PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – An armed robbery Thursday morning at a Pembroke Pines credit union was the latest of about two-dozen bank heists in South Florida in the past year, and an FBI agent says the economy may be partly to blame.
Two people were taken into custody Thursday after a robbery at the Space Coast Credit Union in the 10800 block of Pines Boulevard and a subsequent police chase.
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In the past year, there have been more than two-dozen bank robberies in South Florida. David Beall, who heads the FBI's South Florida Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force, said modern-day bank robbers are all business.
"From handguns have gone to revolvers and semiautomatic handguns. Long guns have gone from shotguns now to AK-47s," Beall said. "On the streets, gun shows, black market, you can buy any type of weapon you want."
The Task Force recently rounded up people suspected of being in a gang that held up and killed a Brinks guard at Calder Casino and Race Course . The five suspects were in custody within 24 hours.
"You still have people out there that are desperate, that are in need of money, that have drug habits, that are just violent in nature, and they look at bank robberies, armored car robberies, as a crime of opportunity," Beall said.
Beall said he thinks the economy has played a big role in the number of bank robberies.
"I think you're seeing people going into banks as their last desperation to get money to solve whatever financial crisis they have in their lives," Beall said.
Beall believes criminals are not necessarily getting smarter, but rather more creative and more dangerous. He pointed to Wednesday's hold-up in Miami Beach , during which a man in full camouflage hid in some bushes near a bank's entrance, grabbed two employees at gunpoint and forced them to give him cash from the vault.