It's been a bad couple of weeks for banks in metro Detroit, authorities say.
And the recent series of holdups, largely at suburban banks, showed no signs of slowing last week with yet another robbery Thursday at a Comerica Bank in Roseville.
Aug. 18 was a particularly bad day: three holdups at three banks -- Huntington Bank in Clinton Township and two Charter One Banks, one in Roseville, the other in Taylor.
Ray Roland, 34, who is accused of holding up the Huntington Bank, also faces charges in a spree that included a TCF Bank in Eastpointe on Aug. 17 and a National City Bank in Shelby Township on Aug. 19.
The most shocking robbery came Aug. 10, in which authorities say Ihab Maslamani held a gun that may have been used in a murder to a customer's head during a holdup at the Flagstar Bank in Harrison Township.
It could be family situations, but I think in this area, a lot could be the economy," FBI Special Agent Sandra Berchtold said of what might motivate robbers.
Authorities say the good news is that the number of bank, credit union and savings and loan association robberies logged by the FBI during the first six months of this year is down compared with the same period last year. Nationally, there have been 2,776 robberies reported through the end of June compared with 3,010 for the same period last year. In Michigan, there have been 79 robberies in the first half of this year compared with 130 during the first six months of 2008. The number of bank robberies logged by the FBI in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties also has been trending down. Authorities say the drop could be in part because of the arrest of serial robbing suspects like Alvin Murray, 52, who was known as the Heavy D Bandit and suspected of robbing or trying to rob almost a dozen metro Detroit banks in a two-month span last year. "I think some of those sprees definitely did some damage," Berchtold said. Yet authorities say they most fear a heist like the one in which Maslamani is accused of holding a gun to a customer's head during a bank robbery that occurred a day after police said he carjacked and killed Matt Landry of Chesterfield Township. A hostage situation during a bank holdup "would be the ultimate terror that we would very much like to avoid if at all possible," said Jason Korstange, director of corporate communications for TCF Bank. "It's just a bad deal all over."
Contact CHRISTINA HALL: 586-826-7265 or chall at freepress.com