Colorado led the country in bank robberies, per capita, for three years starting in 2021. Law enforcement officials found innovative ways to crack the crime wave.
Dressed in black pants, gloves, a ski mask and a white jacket, a man waddled into a Colorado bank on Jan. 2, 2024, and passed a handwritten note across the counter: “Stay calm and I am not going to hurt you.”
The teller, as trained, complied.
The man left with $385 in cash — and a nickname.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation would later call him the Penguin Bandit, a moniker born from his peculiar gait: a side-to-side shuffle that conjured the image of a windup toy or perhaps, yes, a penguin.
But this was no isolated robbery.
The Penguin Bandit was one in a parade of serial offenders who would help propel Colorado to lead the nation in bank robberies, per capita, for three years starting in 2021, according to F.B.I. statistics.
Brian Dunn, an assistant U.S. attorney in Colorado, suggested that the Covid pandemic made it more acceptable for people to wear masks in public places, including banks.
Also, as an opioid crisis deepened in Colorado, a growing number of people turned to increasingly reckless ways of sustaining their addictions, including robbing banks, law enforcement officials said.
