Robbers strike at four banks in Boston area

Dye pack foils at least 1 heist

A Boston police officer kept watch at the Citizens Bank at 35 Washington St. in Brighton, turning customers away after a robbery yesterday. Police recovered the stolen cash from the back seat of a taxi in front of the bank, where a dye pack had exploded. (PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF)

Bank robbers went on a binge this week in the Boston area.

Over the past two days, robbers hit two banks in Brighton, one in Dorchester, and another in Medford, where a man wearing a Yankees hat entered a Citizens Bank and fired a handgun just before the branch closed Thursday night, police said. No one was injured.

The Brighton robberies took place yesterday morning, both at Citizens Bank branches on Washington Street. They had no connection with the heist in Medford, said Gail A. Marcinkiewicz, a spokeswoman for the Boston office of the FBI.

Yesterday afternoon, a fourth robbery took place at a Sovereign Bank on Columbia Road.

As of last night, no one had been arrested in any of the robberies.

As of September, there were 118 bank robberies in Massachusetts this year, about 40 percent fewer than at the same period last year, said Bruce E. Spitzer, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Bankers Association.

"It's rare in one metropolitan area to have four robberies in a day, but it's not unheard of," Spitzer said.

The robbery in Medford occurred shortly before 6 p.m., when a 5-foot-7 white man walked into the bank on Riverside Avenue and announced, "This is a robbery," Marcinkiewicz said.

The man flashed a silver gun at tellers, handed them a purple bag, and demanded money, according to a Medford police report. After receiving the bag from a teller, the man fired a shot, the report said, and then fled.

Liz White, the bank's regional manager, declined to comment.

Police said tellers dropped a dye pack in with the cash.

In Brighton, a black man robbed the Citizens Bank at 35 Washington St. at about 9:51 a.m., police said. They described the suspect as 5-foot-8 and in his late 20s or early 30s. He was clean shaven, and wore a gray sweatshirt. The suspect did not show a weapon but hinted that he had one by placing his left hand in his pocket, police said.

Police later recovered the cash from the back seat of a taxi in front of the bank, where a dye pack had exploded.

At about 10:08 a.m., a Hispanic male wearing a greenish-tan Red Sox hat robbed the Citizens Bank at 414 Washington St. The robber was about 5-foot-3 and in his 20s, police said. He did not show a weapon.

But after he demanded money, according to police, he said: "No joke, or I start shooting."

At 2:17 p.m. at 585 Columbia Rd. in Dorchester, a black man, about 5-foot-8 and wearing colored sunglasses and a dark brown jacket, walked into the Sovereign Bank and demanded cash. A witness told police of seeing the man flee in a dark-colored sedan, with another man driving.

Andrew Ryan of the Globe staff contributed to this report.