Tellers Often Take Bank Holdups Personally

For some bank tellers, experiencing a bank robbery is almost the same as being robbed at gunpoint on a deserted street corner.

“They feel violated,” FBI spokesman Jim Bolenbach said. “The bank robbery suddenly becomes the robbery of the teller.”

Though there were no major injuries and little gunfire in 221 bank robberies in San Diego County in 1987, authorities say the robberies--65 more than the year before--left psychological scars on some tellers. Federal insurance can make up for the bank’s financial loss, but the teller is often traumatized by the experience, Bolenbach said.

Tellers Affected Individually

“Sometimes they are shaking, sometimes they are crying,” said Detective Dudley Williams of the San Diego Police Department’s robbery detail. “It hits each of them differently.”

Bolenbach says most bank robbery victims react similarly.

“The common denominator from the tellers’ viewpoint is that they are terrified,” he said. “They tend to get excited. They get tunnel vision, and they don’t recall any details of the robbery.”

The robbery affects many tellers on a personal level, law enforcement officials and psychologists say.

“He was robbing me,” said a Security Pacific teller who asked not to be identified. “It was like he was taking my money.”

She was handed a note that read: “I have a gun. Don’t do anything, or somebody’s going to get hurt.”

After being the victim in one robbery and witnessing a holdup at an adjacent bank window, the teller said she can’t escape the fear of being robbed again.

“Every time I see somebody who looks suspicious, I get a little scared,” she said.

She told of another teller who panicked during a bank holdup, hid under the counter and cried.

“The robber just left,” she said.

She said that tellers are aware of the risks: “It can happen any time. That’s part of the job, I guess.”

Anthony L. Kramer, vice president in charge of employee assistance at Security Pacific, said most tellers are trained to deal with the post-robbery crisis. He said many experience a “greater sense of personal vulnerability” shortly after the holdup.

Not Compelled to Quit

But, he said, “Rarely do they feel that their life was dramatically changed by the crisis. . . . Rarely do they feel compelled to quit their job.”

Bank robberies seem to be on the decline nationally, but law enforcement experts are at a loss to explain why Southern California has defied that trend.

Orange County and Los Angeles County, which last year had 384 and a record 600 bank holdups respectively, together lead the country in bank robberies.

Jim Neilson, FBI spokesman in Los Angeles, said that California, where a third of the nation’s bank robberies occur, offers robbers a large number of bank branches near a network of freeways, which offer a handy escape route.

The 221 bank robberies in San Diego County last year were up from 156 in 1986, according to the FBI, which monitors holdups. There were 113 bank robberies in the City of San Diego.

During January, 13 San Diego banks were robbed, according to the FBI. In January, 1987, there were eight.

On Wednesday, a gun-toting man in Levi’s was believed responsible for two bank robberies in San Diego that occurred within half an hour of each other, Bolenbach said. A slender, sandy-haired man with dark sunglasses and a small handgun robbed the Commercial Center Bank, 460 Fashion Valley Road, at 10:15 a.m. A man fitting the same description robbed the Great Western Savings & Loan at 6950 Navajo Road, at 10:45 a.m. The gunman netted $2,800.

During last year’s bank holdups in San Diego County, the robbers displayed weapons 32 times and on 36 other occasions said that they had a weapon, according to FBI statistics. Threats were made either verbally or by note in 82 cases; in the 71 remaining holdups, the robber simply demanded money.

Last year’s robberies translated into $442,297 in losses for financial institutions in the county, the FBI’s Bolenbach said.

According to the California Bankers Assn., however, banks generally lose more money from credit card fraud, internal theft and delinquent accounts than from robberies.

The association’s chairman, Steve Ward, said that in 1986 state banks lost $1.1 billion because of fraud compared to $45 million because of robbery, theft and burglary combined.

Nearly all bank robbers eventually are caught, Bolenbach said, adding that suspects in 65% of last year’s San Diego robberies were arrested. The fact that most robbers strike more than once increases their chances of getting caught.

“If a guy would rob one bank and quit,” Bolenbach said, “he would probably never get caught.”

Law enforcement officials say that an underlying reason for the persistence of some robbers is drug addiction, primarily heroin.

“An estimated 80% of all bank robberies are drug-related,” Bolenbach said. “They are trying to support drug habits.”

Williams called heroin addicts “the biggest, most desperate crooks.”

To address the problem of stress among tellers who have been victims, many banks offer psychiatric counseling.

“The psychological impact can last as long as six weeks to two years,” said Dr. Paul R. Blair, who operates an Orange County-based psychiatric consulting service for banks that have been robbed.

“A lot of it involves symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder,” Blair said. “The longer it lasts, the harder it is to fully recover.”

Blair, who has counseled 400 to 600 bank robbery victims in Southern California over the past five years, said the trauma is easily treated in group therapy sessions a few days after the crime.

“Most of them rebound pretty quickly,” Blair said.

Banking officials also discuss security measures in training sessions for new tellers. At California First Bank, for instance, part of a five-day training session for new tellers includes techniques on maintaining their composure during robberies and getting descriptions of robbery suspects. Security Pacific and other banks offer psychological counseling for teller victims who request it.

However, Connie Rodriquez, assistant vice president at California First Bank in San Diego, says the emotional reaction of a teller after a robbery is unpredictable.

“I honestly don’t think that you can prepare anyone for that emotionally,” she said.

Times staff writer Jim Carlton contributed to this report from Orange County.