FBI: 50 more bank robberies reported in 2016 than previous year

SHARE FBI: 50 more bank robberies reported in 2016 than previous year
crime_scene_tape4.jpg

Sun-Times file photo

Almost 50 more banks were robbed in the Chicago area in 2016 than in the previous year, according to the FBI.

In 2016, 193 banks were robbed in the Chicago area; and in 2015, 144 banks were robbed, according to FBI spokesman Garrett Croon.

Croon said there is no definitive reason for the increase, though reasons could be determined as more robbers are arrested and interviewed.

An arrest has been made in just under 50 percent of 2016’s bank robberies, according to the FBI’s bank robbery database.

The most popular day for bank robberies is Friday. The FBI’s Chicago office believes robbers strike before the weekend so they can have cash to fuel addictions, such as drugs, alcohol or gambling.

The vast majority of robberies were classified as “non-takeover,” according to Croon. Only 13 of 193 were classified as “takeover” robberies, where the suspect announces to everyone that a robbery is in progress.

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”