Robbers Make Their Traditional Holiday Bank Withdrawals

It’s mid-December, and signs of Christmas are everywhere: in store windows, on Christmas tree lots--and on FBI bank robbery reports.

“We see more (robberies) during Christmas,” said Frank Calley, who heads the FBI’s Santa Ana office. At least 11 have occurred in Orange County this week, bringing the total to 26 in December and 59 since Nov. 1.

Jim Neilson, a special agent in the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said he is not surprised by the rash of bank robberies. “We consider December traditionally a high month,” he said.

Steve Ward, a spokesman for the California Bankers Assn. banking security committee, said robberies increase in fall and winter because unemployment goes up during that time.

In previous years, Calley said, he noticed some robbers who “just wanted a warm place to stay during the holidays.”

“We’ve had the type of people who rob a bank and then wait in front of the bank to get caught. . . .

“Then there are those who are nostalgic about Christmas and may want to buy gifts. But these are the exceptions. Overall, these guys are just too lazy to go out and get a job.” Most of the robberies are done to finance drug habits, Ward said.

And even with a yuletide spurt, December is not always the busiest month for bank robbers, Neilson said. Bank robberies are increasing year-round, and this year they have increased significantly in Orange County, he said. The FBI has recorded 266 bank holdups in Orange County as of Dec. 12, compared with 195 for all of 1985, he said.

FBI spokesman Fred Reagan said the county’s 832 branches anticipate holiday season holdups and rely on their usual anti-robbery tactics, such as surveillance cameras, bullet-proof windows, booby-trapped packets of money and rewards for tips leading to arrests.

The latest robberies occurred Friday. In Huntington Beach a man held up a branch of First Interstate Bank at 7902 Edinger Ave., taking more than $800. A robber in Mission Viejo took an undisclosed amount from a Bank of America branch at 25952 Muirlands Blvd. On Thursday a Barclays Bank of California branch in Anaheim was robbed.