Bank robberies rise in Raleigh

RALEIGH -- Bank robberies this year are down across North Carolina, but the crime is up in Raleigh, with its highest total in five years.

Investigators say that's in large part due to the work of three men police described as repeat robbers.

The police announced the upward spike in Raleigh bank robberies during a news conference Monday afternoon at the offices of the N.C. Bankers Association in North Raleigh.

Police Chief Harry Dolan said 18 banks in Raleigh have been robbed this year, but he added that robberies overall have been declining since 2008.

"There has been a significant reduction," he said.

But the 18 robberies in Raleigh are the most reported by any North Carolina city. Charlotte has the second most, with 12, and Durham reported 10 bank robberies. Other cities across the state, including Cary, Chapel Hill, Zebulon and Greensboro, reported five or fewer robberies.

The robberies this year are the highest number reported in Raleigh in the past five years. Jim Sughrue, a Raleigh police spokesman, said 14 bank robberies were reported in 2006, 12 in 2007, 13 in 2008, and 13 in 2009.

Dolan attributed the Raleigh increase to the work of three men currently in jail after police charged them with multiple offenses. Lee Bennett Pope, Jason Trent Goodine and James Earquahart face charges in 11 of the city's bank robberies this year, said Sughrue.

Goodine, 33, was charged in August with two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon after police accused him of twice robbing a Wachovia branch at 4560 Capital Blvd.

One month earlier, police charged Earquahart, 50, with four counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon. The robberies occurred Jan. 21 at a Wachovia branch at 6623 Falls of Neuse Road, and Feb. 26 at a SunTrust branch at 3620 Six Forks Road, where he allegedly struck a teller with a handgun. He also is charged with two holdups at a Wachovia at 2600 Hillsborough Street. The robberies occurred March 31 and June 2, when Earquahart fired a gunshot, according to police.

Earquahart was charged also with a 2009 bank robbery in Cary and two more last year in Raleigh, Sughrue said.

Pope, 38, is accused of robbing five Raleigh banks from Sept. 24 through Oct. 19. Investigators have also charged him with robberies in Durham, Chapel Hill, Zebulon and Cary. The FBI dubbed the suspect the "Repeat Robber" before his arrest in October.

Six cases unsolved

"Those 11 account for 61 percent of the robberies we have had," Sughrue said.

Six of the seven remaining robberies reported in Raleigh remain unsolved, police reported.

Dolan was joined at the news conference by Ed Aycock, vice president of the bankers association and Jody Norris, an FBI assistant special agent in charge..

"Bank robberies during the holiday season tend to go up for economic reasons, especially in this economy," Norris said.

Aycock and the law officers discussed the pros and cons of using more technology to deter bank robberies, but agreed that public awareness is a key element in fighting the crime.

Dolan encouraged members of the public to become "a very good witness" if they see a bank robbery in progress.

"If you see a vulnerability at a bank, talk with a manager," he said.

Bankers association officials also used the news conference to remind the public that they have been offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of bank robbery suspects for more than 30 years.

"Awareness of the reward program helps," said Brandon Wright, a bankers association spokesman. "Word of mouth is often the key, definitely, both in prevention and prosecution."