For the second time in only two weeks, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa bank has been robbed, and this last suspect is a white man wearing blackface, a do-rag, and a slanted baseball cap. Police say the man walked into the Guaranty Bank Branch on Jacolyn Drive Northwest around 10 a.m. Monday. The suspect, whose disguise isn’t fooling police, is still at large.
“It is a good neighborhood, definitely a good side of town to be on,” says resident Dustin Coppess. “Seems like no matter where you’re at anymore, something’s going down.”
So far in 2014, there have been eight bank robberies across Cedar Rapids, more than the last three years combined. The Center for Problem Oriented Policing, a national group of universities, police, and researchers released a report on bank robberies. The report says there are three reasons bank robberies are on the rise: extended bank hours which leads to increased opportunities for robbery, banks are more lucrative, and banks are low risk and quick to rob, considering employees are trained to comply with the robber’s demands.