Second area bank robbed

The PNC Bank branch at 3535 Market St. was robbed at about 12:45 p.m. Friday, according to the Division of Public Safety.

This is the second reported bank robbery in the area in three days, following the robbery of the TD Bank branch at 3735 Walnut St. shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said there is a possibility that the suspect in Wednesday’s robbery might match the one in Friday’s. The suspect in the TD Bank robbery was described as a six-foot-two-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 with a Penn State University logo.

According to Rush, Philadelphia, Penn, SEPTA and Drexel University police responded to Friday’s incident, in addition to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the investigation of both robberies.

Like in Wednesday’s robbery, the suspect in Friday’s robbery reportedly approached a bank teller with a note demanding money. In both robberies, no weapon was displayed and no one was injured. No Penn students were present during the TD Bank robbery, and Rush said she believes the same is true of the PNC Bank incident.

After Wednesday’s robbery, Rush said Penn Police’s presence in and around banks near campus will be enhanced. The PNC Bank branch in Friday’s robbery is not within Penn Police’s jurisdiction, which spans from 30th to 43rd streets and from Baltimore Avenue to Market Street.

The spokesman at the FBI’s Philadelphia branch could not be reached for comment, but Rush said the FBI refuses to disclose the amount of money taken in bank robberies.

Rush, who first came to DPS in 1994, said that “very, very few” banks are robbed in the University City area, especially in the last few years.

“It’s a dying profession,” she said, citing new surveillance camera technology and new ways of getting out wanted information as reasons for bank robbing’s decline.

All banks in the U.S. must be insured by the FDIC, meaning deposits in most types of accounts are insured up to $250,000.

Campus News Editor Darina Shtrakhman contributed reporting to this article.

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