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You see it every day on TV. A masked thief enters a bank and declares that “this is a stickup!” At gunpoint, he insists that the teller give him all of the money, and the frantic employees quickly hand it over. For banks around the world, robbery is a very real threat. Few banks escape without at least one of them in their operating lifetime. However, in an attempt to prevent bank robbers from successfully pulling off their heists, financial institutions are beginning to utilize the newest technology to protect their funds. GPS tracking has become an effective solution.

According to the FBI’s bank crime statistics there were 5354 bank robberies in 2009. Of the millions of dollars lost by the involved economic institutions, a mere 23% of the stolen loot was recovered. The remaining 77% was successfully stolen by greedy thieves. These significant losses are certainly detrimental to the well-being not only of the banks, but also the overall state of the economy.

In December of 2010, 24 year old Angelique Guillory went into a Buffalo, New York branch of Bank of America and slipped a note demanding money under the teller’s counter. Guillory, who left the bank with $2,500 in a garbage tote, was apprehended just a few blocks from her crime, after Buffalo police used the coordinates provided by a GPS tracker to pinpoint her location. Arrested within minutes, she barely had a chance to start counting her stolen cash.

While the exact method used to incorporate the device into the bag of loot has not been disclosed, apparently, the clear-thinking bank teller managed to slip the tracker inside of the tote during the process of handing over the cash. Even if Guillory had known that she was being handed a tracking device, it would have required careful inspection of the stolen money to discover it, officials say.

While it is a bit of a long shot to say that GPS technology will prevent future bank robberies, one thing is for sure: criminals considering this crime will need to think twice about their chances of success. Big Brother is watching, and you never know what could be hidden inside a stack of twenties. Whether or not the number of attempted bank robberies lessens in the coming years, many are hopeful that the percentage of recovered loot significantly increases thanks to modern technology.

Article Written by Greg Bartlett