Business Notes CRIME

Crooked savings-and-loan executives are not the only ones running off with loot these days. Old-fashioned stickup men are doing pretty well too. Bank robberies in the U.S., which declined during the first half of the 1980s, increased to 6,691 last year, a 23% rise from 1985. Unfortunately, crime often pays. Of $50 million taken from banks last year, only 20% has been recovered. The most common technique is the tried-and-true "note job," in which a robber simply hands a threatening note to the teller.

California is the bank-robbery capital of America, with Florida and New York as runners-up. In New York City alone, 227 bank robberies occurred during the first quarter of 1990, a 50% increase from last year's pace. "Lots of bank robbers convicted in the late 1970s and early 1980s are now back on the streets," explains James Fox, chief of the FBI's New York office.

Not all robbers are crafty. Last year a man who stole $2,100 from a Brooklyn savings bank was mugged as he made his getaway on foot. He reported his loss to the police, who promptly arrested him.