Lady Robbers On The Rise

With bank robberies on the uptick, authorities are also starting to see more women striking out as bank bandits. Newsday reports, "Three female robbers struck banks five times over four months in Suffolk, and one in Nassau." Usually, Suffolk County Det. Sgt. Robert Doyle says, "Females account for maybe one or two cases a year, on the average. It happens infrequently." Last year, the FBI released a list of the top five female robbers in Southern California, ones with nicknames like the "Starlet Bandit," "Female Truck Driver Bandit," and "Will Kill Bandit," while the Cell Phone Bandit appeared near D.C. John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Robert McCrie explains that bank robberies are a "fairly safe kind of crime to commit in terms of personal risk... It's now a situation where it's becoming an equal opportunity crime. There's no barrier to women being bank robbers. It's not something where you require more muscle mass."