Bank robberies up this year

Karen Zekan

Thursday, Oct. 8, 1998 | 11:15 a.m.

Year-to-date statistics from the FBI reveal that bank robberies are up this year in Las Vegas compared to last, with an average of seven banks currently being hit per month.

As of Wednesday evening, a total of 69 heists had been pulled off at local banks, said Aurelio Flores, Bureau spokesman. The 69th bank robbery in 1997 didn't occur until Nov. 26.

Technically the numbers show a dramatic increase, but whether 1998's local year-end statistics will top the 82 total bank robberies in 1997 remains to be seen.

Information provided by the Las Vegas office of the FBI reveals that bandits made off with a total of $648,759 in bank money last year, slightly more than half of which authorities were eventually able to recover.

A total of 91 subjects were linked to last year's bank thefts, of which the FBI reports that 57 were white males, five were white females, 22 were black males, three were black females, and four were Hispanic males.

Nevada led the nation in bank robberies in 1996 -- the most recent batch of statistics available in comparing heists on a nationwide scale. A total of 169 heists were recorded that year among the state's 335 federally insured banks. Arizona came in second, followed by Washington, D.C., California, and Arizona. Vermont was the only state in the nation that year to report not a single bank robbery.