Local robbers target local banks

David Silverman has become a reluctant expert at bank robberies. He’s president of Union Bank, and five bank offices have been knocked off.

“People ask me, ‘What keeps you up at night?’” Silverman said last week. “My worst nightmare is one of my staff getting hurt in one of these things.”

So far, no one has been hurt in the robberies, but local police and prosecutors think that — despite being the most surefire way to get caught trying to score some quick cash — bank robberies are becoming more frequent in both rural Vermont and cities such as Burlington and Rutland.

Silverman has a unique perspective: Four of his bank’s branches have been robbed a total of five times in the past eight years — Jeffersonville in 2006, Hyde Park in 2009, Hardwick in 2012, and in the past two months Stowe and Jeffersonville again.

The two Jeffersonville robberies remain unsolved, and police are still looking for the person who held up the Jeffersonville branch last month, wearing what is becoming standard bank robber garb: a hooded sweatshirt and dark sunglasses.

“Vermont’s a small state, and most of the bankers know each other. If one of us gets robbed, we all get robbed,” Silverman said. “I do think there’s something to the fact that, in more remote areas, there’s a perception they can get away with it.”

Silverman said he and other bank presidents are sharing notes and stories about robberies. Just a sampling from this year:

• A TD Bank in St. Albans was hit Dec. 4, just a couple of hours before the Welden Movie Theater in the same city was robbed.

• A TD Bank in Winooski was robbed Nov. 26, also by a person in a hooded sweatshirt.

• On Nov. 20, a masked man robbed the Union Bank in Jeffersonville.

• Brattleboro Savings and Loan was robbed the same day, Nov. 20, and police have charged David A. Abbott of Gardner, Mass., stole roughly $30,000 from the bank. He was held for lack of $250,000 bail.

• Union Bank in Stowe was robbed Oct. 28. Police have charged Koren Brand of Barre with the crime; she was also wanted for robberies and attempted robberies at a grocery store in Montpelier and a convenience store in Barre.

• On April 14, a person standing roughly 5-foot-6 —which appears to be the average height of most of these alleged robbers — knocked off the TD Bank in Swanton.

Potential for tragedy

Robberies are pretty scary stuff for a bank teller, the kind of broad-daylight crimes that keep Silverman awake at night.

It’s not the money, he says. He won’t disclose how much money has been taken in the Union Bank robberies, but he said it’s less than people might think, in the four-digit range.

“We don’t keep enough money at any one of our branches to bother the financial status of the customers, not even a little bit,” he said.

He worries about the possibility that a robber will actually use the weapon he or she claims to have. So far, no weapons have been fired in recent bank.

Union Bank does offer counseling and other services for tellers and other employers who feel traumatized after a robbery.

“People, after they hear about these things, bring our staff cake and cookies and goodies,” Silverman said. “I know it makes the staff feel really good, because it makes them feel like the community has their back.”

Lamoille County State’s Attorney Joel Page says it’s not just banks; convenience stores and pharmacies are also being robbed more frequently, and homes are being burgled more often of late.

Page retires at the end of this month after three decades as a prosecutor. In the last few years, he has been dealing with an increase in opiate and heroin use, and crimes related to getting those drugs.

Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux tends to see hard, extremely addictive drugs in practically every case that involves robbing or stealing.

Silverman agrees: “These are acts of desperation,” he said.