Washington hit with spate of bank heists

In a single day at the end of last month, three Seattle banks were robbed within a span of fours hours. A week later, a man took over a Monroe bank and tied up four women before robbing the vault.

The next day, a bank in Seattle's Wedgwood neighborhood was hit, just hours before another bank robber turned the evening commute into a nightmare when he held up a downtown bank and left behind a suspicious package.

"There's no doubt about it," says FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs about the number of recent bank robberies. "They're definitely up and it seems like they're just happening one after the other — boom, boom, boom. "What that means in the big picture, though, it's too early to know."

According to Burroughs, there have been 30 bank robberies in Washington state so far this year, proportionally up from the historic lows of the past two years.

Of those, 22 were in January and eight in February. Eleven have been in Seattle, Burroughs said.

By comparison, there were 14 bank robberies statewide in January 2008. According to the FBI, the state averaged about 300 bank robberies per year from 1996 to 2006

In 2007, the state posted its first significant decline, with 176 reported bank robberies.

Last year, there were 153, according to FBI statistics.

She said the uptick could be part of a larger trend, or it could turn out to be just a spike in crime that will level out over time.

"A lot of people are trying to say, 'Oh my gosh, this has something to do with the economy.' But that's not what we're seeing," she said.

In general, bank robberies are drug-driven crimes committed by serial offenders who have previously been convicted of bank robbery.

"We're still seeing the same people robbing to get drugs," Burroughs said.

She said the FBI believes there are seven to eight people responsible for the majority of the bank robberies committed this year.

Of them, two have been arrested.

On Tuesday, a 57-year-old Seattle man was arrested in Fremont in connection with the Feb. 4 robbery at the Bank of America branch on 35th Avenue Northeast in Wedgwood. He is also a suspect in two other robberies committed Feb. 7 and 9, according to Burroughs.

Another man, Philip J. Landry Jr., has been arrested and charged in King County Superior Court with first-degree robbery in connection with the Jan. 26 robbery of the Key Bank branch on Queen Anne Avenue North.

Burroughs said there have been no arrests in two of the other recent high-profile bank robberies.

On Feb. 3, a man sneaked into a Monroe bank before it opened on the heels of an early-bird employee, tied up four employees and took money from the vault and escaped in one of the victim's cars.

On Feb. 4, traffic was clogged in downtown Seattle for hours when police shut down several streets to investigate a bank robbery and bomb scare.

According to police, a well-dressed man entered the Washington Mutual branch at Fifth Avenue and Union Street around 3:30 p.m., made a threat, took some money and ran.

He left behind a "suspicious package" that caused police to shut down the streets while made sure it wasn't an explosive device.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com