PNC, TD Bank robbers still at large

The two suspects in last week’s bank robberies near campus are still at large, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Philadelphia division, which is in charge of the investigations.

Though Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said last Friday there was a possibility that the suspect in the Sept. 3 robbery might match the one in the Sept. 1 incident, FBI Special Agent J.J. Klaver wrote in an e-mail Wednesday that the robberies were “not committed by the same person.”

No weapon was displayed in either robbery, nor was anyone hurt.

In the robbery of the TD Bank branch at 3735 Walnut St. last Wednesday, the suspect was described by Rush as a 6-foot-2-inch, 230-pound black male in his late 20s to early 30s. The suspect was also described as having a “scraggly beard” and wearing a black shirt, dark pants and a tan bucket hat.

The suspect in last Friday’s robbery of the PNC Bank branch at 3535 Market St. is a 5-foot-7-inch black male in his early-to-mid 20s with a “thin build” and “closely cropped hair and a short beard,” according to Klaver. He was wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans.

Rush, who has been at the Division of Public Safety since 1994, said last Friday that bank robberies in the area surrounding Penn are rare, especially in recent years.

Klaver said the two robberies near campus last week are among four total bank robberies this year in the Southwest Police Division, which encompasses University City. The other two occurred at 19 S. 52nd St. on April 20 and at 3131 Market St. on June 29.

In the same period of time last year, two bank robberies were reported in this police division — 2900 Island Ave. on Feb. 23, 2009, and 3748 Lancaster Ave. on July 28, 2009.

Klaver said 61 bank robberies have been reported in Philadelphia so far this year. In the same period of time last year, 81 bank robberies were reported in the city.

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