Website helps police capture serial bandits

Since June, three suspected serial bank robbers accused of stick-ups in Newport Beach have been nabbed, thanks in part to video surveillance photos. The FBI hopes a new website featuring video surveillance photos of bank robbery suspects can keep the winning streak going.

The website also features links to law enforcement agencies who are helping the FBI chase the bad guys. Created by Steve May, the FBI’s Bank Robbery Coordinator in Los Angeles, the site displays surveillance photographs from 2005 to the present at www.labankrobbers.org.

May is in charge of viewing bank surveillance images and evidence from every robbery that has occurred in the FBI’s territory of seven southern and central California counties, including Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

The site contains links to websites for nearly all local law enforcement agencies, including Newport Beach and Costa Mesa Police Departments. And if you happen to recognize one of the alleged stick-up artists, you can submit an anonymous tip through the website, authorities said.

Some of the alleged robbers featured on the site are suspects in a one-time bank hold-up, while others may have struck multiple times.

They also include the nicknames FBI agents assign to the suspects. In the past couple of months, authorities have arrested the so-called “Goofy Hat,” “Irreconcilable Differences” and “Landscaping” bandits. And now you can help the FBI catch the “I Know Where You Live Bandit,” or the “Frat Dude Bandit.”

This year 203 robberies have been reported in the seven-county area. Twenty-nine of the robberies were done takeover style, when robbers hold bank employees and customers hostage.

The pace appears to be slowing down, though, compared to last year. There were about 250 bank robberies at this point in 2006, 59 of which were done takeover style, authorities said.

Last year, the FBI’s Los Angeles area office investigated 470 bank stick-ups, 113 of which were in Orange County. To further illustrate the downward trend, the office handled 2,600 bank hold-ups in 1992.

The FBI chalks up the decrease to more cooperation with local law enforcement agencies and better security at the banks.