Over the previous twenty years, cases of financial institution crime have dropped from over 7,000 recorded offenses in 2003 to fewer than 2,000 in 2021, based on FBI information.
Improved surveillance and safety might be contributed to the decline, prompting offenders to pursue cybercrime as a substitute of an in-person heist. Nonetheless, some nonetheless want the old school route.
Final week, Bonnie Gooch, 78, was arrested in Nice Hill, Missouri for finishing up a financial institution heist. The just about octogenarian allegedly handed a be aware to a teller demanding “13,000 small payments” and likewise wrote “sorry I did not imply to scare you,” The Kansas Metropolis Star reported.
It is Gooch’s third arrest for financial institution theft to this point. Her first conviction was in 1977 for robbing a California financial institution, and he or she confronted a second conviction in 2020 for robbing a financial institution in a Kansas Metropolis suburb.
Gooch was caught by police later that very same day on the Nice Hill Animal Clinic (lower than two miles away from the incident). She allegedly smelled of alcohol and had a considerable amount of money scattered throughout her automotive’s floorboard.
Police informed The Kansas Metropolis Star that Gooch had no “recognized” illnesses, however they’re working to discern whether or not any underlying well being elements might have contributed to the incident, including that “it is simply unhappy.”
“When officers first approached her, they have been form of confused … It is a bit outdated woman who steps out,” Nice Hill Police Chief Tommy Wright informed the outlet. “We weren’t certain initially that we had the appropriate individual.”
Gooch stays in Cass County Jail with a bond set at $25,000. There is no such thing as a lawyer is listed based on on-line court docket paperwork, the AP reported.
Though Gooch’s transfer to rob a financial institution with a be aware handed to the teller could seem old skool, about 77% of financial institution crimes occurred immediately on the counter in 2021, based on information from the FBI.