Police are on the hunt for a "scruffy-looking white man" who stole thousands of dollars from a Market Street bank yesterday afternoon, Bay City News reports. The suspect, who was wearing loose jeans and a maroon shirt, demanded the money from a teller at the Redwood Credit Union in the ground floor of the Fox Plaza building before making off with the loot down Market Street. more ›

The calm and collected bank robber with little glasses and bald head, whom the FBI had taken to calling the Mr. Magoo Bandit (actually named Scott James Larson, age 43), calmly turned himself in to authorities in San Diego yesterday. We suppose he figured it was just a matter of time before he got nabbed, since he never disguised himself and his photo was now circulating around the web and in print. In total, he robbed 12 banks without getting caught, in Northern and Southern California (and one in Henderson, NV). So why didn't he just high-tail it to Belize or something? more ›

A rather sly and elusive bank robber, whom the FBI has dubbed the Mr. Magoo Bandit, has so far successfully robbed twelve banks throughout Northern and Southern California, the most recent being a bank in Thousand Oaks on October 8. Four days earlier, on October 4, he robbed a bank at an undisclosed location in the Bay Area; previously he had also hit a Chase Bank in South San Francisco on September 17, and a U.S. Bank in Novato on August 29. The dude, a bald guy in his forties with Mr. Magoo-like glasses, makes no attempt to disguise himself, and just wanders up to a teller and calmly hands her a note. In one instance, he apparently thanked the teller for the cash he'd demanded, and calmly walked out. more ›

FiDi / Bank Heist: Someone successfully robbed a bank on the 500 block of Montgomery Street yesterday and got away with an undisclosed amount of cash. The suspect, a man in his 40s or 50s, brandished a handgun and demanded cash from a teller. No arrests have been made. [BCN/Appeal] more ›

So, a desperate-seeming and possibly mentally unstable Asian dude walked into a Bank of America in Corte Madera around 4 p.m. yesterday waving a gun around and raving about the corruption of international banking systems. The man told customers they were free to leave, and at least one did. The 25-year-old gunman proceeded to take nine people hostage, including three bank employees, for a few hours while he posted various grievances against the bank in the bank's windows. He harmed no one, and threatened no one, and ultimately let all the hostages go. The police confirmed he had some mental health problems but perhaps had not been being treated for them (hi, Tucson), and when the standoff finally ended (after the man was allowed to speak with some bank officials on the phone), the standoff ended and the man was arrested and sent for a psychiatric evaluation. The gun, as it turned out, was a pellet gun. [Larkspur-Corte Madera Patch] more ›

52-year-old James Burge plead guilty to the unarmed robberies of nine SF banks in 2007 and 2008, including branches of Wells Fargos, Bank of the West and Bank of America, and was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison. He also has to write apology notes to all the tellers he threatened with the gun he didn't have, and pay back the exactly $30,941 that he stole. His accomplice, Joseph Russoniello, plead guilty to *eleven* robberies last year in SF, LA, Portland and Seattle, but he only got five years in the clink. We call bullshit. more ›