Bank Robbers and Hats

The picture on the right here is a bank robber who robbed the south branch of Cullman Savings Bank just before 2:00 PM yesterday. A note was presented to the teller and an undisclosed amount of money was stolen from the bank in the robbery.

What you see here is extremely common for bank robbers, that being that the suspect is wearing a hat. This is especially true for silent robberies where a note is used as opposed to a strong-arm armed robbery.

I have not seen the photo image of the robber at the teller window which may be more disguised since he is wearing a hat during the robbery. The image shown here is an excellent photo which is not always the case. Video camera placements behind the teller line typically have to be placed higher due to structural logistics. This higher camera placement makes it more difficult to capture a good facial image when a person is wearing a hat at a teller window.

All of these security issues are exactly why we must ask members and visitors to our teller lines to remove their hats as part of the transaction. Several years ago a police investigator questioned why we were allowing people to wear hats at the teller line since it makes it more difficult to secure good evidence when a crime is committed. (We had just been robbed ourselves by a person wearing a hat). Keep in mind that not all crimes are robberies. They can be stolen checks, counterfeit checks, identity theft, or any transaction questioned at a later time.

We are not trying to be difficult in asking people to remove their hats and sunglasses when coming to our teller lines. We are trying to secure the assets of our member's money. Keep in mind that our drive thru's are always available for transactions if removing a hat is too much of a burden.