FBI reports a banks record - in stickups.

Southern California is starting to resemble the Wild West more and more to local bankers besieged by a stampede of bank robbers.

Bank robberies have hit a record in Southern California, with 1,667 holdups over the first nine months of this year and a projected final total of between 2,000 and 2,200 for 1991, said John Hos, a spokesman for the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.

The nine-month figure surpassed the 1990 full-year record of 1,652 robberies. And the 1990 figure represented a numbing 20 percent of the bank robberies nationwide.

Despite anti-theft efforts at banks throughout the Southland, and a solution rate of Southern California bank robberies that Hos put at 85 percent, crime continues to rise.

"It's frustrating that the solution rate doesn't seem to be making inroads on the problem," said Edmund Pistey, chairman of the California Bankers Association Security Committee and senior vice president and director of security for First Interstate Bank of California.

Pistey, a special agent with the FBI for 25 years before joining First Interstate, cited several reasons Southern California has become the playground of bank robbers.

* There are lots of bank branches in Los Angeles and they offer extended hours.

* An extensive freeway network functions as an effective getaway system for crooks.

* The Southland's serious drug problem is responsible for 80 percent of bank robberies, Hos said. He noted bank heists' high solution rate and generally low cash takes indicate they are crimes of desperation.

* High local unemployment and a deteriorating local economy also fuel the crimes.

But bankers are fighting back.

Following the armed takeover/robbery of $430,000 at its Tarzana branch on Sept. 5, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. announced it will now pay a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the heist.

The reward is a return to the past for Wells Fargo, which posted rewards a century ago for the arrest of criminals who harassed the bank's stagecoaches and mail drop sites.

And spurred by the success of television shows like "America's Most Wanted" and "Unsolved Mysteries," the California Bankers Association last year began publishing posters with pictures of suspected bank robbers in flagrante delicto, hoping that viewers would call with tips.

"We have been pleased with the results" of the campaign, said Pistey who noted that the first poster run in April 1990 led to the capture of eight of the 16 suspects on the poster. A second poster run in January 1991 led to the capture of five of 15 additional suspects depicted.

Many bandits are repeat offenders. Two prominent Southern California bank robbers, the "A's bandit" (known as such because of the Oakland A's baseball team cap he wore during crimes) and the "mummy bandit" (he disguised his face with tape) committed more than 20 robberies apiece before they were apprehended in August.

To combat such villains, Pistey said, First Interstate has taken a number of steps to control crime.

For one, First Interstate has implemented a program which analyzes facts about different robberies in hopes of identifying trends and clues about what makes banks prone to robbery.

In one case, Pistey said, the bank found thieves had targeted a single branch six times in 50 weeks because the branch had a side door that gave them easy access to the Ventura Freeway. The bank branch sealed the door and has not had problems in the four years since.

The bank has also rearranged teller stands and parking lot flow routes, posted decals which warn potential bank robbers that "This bank is robbery protected," and assigned security service officers to look out for potential robbers.

Pistey said the decal reduced robberies by 40 percent in the high-crime branches where they were installed earlier this year.

Robberies are not a serious financial threat to banks, with criminals' average take running only a few thousand dollars, Pistey said. The Wells Fargo robbery in Tarzana was an exception. The heist was a well-planned operation in which four suspects looted the bank branch of $430,000.

Such operations, called takeovers because a team of robbers seize control of an institution, are on the rise.

"We're finding more and more multiple robbers right now," Hos said.

In addition to seizing more money and often being harder to solve, takeovers offer greater danger of injuries than do simple robberies, said William Wipprecht, director of security for Wells Fargo Bank of San Francisco. The Tarzana team has still not been caught, he added.

Wipprecht said that Wells Fargo was responding by installing bullet-resistant barriers at certain high-risk branch locations as well as increasing the number of security guards at branches.

$2000 REWARD!

STAGE ROBBED ON COTTONWOOD! August 21, Loss, $4,300. 1,000 Dollars Reward for arrest and conviction, of all the Highwaymen, or proportionately for each; and $1,000 for Recovery of the Treasury, or proportionately for any part thereof. WELLS, FARGO & CO. RED BLUFF, August 22, 1871