In tight times, some try bank robbery

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Bruce Windsor lived the life of a respectable family man -- father of four, deacon in his South Carolina church, youth soccer coach, a volunteer who helped build orphanages in Brazil. On Feb. 26, four days after his 43rd birthday, he donned a mask, wig and sunglasses and tried to rob a bank at gunpoint, authorities say.

Windsor, it turns out, was falling down a financial hole. A real estate investor who ran several property business, his troubles predated the recession but continued as the housing bubble burst and easy credit for businesses and consumers dried up.

Clad in an orange jumpsuit, his hands cuffed at his waist, Windsor calmly told the judge at his bond hearing: "I've never stolen anything in my life."

Windsor is one of a growing list of unlikely suspects, ordinary people from ministers to ex-cops, who cite financial duress for allegedly turning to a crime that targets fast cash -- bank robbery.

Money troubles, specifically job losses, also have been named as possible motives in at least four of the mass shootings that scarred the country this winter, including the deaths of 13 people and a gunman in Binghamton, N.Y., the killings of three police officers in Pittsburgh and four more plus the shooter in Oakland, Calif., and the deaths of 10 people and a gunman in south Alabama.

Bank holdups haven't grabbed the same attention, but industry figures show they go up during recessions. Experts say the pressure inevitably pushes some otherwise law-abiding people to find themselves accosting a teller at a window.

"I would expect, as the downturn continues and lasts well over a year, that we will see more and more cases like this one, of someone without a record feeling they have no options and turning to crime," said Richard Rosenfeld, a University of Missouri criminologist.

The latest FBI statistics tallied 1,617 bank robberies in the fourth quarter of 2008, up from 1,358 in the third quarter and 1,561 a year earlier, although there are no statistics that differentiate between first-timers and repeat criminals in bank heists.

Cases that have been in the news besides Windsor's include a Georgia minister, a policeman in Illinois and a single dad in St. Louis -- all blaming dire financial straits for their arrests.

Windsor remains in jail, unable to pay the $3 million in state and federal bond set on charges including armed robbery and kidnapping. If convicted on all counts, he could face more than 60 years in prison.

Windsor's attorneys and his wife have declined to comment on the pending case. Ralph Carter, pastor at Brushy Creek Baptist Church, where Windsor and his family are members, said he wishes he had known something was troubling his friend.

"No one here knew anything was about to trigger that kind of response from him," he said.