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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2006 
No Hats, Sunglasses or Phones: Mexican Banks Ban Theft Aids
 San Antonio Express-News
| | The new rules are based on the conclusion that hats and glasses shield robbers from witnesses and security cameras... |
Mexico City — Fashion be damned. Sunglasses, hats and even cell phones will soon be banned from banks to cut down on robberies that plague this city.
The new rules, which were agreed upon by the bankers association and the city government, are based on the conclusion that hats and glasses shield robbers from witnesses and security cameras, according to Miguel Zecua, a security supervisor for Banamex, Mexico's largest bank.
Cell phones are used to pass along information on people leaving the bank with large amounts of cash or to describe security, he said.
In almost any bank in this city, there are wanted posters displaying grainy images of the faces of bank robbers and numbers to call to report information about them.
At least half the photos are of men wearing caps, sunglasses or both. They're also posted on a government police Web site at www.seproban.com.mx
"Most look like this," Arturo Sanchez, 38, a gym teacher, joked as he stood outside a bank and pushed the brim of his baseball cap down toward the top his sunglasses.
He said he understands the need for new regulations, but doesn't like them. He wears a hat on a daily basis to protect himself from the sun, and his left eye is damaged and sensitive to light, he said.
Sanchez said that more than once he's been watched closely by security guards.
Making her way along a street while wearing a large pink hat and sunglasses, Gloria Constantini, 66, said she was dismayed by the regulations.
"Besides doing whatever they want with your money, now they want to tell you how to dress," she said. "I can dress however I want."
She confided that she has lost much of her hair to chemotherapy and that she also has eye problems.
"This is a free country," she said. "We should be free to dress as we want."
Mexico City police contend there's a well-established pattern of criminals using hats and glasses. Police and bankers declined to provide the number of robberies this year, but Mexico City's Reforma newspaper says there have been 28 so far.
Police are distributing posters with images of a cell phone, sunglasses and a hat, with a red circle drawn around them and a slash, similar to symbols for no smoking or no parking.
Selling baseball caps and sunglasses on the sidewalk outside Banamex, Nancy Vazquez, 14, was less than enthused by the new rules.
"It is definitely going to have an impact on me," she said. "But that is why people use them — to hide." |
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