*sigh*

Also, let’s divide bank robbers into two groups, those for whom prison is a deterrent,and those for whom it is not. I’m guessing that if you are planning to go to jail, being a bank robber would give you fairly high status in jail, compared to some other options. I personally never want to be in jail for more than 48 hours again,and also I have little interest in getting shot, so if I were going to rob a bank it would involve a business plan and a loan application. The usual method in my neighborhood for robbing banks is to borrow $50,000 on a $20,ooo house.
-arbitrary aardvark

I guess I’m smarter than real-life bank robbers but you would think that they probably love heist movies more than anybody, so they should really know this stuff. 

I’m not talking about small-time junkies and the like who are off their rockers – they aren’t the ones getting £12,706.60 per raid.

Luckily I was unable to get out of the wheelchair, but still, don’t judge ’til you’ve been there. “There but for fortune” and all that.

It’s interesting that the average take is higher in england. I wonder if that’s indirectly because of the dole — crime has to pay better to be attractive when there’s a better safety net, and you effectively weed out the people who might be attracted to crime because they have no other perceived way of getting basic necessities.

he was trying to scam the doctors in the hospital where our father was when he died.

If I had a dollar for every time an addict/dealer parent tried to steal the baby scale in the OB ward…..

There is an element of gambling in every crook; the thrill of pulling the slot machine handle or throwing the dice is the same as a robbery.

The Thieves Fallacy is the same as the Gamblers Fallacy: I didn’t get anything the last few banks I knocked over, this one has got to be where all the money is!

And the corollary: The last few banks have paid off great, I’m on a roll, let’s go hit the main branch!

I am not a shrink, nor do I play one on TV, but I’m pretty sure he’s a sociopath, because appeals to his self interest work best; he stayed out of jail for five years after that.

(I am not saying this lightly; he was trying to scam the doctors in the hospital where our father was when he died. I am the only person in the family who can deal with him because I never give him access to my stuff and I never try to reason morally with him. I suspect a lot of bank robbers think like he does; I’m sure he’d have robbed a bank by now if he were a little brighter.)

I think there is also some bias in the reporting here, but it’s not like I expect to ever see a published report saying that “Bank Robbery is an exciting and rewarding career.”.

I say this with all non-ironic seriousness, but it genuinely seems that the normal societal economic structures nowadays are so screwy that one can make more money ripping folks off on banking & real estate deals.  Heck, weren’t there tons of dot-com boom/bust & real estate boom/bust “pump & dump” operations rub by the mob?  Seriously.