All of this, according to this CrimeReads piece by Peter Houlahan, gave Los Angeles the dubious title of “The Bank Robbery Capital of the World” during this time period. So what caused this? Well according to Peter it was facilitated by two phenomenons.
1. The Central Bank of Iraq Robbery – $920 million. Baghdad holds the infamous record for the largest bank heist in history. The mastermind was none other than Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
In 2021, Colorado's FBI field office ranked No. 1 for bank robberies in the country. Normally, Colorado has between 110 and 120 bank robberies a year.
For the first time since the early 1960s, L.A. officially lost its title to the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a shocking change from those years in the early 1990s when the L.A. field office of the FBI had fax cover sheets and coffee mugs emblazoned with the words “Bank Robbery Capital of the World.”
Factual errors
While LA has had the title of "The Bank Robbery Capital of the World," given in 1963 and it does have a history of infamous bank heists, it does not have a "robbery occur every 48 minutes" as it says in the opening title.
Bank robberies are relatively uncommon: only about 2 of every 100 robberies are of a bank.
If you make a habit of it, by the fourth bank robbery, you're more likely to be in jail than walking the streets. Don't do it—Overall, it's probably not worth it to attempt a bank robbery, the researchers conclude. "The return on an average bank robber is, frankly, rubbish," they write.
The Antwerp diamond heist, dubbed the "heist of the century", was the largest ever diamond heist and one of the largest robberies in history. Thieves stole loose diamonds, gold, silver and other types of jewelry valued at more than $100 million.
On September 12, 1997, six men robbed the Dunbar Armored facility on Mateo St. in Downtown Los Angeles, California of US$18.9 million (equivalent to $34.5 million in 2022).
On Feb. 28, 1997, two heavily armed bank robbers in body armor exchanged a storm of gunfire with Los Angeles police on the streets of North Hollywood. No officers or bystanders were killed in the terrifying 44-minute shootout.
Consequently, many bank robbers are caught the same day. The clearance rate for bank robbery is among the highest of all crimes, at nearly 60%.
Burglary rate - Ranking. New Zealand is the top country by burglary rate in the world. As of 2020, burglary rate in New Zealand was 1,150 cases per 100,000 population. The top 5 countries also includes Sweden, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Denmark.
The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft. Shortly after midnight on March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and stole 13 masterpieces including five Degas, three Rembrandts, and a Vermeer.
"Opportunity" is the true story of the largest cash heist in American history. Six young men from Carson and Compton (Los Angeles, California) robbed the Dunbar Armored Car facility of $18,900,000 without firing a shot. Top FBI agents stayed on the case for two years without a lead.
Carl Gugasian (born October 12, 1947) is an American bank robber, known as "The Friday Night Bank Robber", who served a 17-year sentence for armed robbery. He is perhaps the most prolific of such criminals in US history, having robbed more than 50 banks over a 30-year period of a total of more than $2 million.
Every year, bank robbers steal millions of dollars from banks, credit unions, armored car companies, and related businesses. In some cases, these criminals have weapons, and may threaten—and even harm—employees and customers.
The 2006 Securitas depot robbery in Tonbridge, England, was the UK's largest cash heist. It began with a kidnapping on the evening of 21 February 2006 and ended in the early hours of 22 February, when seven criminals stole almost £53 million.
Set in Madrid, a mysterious man known as the "Professor" recruits a group of eight people, who choose city names as their aliases, to carry out an ambitious plan that involves entering the Royal Mint of Spain, and escaping with €984 million.
The largest heist was £291.9 million (equivalent to £710 million in 2021) taken in the City bonds robbery, although Charles Darwin's notebooks (announced as having been most likely stolen in 2020) were never valued. The largest cash robbery was the Securitas depot robbery.
Banks tend to keep only enough cash in the vault to meet their anticipated transaction needs. Very small banks may only keep $50,000 or less on hand, while larger banks might keep as much as $200,000 or more available for transactions.
Overall losses to robberies are significant, but individual bank robberies usually do not involve huge sums. As a rule, banks themselves must cover losses because insurance does not cover robberies.