A Bank Robbery A Day -- Tellers Traumatized; Security Getting Tighter

Philip Ernest Johnson remembers well the relief he felt sitting in his pickup under a bridge in Sultan, counting out $5,000 in 10- and 20-dollar bills.

His plan for robbing a Seafirst bank eight miles away had gone off minutes earlier without a hitch. A motorcycle helmet as a disguise and a fake bomb made of road flares was all it took. It was May 1988, and Johnson was 42.

When he finished counting the loot, he stopped, took a breath, and realized he could pay off his drug dealers and still buy all the heroin he needed.

What he didn't realize was that his drug addiction and the ease with which he'd robbed his first bank would only spawn an appetite to rob again.

It was, indeed, just the beginning for Johnson who, before being captured, would rob more than 50 banks, mostly in Snohomish and King counties, making him one of the most prolific bank robbers in the history of the state.

The story of Johnson's rise and fall as a bank robber is not an uncommon one. He is, in many ways, typical of those who rob banks - a crime that's being committed in Washington with increasing frequency.

In January alone this year, the FBI reported 50 bank robberies in the state - almost triple last year's January total and the highest monthly total in more than seven years. February brought an additional 17, including one Thursday and another Friday, bringing the total so far this year to 67 - more than one per day.

Few are anywhere near as wild or violent as the one in Los Angeles Friday, when massively armed robbers in commando gear stormed a bank in North Hollywood. When the gunfire was over, two robbers were dead, 11 police officers were injured and five civilians were hurt. The incident was captured by television news crews and broadcast around the country.

Indeed, many bank robbers do not even bother to disguise themselves or pretend to have a gun, much less fire one inside a bank. Ususally, they walk quietly up to a teller, demand money and leave.

Typically, offenders are - like Johnson - white men strung out on drugs, looking for quick cash to feed their addictions. They usually get their money. They usually get their drugs. And - like Johnson - sooner or later they usually get caught.

Yet the mark even non-violent robbers leave behind can be so traumatic, many bank tellers need professional help to continue their jobs, while others quit altogether.

Faced with the daunting statistics, bank officials and FBI agents are stepping up their efforts to prevent bank robberies:

Tellers are being taught ways to spot and discourage possible offenders.

New technologies - metal-detecting bank doors, for example - are being considered.

And several police agencies, fed up with the high rate of bank robberies, have redirected the efforts of a recently formed task force.

"The task force started out focusing on violent crimes," said Seattle Police Officer Mike Magan. "But bank robberies, lately, have become our No. 1 priority."

A BANK ON EVERY CORNER

If there was a time when the downward spiral began for Johnson, it was in 1966, when a motorcycle accident forced him to take a medical leave from the U.S. Army.

Soon, painkillers began for an injured back. Years passed, and Johnson said his need for drugs intensified, and that heroin - 2 to 4 grams a day - helped ease the pain.

Then one day while he was at his construction job, drug dealers looking for their money went to his house in Monroe.

"I had been putting those guys off for a few days," Johnson, now 50, said from inside the Sheridan Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan, Ore., where he's been for the past eight years. "But now, my wife and her child were in jeopardy. I just couldn't have it."

Two days later, he was ready to rob his first bank. In deciding which one to hit, Johnson recalls, he had many choices.

Indeed, the sheer number of bank branches - the five major banks in the Puget Sound area have nearly 800 - may be a good starting point for explaining the drastic increase in robberies, said Shawn Johnson, bank-robbery coordinator with the FBI in Seattle.

"There's a bank on every corner here the way there's a coffee shop on every corner," he said. Bank branches are even opening in grocery stores, effectively expanding the possibilities for when banks may be robbed, Shawn Johnson said.

On an otherwise unheard-of day to rob a bank - a Sunday - a man walked into a Seafirst branch in a Lynnwood Safeway in January and demanded cash from a bank teller.

"The danger factor is going to go up because you'll have more innocent bystanders in the area," said Elliott Woodall, spokesman for the Everett Police Department.

So far, most banks haven't taken all the precautions they could. While some branches are equipped with bullet-resistant acrylic panels - so-called bandit barriers - the vast majority of banks don't have them.

That openness has allowed robbers far-too-easy access to tellers and the cash, Woodall said.

In 1989, Seafirst bank teller Marjory Rechcygl was shot to death when a 21-year-old man jumped over the counter during a bank robbery. At his trial, Bryan Hartz maintained that his .44-caliber revolver went off accidentally when he climbed over the counter. He is now serving 18 years at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe.

Bank officials say the bandit barrier that would have prevented such a crime is installed only in branches with a history of holdups and that the absence of bandit barriers makes for a more hospitable atmosphere.

But sometimes, even bandit barriers are not enough to prevent a robbery.

When Philip Johnson robbed his first bank, he rode up to a drive-through-teller window on his motorcycle, holding what looked like a bomb.

"I just got up there and said to fill the bag up with money or the bomb would go off," Johnson said. "It was pretty easy."

"DO WHAT THE ROBBER SAYS"

What has also been known for years - especially by bank robbers like Johnson - is that banks are easy targets since tellers are trained to comply.

"We teach tellers to give the robber what they want," the FBI's Shawn Johnson said. "We tell them to never be a hero."

Bankers concur with the policy. "You do what the robber says and try to stay as calm as possible," said a U.S. Bank branch manager who witnessed two armed bank robberies last year. "All they want is the money, and if you give them what they want, the potential for getting hurt is a lot less."

The average take from a bank heist is also a clear incentive. It's usually as much as $1,000 and often more than the take from a convenience-store robbery, Shawn Johnson said. Officials usually will not disclose precise figures.

"I thought about robbing a drug dealer to get my drugs, but I thought that would be kind of dangerous," Philip Johnson said. "Then I thought about a convenience store, and I realized that a bank probably had more money."

TELLERS TRAUMATIZED

At one point in his robbery career, Philip Johnson approached a teller he thought was "acting slow and stupid."

"I later checked my bag and saw that she had given me only $300," Johnson said. "That made me mad. So, a couple of days later, I went back to the same bank - this time with a gun.

"She didn't stall after that."

Indeed, robberies can be so traumatizing for bank employees that one of the first things officials do after a holdup is offer them counseling.

Michael Watson, a San Francisco-based Wells Fargo counselor who offers assistance to robbed tellers in the Seattle area, said the experience can be so unnerving that some tellers need counseling for more than a year.

After a dramatic holdup last year in which a gun-wielding man stormed into a U.S. Bank branch - a "takeover" type of robbery, as opposed to a nonviolent "note job" - several bank employees were so shaken they quit to look for other jobs, the U.S. Bank branch manager said.

A Wells Fargo bank manager, who has been in the business for 18 years in California and Washington, said that of the 17 times she's been involved in a bank robbery, the two most traumatic ones were in Seattle.

"By the time I moved to Seattle, I had begun to accept the fact that robberies were just an occupational hazard," the manager said. "Up until that point, all of the robberies were note jobs - very quiet."

But in 1995, that changed when a man wearing a ski mask and a trench coat walked into the First Interstate branch where she was working in Seattle.

"He came right up to me and pointed a gun right in my face," she said. "I was just completely numb. I remember feeling like I wasn't breathing, but I could feel my heart pounding."

The gunman asked if she had set off any silent alarms. She had, but she said nothing as she stared down the barrel of his gun.

Then, in November of last year, a masked man walked into her Wells Fargo branch in Seattle with a gun and demanded money. This time, the robber threatened to take a hostage if an alarm was sounded.

"That was especially disturbing, because I had set off the (silent) alarm, and I felt responsible for everyone there," she said. After that, the bank manager took a month and a half off work.

"I found myself afraid to go to my car at night. I felt very violated, like I had lost my freedom," she said. "Then, I became very angry until I decided I wasn't going to let this guy control the rest of my life."

"I have seen what something like this does to the young people here, too," she added. "It destroys their faith in people. It causes emotional problems for months."

DRUG USERS AND PROS

FBI agents say bank robbers generally fall into two categories: drug addicts or professionals.

The most common type, the addicts, are typically in their 20s and 30s, hooked on heroin, and not overly concerned with an elaborate robbery plan.

"The money they need for drugs is the most important thing for them," said the FBI's Shawn Johnson. "They are not thinking about the consequences."

There are, of course, exceptions: Philip Johnson, over the course of his robbery career, would take time to think about his crimes.

Many times, he would park his truck in a nearby patch of woods. After a robbery, he would ride his motorcycle back to the truck, put it in the bed, cover it up, and ditch whatever disguise he'd settled on for that particular job.

Then there are the pros who rob to support a lavish lifestyle.

Last year, a robber named William John Connors netted about $21,000 during a three-month spree of 12 bank robberies. Police arrested him in October, and on Feb. 13 he was ordered to pay $17,000 in restitution and sentenced to 12 1/2 years in jail.

While Connors is off to Sheridan where Johnson is, another notorious bank robber - William "Hollywood" Scurlock - is dead, after shooting himself during a shootout with police after a North Seattle bank robbery last November.

The professional is generally considered the most dangerous since he typically wears a disguise and will often carry a loaded weapon, Shawn Johnson said.

Such robbers like the "takeover" approach and, since their crimes are the most calculated, are also more likely to get away - Connors and Scurlock being among the exceptions.

A robber who actually fires his weapon in the bank, however, is rare. During his bank robbery spree, Philip Johnson said he never once fired a shot, though he routinely carried a loaded .38-caliber pistol.

"Really, in my heart, I didn't want to hurt anybody," Johnson said. "I just wanted to put fear in them. I just wanted the money."

A robbery last Dec. 5 was the only one in the state last year in which a man fired a shot. No one was injured, however. The robber, who is still at large, entered the Seafirst branch in Normandy Park south of Seattle, fired a shot at the tellers and yelled, "Somebody's going to die!"

A convicted bank robber typically serves five to 10 years in a federal prison and can be fined up to $250,000.

Most nonviolent robbers, however, spend about 10 years jail time in the county where they committed the crime. They are also usually ordered to pay a restitution for the amount of money stolen.

If the robber uses a gun during a holdup, at least five more years are tacked onto the sentence, Shawn Johnson said.

Last year, 70 bank robbers in Washington displayed a firearm and 32 implied they had a gun, but most said nothing about a weapon. They just handed the teller a note or made an oral demand, Shawn Johnson said.

In those kinds of unarmed robberies, robbers who are caught are tried by the respective county prosecutors' offices.

And get caught they do. Shawn Johnson says most bank robbers - about seven in 10 - eventually go to jail.

One robber was caught Jan. 14 after he robbed a Wells Fargo branch bank at the base of Queen Anne Hill while Seattle Police Officer Magan was inside talking to tellers about an earlier robbery.

Magan, who handles all the "note jobs" for the Seattle Police Department, was showing a teller a picture of the previous bank robber for identification.

"I looked outside and saw the guy slowly walking across the street," Magan said. "So I ran out after him." Magan drew his gun and caught the man as he was getting into his getaway car.

SECURITY PRECAUTIONS

To help prevent robberies, tellers are trained to identify bank-robbery suspects and to inconspicuously activate silent alarms.

"We tell the tellers to concentrate on the things the robber can't change," Shawn Johnson said. "They look for things like height, weight, tattoos, scars and eye color."

Other techniques - such as always being alert to who's in the bank lobby or always maintaining eye contact with anyone who approaches the bank counter - are ways tellers can help police identify a bank robber.

"Employee alertness can prevent a person from robbing a bank," said John Woodall, head of security for U.S. Bank in Washington. "You can make a robber want to go someplace else by maintaining eye contact and creating in that robber's mind a witness."

Tellers are also taught to stuff bank robbers' cash bags with exploding dye packs, "bait" bills - or marked bills - and electronic tracking devices.

Some credit unions here now require customers to carry swipe cards to unlock a bank's door - a common security device in some bigger cities, like New York.

"This way, you don't have unknown people coming in and holding you up," said Bob Cegon, an executive with Spokane-based Allied Security, whose company installs the device.

Another new technology is a screening system - called an ACU, or access control unit - which consists of double doors of bullet-resistant material at the bank entrances.

If the ACU detects the metal of a gun, the doors automatically lock and an alarm sounds. Over the past four years, the system has become increasingly popular in Los Angeles.

"There are none of these types of systems installed here in the state yet," Cegon said. "But I expect that in a year or so, it will be very popular."

Craig Manchester, head of security for Wells Fargo banks in the Northwest, said he's very interested in a so-called remote transaction system that allows tellers to order cash via pneumatic tube straight from a vault, eliminating the need to keep money at the teller window.

"We don't have anything like that here in the Northwest yet," Manchester said. "But it's something that we plan to look into."

POLICE BECOMING PROACTIVE

And as banking officials look at new ways to prevent bank robberies, authorities are also intensifying their efforts to catch the crooks once a crime has occurred.

Members of the task force, which is made up of 13 law-enforcement officials representing five agencies, routinely spend all day on stakeouts, and months at a time on the street searching for clues. They interview witnesses and even sit in on the early stages of pending bank-robbery trials, just because they're interested.

"There's no real secret," Magan said. "We just take a real proactive approach to this, and we're persistent. Most of the time, our car is our office."

The conventional surveillance camera - required at all federal banks - is still, however, the most effective tool in catching a robber, Shawn Johnson said.

The Rat-On-A-Rat Program, sponsored by the Washington Bankers Association and the Washington Savings League, frequently publishes notices in several newspapers, offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who can identify a person in a surveillance-camera photo.

Through the program last year, 61 suspected bank robbers were caught and about $15,000 was given out to tipsters, said Jeanette Yost, vice president of the association.

A small percentage of the time, police are able to catch a bank robber immediately after the crime; other times, they catch a robber through physical evidence left at the scene - fingerprints or a demand note, for example, Shawn Johnson said.

"END OF THE NIGHTMARE"

After robbing banks at a rate of nearly one a week for more than 10 months, that's exactly how Philip Johnson was caught.

Monroe police first recognized him from a bank surveillance photo. Then the FBI matched fingerprints from a demand note with prints on file from a previous, less-serious arrest.

Then, on May 23, 1989, as Johnson and his wife slept, FBI agents surrounded his house in Monroe. Without warning, they stormed through the front door with a battering ram, yelling for him to get on the floor, guns pointed at his head.

"That was the end of the nightmare," he said. "I was almost relieved."

Soon after his arrest, Johnson was indicted for 23 robberies, although he now admits to robbing at least 50 banks. He was sentenced to 40 years.

At Sheridan - where friends call him "Forty-year Phil" - Johnson said if he serves good time, he hopes to be out in 26 years. He will be 76 years old.

He got over his heroin addiction during the "10 worst days" of his life while he was jailed in Snohomish County. These days, he spends four days a week working at the prison commissary. He takes long walks in the prison yard and prays, saying he regrets what he did, victimizing all those people.

"I think the punishment I got was right," Johnson said.

"I guess you might say I'm right where God wanted me."

--------------------------- Bank robbery by the numbers ---------------------------

These states had the highest number of robberies in 1995

Times

State robbed Population:

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California 2,012 31,589,153

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Florida 556 14,165,570

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New York 315 18,136,081

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Maryland 291 5,042,438

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Washington 289 5,430,940

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Washington's bank robbery totals

Year Number

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1990 258

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1991 314

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1992 322

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1993 285

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1994 230

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1995 289

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1996 280

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1997 67 (so far this year)

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These counties were hit hardest last year

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King County 158

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Snohomish County 28

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Pierce County 28

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Clark 23

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Thurston 11

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Number of robberies at the state's top five banks last year

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Wells Fargo (138 branches) 56

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Seafirst (270 branches) 55

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Key Bank (164 branches) 37

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Washington Mutual (157 branches) 37

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U.S. Bank (201 branches) 33

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