The North Olympic Peninsula had no bank robberies for a couple of years, but over the past year daring thieves have been playing catch-up.
Friday’s holdup at a Port Hadlock Bank of America marks the third bank heist since February.
Before that, the last bank robbery was in January 2004.
On Feb. 8 a plaid-clad middle aged white man held up a Kitsap Bank in Sequim.
FBI investigators believe the same man held up a Port Angeles Kitsap Bank on May 30.
He remains at large.
Local law enforcement agencies respond to the robberies first, but they get help.
Members of a bank robbery task force in King County, overseen by the FBI, review bank robberies from across the state.
Nationally, the clearance rate for bank robbery was 57.7 percent in 2001, according to an FBI statement from 2002.
That means that almost six out of 10 bank robberies resulted in the arrest of a suspect.
This rate is relatively high compared with other serious crimes tracked by the FBI.
Only murder, at 62.4 percent, has a higher percentage of crimes cleared by arrest for that year, the statement said.
