TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - They're dangerous and all too common in North Florida and South Georgia. By our count, there have been at least 15 bank robberies so far this year in our area.
So the Leon County Sheriff's Office trained both their SWAT and hostage teams on what to do if there's a bank robbery Wednesday.
Three people with the sheriff's office portrayed the robbers, taking hostage nine people inside a former Tallahassee-Leon County Federal Credit Union.
Those hostages are real life bank employees from Tallahassee, learning what to do if there's a robbery.
Some like Allen Burkes already have first hand knowledge of what it's like during a bank heist.
"When they first came crashing in, it was pretty intense,” said Burkes, “I've actually been through a robbery before and it was a lot like that. You know it was a lot of screaming, profanity, very real."
The Leon County Sheriff's Office chose a bank robbery scenario because in these tough economic times, people become desperate.
The South, according to the FBI leads the nation in bank robberies.
FBI numbers show in the first six months of this year, there were 95 bank robberies in Florida and 75 in Georgia.
"Hopefully we don't see a rise in them, but with the economy like it is, you never know and we have to be prepared for every one of them," said Lt. Tim Baxter with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office.
