Armored Trucks Increasingly Targeted

Wednesday’s attack on an armored car in Woodland Hills was the first in the San Fernando Valley in 1996. During 1995, the Valley recorded a spate of armored car holdups. Although there are no definitive numbers kept by authorities, police say robbers increasingly are turning to attacks on the trucks because banks are developing more sophisticated in-house security measures.

Here is a chronology of armored car robberies in the Valley since Jan 1, 1995:

* On Feb. 16, Brinks guard Mynor Godinez was shot in the face during a holdup at a North Hollywood bank on Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Godinez escaped with a flesh wound. He jerked his head back as the robber fired a shot from the gun. The robbers took an undetermined amount of money before fleeing in a white Plymouth Acclaim.

* Outside a Winnetka branch of Bank of America on June 14, 52-year-old guard Herman Cook was shot and killed by two men using high-powered rifles that pierced the truck’s armor. His partner also was seriously injured in the attempt.

* On Aug. 24, two men used a wheelchair as a diversion to try to rob an armored truck in Sylmar. One man pushed his accomplice in the wheelchair as guards were leaving the bank. The plan went awry and resulted in a gun battle between the guard and the gunmen. One of the robbers was killed and the driver injured.

* On Nov. 20, an unidentified Armored Transport Inc. driver was shot in the leg and the wrist when two men in a black Corvette ambushed the truck in Encino. The two robbers waited across the street for the guards to leave a Home Savings of America branch before one of the robbers jumped out and shot the guard. After taking the guard’s bag of money, the men darted through traffic in the Corvette and escaped.