberies for the first six months of 1992 rose 26 percent over the same time in 1991. But the number of takeover robberies within that period jumped 300 percent:

Takeovers (Jan. 1-June 1, 1991): 41

Takeovers (Jan. 1-June 1, 1992): 126

What is a takeover robbery?

In a takeover, the bandits commandeer the bank instead of merely passing a note to a teller. Takeover robbers almost always carry weapons, and often fire them. They intimidate and sometimes rob employees and customers.

Bank Robbery Facts

* Typical suspect: A male in his late teens to mid-20s.

* Frequency: Almost all bank bandits rob more than once; the average serial bandit in Los Angeles will rob seven or eight banks before being arrested.

* Arrest rate: Almost all bank robbers eventually are caught. Historically, more than 80% of Los Angeles-area bank robbers are arrested.

* Average take: $2,300 to $2,700 in a Los Angeles bank robbery.

Bank Robbery Capital

The FBI’s Los Angeles region--a seven-county area ranging from San Luis Obispo to San Clemente--is unchallenged as the nation’s bank robbery capital, with more robberies last year than the next seven highest-ranking cities combined. In 1991:

Metropolitan area & Robberies in 1991

Los Angeles: 2,355

San Francisco: 585

Miami: 346

San Diego: 317

Seattle: 311

Sacramento: 261

New York: 220*

Portland: 185

* Includes only armed robberies

SOURCE: FBI, Los Angeles field office.