Hey I'm Christian. Welcome to BrainStuff, we've all seen bank robberies in movies
like point break or heat and I'll admit I've got a little bit of an addiction to
the video game Payday 2. Moral quandaries aside though,
bank robberies have often been romanticized throughout history
especially during times of economic instability. So it's no wonder that
across the United States people from various walks of life have occasionally
thought hey why shouldn't I rob a bank.
Let me stop you right there slick. There are several reasons you shouldn't. Even
if you think you have the perfect plan. First,
it's dangerous completely innocent people could and do die in robberies.
Criminals in this town used to believe in things, honor respect.
It's also obviously illegal, and not some kind of wishy-washy blue law kind of
illegal, like selling beer on a Sunday, it is a straight-up felony.
The average sentence for federal bank robbery, which means robbing any FDIC
member bank can vary widely.
Was anyone injured? How much money did the criminals take? Were weapons
involved? And when the robbers are caught they could be looking at decades in jail
Notice that I said when they're caught, not if. That's the second thing, if you
rob a bank
you will probably get caught. According to the Department of Justice, the FBI is
clearance rate for bank robbery is nearly sixty percent and about half of
those are solved within 30 days.
It makes sense when you think about the typical bank robbery. Of the five
thousand fourteen US bank robberies that took place in 2011, most occurred during
the day
meaning there were multiple witnesses. The police are notified as quickly as
possible, and it is a safe bet that there's photographic evidence too.
Did you know Tuesdays and Fridays of the most popular days of the week for a bank
robbery? And let's face it most of these robbers
they're amateurs, more than eighty percent of them have no prior
convictions for back crime, and eighty percent operate alone, using predictable
patterns.
These guys don't imagine a fella smarter than themselves, and try to think what
would he do? These criminals are often apprehended on the same day of the
robbery and banks are full of strategies for catching
them. But let's say you've already thought of that right? You've seen heist
films like Ocean's Eleven or the Joker Heist in the Dark Knight, and you know
that a well organized team can make the difference between early retirement in
the Caymans or a long bid in sing sing. Professional bank robbers tend to
operate in crews, using weapons and stolen vehicles.
It is true that a crew can up your chances of a successful heist.
A study by several British economist found that every extra member of a gang
raises the expected value of the robbery proceeds by nine thousand and thirty
three pounds or for us here in America fifteen thousand two hundred and twelve
dollars. But keep in mind that the haul person will go down with every new
member you add to the team. Still set on a career in heists?
Remember you can't let yourself get attached to anything you are not going
to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner. Are the
terrible odds, the legal consequences, and the risk to innocent life not enough to
dissuade you?
Alright fine, consider this last fact bank robberies don't actually make that
much money.
According to the study I just mentioned the average return on a bank heist in
the UK is about nineteen thousand seven hundred dollars per person per heist. In
the US, it's even worse a bit over four thousand dollars in 2009. Well that might
sound like a lot of scratch, it is not enough to set you up for life. As of 2013
the current US poverty threshold is an annual income of eleven thousand four
hundred and ninety dollars for one person.
This means you'd have to rob three banks a year and keep all of the loot
just to make ends meet.
Of course this doesn't mean that heist movies are cool, just that you shouldn't
try them at home or in a bank.