Rough week for Fort Worth bank tellers: Six robbery calls in four days

It’s been a rough week to be a bank teller in Fort Worth.

Three bank robberies, including two just 11 minutes apart Saturday morning, punctuated a rash of six similar calls since Wednesday.

Including a seventh recent robbery on the morning of Saturday, July 22, Fort Worth police have responded to three such incidents at banks on South Hulen Street, south of Interstate 20.

No arrests have been made in any of the recent incidents.

“All of the robberies will be investigated by our robbery unit, and all possible correlations will be looked into,” said Officer Bradley Perez, a Fort Worth police spokesman.

Fort Worth investigators have identified a suspect they said is possibly involved in the robbery of three Tarrant County banks in the past 24 hours. The suspect is believed to be in his 20s, between 5-feet, 9-inches and 6-feet tall with a slender build. He is believed to have used a silver colored four-door vehicle, similar to a Hyundai Elantra to get away.

Beginning with the three located on South Hulen Street, the following details surrounding the robberies have been released by Fort Worth police:

• The Educational Employees Credit Union at 6049 S. Hulen St. was robbed Saturday just after 11:15 a.m. According to a police report, tellers identified a white male, 30-35 years old, wearing a baseball cap, glasses, a gray shirt and black sweat pants as the potential suspect. He reportedly passed a note to a teller to initiate the robbery, and fled on foot. He was last seen heading south on South Hulen Street on foot.
• The Compass Bank location at 6801 S. Hulen St. was the target of an attempted robbery just after 2 p.m. Thursday. According to a police report, a black male told a teller to “give him all the money and put it in the bag he handed them.” The teller did not comply, hit the holdup alarm, and the man left the bank.
• On July 22, the Chase bank branch at 4600 S. Hulen St. was robbed just before 11 a.m. The possible suspect was a white male, bald, wearing glasses and a blue-and-white striped shirt. He passed a note to a teller and fled the bank with an unknown amount of money.
• A Chase branch at 4420 Golden Triangle Blvd. was robbed just after 2 p.m. Saturday. According to a police report, a white male, approximately 6-foot-1 and weighing 175-200 pounds, wearing all black clothing and a black mask, displayed a 9mm handgun and demanded money. The suspect fled in a blue SUV, possibly a Saturn with a paper tag on the rear and no front tag, and was last seen going east on Golden Triangle. No shots were fired.
• The BBVA Compass branch at 2016 W. Rosedale St. was robbed just before 11:30 a.m. Saturday. According to a police report, a black male wearing a blue baseball cap, a white shirt and denim shorts told a teller to give him all the money, but did not brandish a weapon. He fled the scene on foot, going eastbound through the hospital district.
• The Bank of Texas branch at 5909 Camp Bowie Blvd. was robbed just before 3 p.m. Friday. According to a police report, a black female scouted the location first, asking a teller a series of questions the teller found suspicious, before leaving without making any transactions. About 10 minutes later, a black man wearing a light blue hoodie pulled tight on his head entered and demanded money from two tellers, saying “he would blow it up.” The pair, both in their early-to-mid 20s, fled by vehicle.
• A Wells Fargo location at 5322 Blue Mound Road was robbed just before 3 p.m. Wednesday. According to a police report, witnesses say a white male, 25-35 years old, came in armed with a handgun. He had blond hair, wore camouflage and a black stocking over his head. He only took money from teller drawers, which did not contain tracker or dye packs. He fled in a black or blue Saturn sedan.

USA Today reported more than 4,000 bank robberies nationwide in 2015, which represents a 40 percent decline since 2006. In that report, Doug Johnson, a senior vice president for the American Bankers Association, advised anyone present during a bank robbery to do what the robber says.

This story was originally published August 5, 2017 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Rough week for Fort Worth bank tellers: Six robbery calls in four days."