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By RAY REYES

rreyes@tampatrib.com

Published: December 31, 2008

The crime only took a minute.

The man walked into the Mid-Florida Federal Credit Union in Lakeland on Nov. 20 and handed the teller a note demanding money. The teller complied, and the robber walked out. He hasn't been caught.

Welcome to bank robbery in the modern age.

No guns a blazing. No elaborately choreographed heists. No dramatic car chases or shootouts.

While robbers often imply they have a weapon, they tend not to show one. If they do, they almost never fire it. Local law officers are hard-pressed to remember the last time someone was shot in a bank robbery.

Often, the other people in the bank - the customers, other employees - don't even realize a robbery is in progress or just happened.

"They're going into a situation where they know there's loads of money," Hillsborough County sheriff's Capt. J.R. Burton said. "They don't want any attention drawn to them."

Police even have a name for the low-tech, low-drama bank robberies that have now become the norm.

They call them "note jobs."

Sharing A Secret

More often than not, bank robbers these days use a pen, not a gun.

So far this year, law enforcement agencies in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Polk counties have investigated nearly 100 bank robberies. Well more than half were note jobs.

Nine of the 11 bank robberies reported in November in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties fit that description. In October, there were eight such cases.

Recorded on security cameras or described in police reports, these low-key robbers first pose as a customer. They stand in line and approach the next available teller as if they're about to make a routine transaction.

Then they reveal their true intentions like they're sharing a secret, giving tellers a glimpse of a weapon or pushing a handwritten note across the counter.

Even serial bank robbers follow the pattern. One man robbed Fifth Third banks three times this year in Tampa. Each time, he passed a teller a note and implied he had a weapon, police say.

In each case, he strolled in and slipped out without firing a shot or displaying any Bonnie and Clyde bravado. Police have not yet identified him.

Regarded in decades past as the most brazen and even theatrical of heists pulled off by gun-slinging outlaws, it seems today's bank robbers have lost their bluster. But the people committing them are still potentially violent, authorities say.

"If they are willing to walk into a bank and threaten someone when they know there are cameras around, you know they are desperate and you should take them seriously," Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said.

A note demanding money is an implied threat, but a threat nonetheless, authorities say. The messages are terse: I've got a gun, give me all your money. I've got a bomb. Give me everything or I'll kill you.

"It's pretty scary for these people even when they get a note," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Mosakowski.

Banks Viewed As Easy Mark

While people might think banks, with their omnipresent video cameras and high-tech security, would scare off all but the most brazen robber, the opposite can sometimes be true, says Manuel Pereira, a former FBI agent. He owns California-based consulting company Bank Robbery Survival, which sets up mock robberies for financial institutions and trains tellers how to react.

Robbers sometimes specifically target banks because tellers are trained to comply with the robber's demands, Pereira said. That often isn't the case with a convenience store or mom-and-pop business, he said.

"If you rob a retail store, you don't know what you're getting into," he said.

That's generally not true with a bank, where tellers are given specific instructions on what to do during a robbery. Burton, with the Hillsborough sheriff's office, said that over the years the message from law enforcement and banks' corporate offices have evolved to one consistent theme when it comes to how a teller should deal with a robber.

"Cooperate," Burton said. "Give them what they want and get them out of there."

Banks are reluctant to talk about what types of security they employ to deter robberies. Renee Thompson, spokeswoman for the Florida Bankers Association, said her organization encourages member banks to employ a "No Hats, No Hoods, No Sunglasses" policy.

If a customer enters a bank wearing those items and refuses to remove them, they will be directed to a more experienced teller or an area where there's more security, Thompson said.

"The safety and security of customers is the utmost importance," she said.

Desperate People Taking Risks

A federal offense, bank robberies in Florida carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Armed robbery charges carry mandatory consecutive terms between five and 25 years.

The list of people willing to risk that kind of penalty if caught begins with drug addicts, Burton said. Addicts looking to fund the next fix are "probably what we see the most," he said.

And while it might seem counterintuitive, most people don't spend time scouting a bank before a robbery, Burton said.

"They drive around and say, 'I think I'll rob that bank,'" Burton said. "It's an impulse thing."

Authorities have mixed opinions about whether the current economic climate has contributed to the frequency of bank robberies in the Tampa Bay area. Tampa police and Polk County sheriff's detectives say studies need to be done to see whether the economy is a factor.

Pereira and Clearwater police spokeswoman Elizabeth Watts said it might be.

"These are tough economic times," Pereira said. "Some people are out of work."

Then again, robbers might be driven by the most basic motivation of all.

"It's the money," said Mosakowski, the federal prosecutor. "It's a crime of greed."

Tribune researcher Stephanie Pincus contributed to this report. Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920.

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