Man Attempts to Rob Payday Loan Stores in Wichita, Kansas

One payday loan store robbed

Surveillance cameras can help keep businesses safe.

It seems that payday loan stores still haven’t coughed up the money to invest in equipment such as surveillance cameras and other security devices.

According to a local NBC affiliate, the same man attempted to rob two payday loan stores over the weekend in Wichita, Kansas. It appears from news reports that there was one attempted robbery followed by a successful robbery on Sunday.

Strange things afoot

In the first incident, according to KSN News 3, the suspect entered an E Z Payday Advance store at 3570 N. Woodlawn. An employee of E Z Payday Advance was in the parking lot, and the employee notified the police.

If there were no employees inside the E Z Payday Advance store, how did the suspect enter the building? I should think that the doors would be locked if there was no one inside. How the suspect was able to enter the building at 3570 N. Woodlawn remains unclear.

The one that got away

Unfortunately, the news report out of Wichita doesn’t report what time these robberies took place, only that they were about an hour apart. On Sunday, about an hour after the attempted robbery at the E Z Payday Advance store, a man fitting the same description entered a different E Z Payday Advance location at 2548 S. Seneca.

This time, however, the suspect brandished a gun and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Suspect description

Police are still seeking the man who they believe was involved in both incidents. He is described as 35 to 40 years old and about 5-foot-7.

Police say he was wearing a blue shirt and a red bandanna. They also said he was driving a dark blue or dark green Saturn.

Robberies not as common lately

It’s been pretty quiet on the payday loan store robbery front lately. For a while there, I was reporting on new payday loan store robberies once or twice per month.

However, the last payday loan store robbery I received a report about was in mid-April in Indiana. The state of Indiana appears to be a pretty popular state for payday loan store robberies. This year so far I have received five reports of payday loan store robberies in Indiana, two of which happened on the same day in January.

A quiet month

After getting reports of payday loan store robberies throughout the months of February, March and April, yesterday’s incidents were the first I’ve heard of in several weeks.

There was a string of payday loan store robberies in Spokane, Wash., in late January and early February. A store in Tennessee was also robbed in February.

In March, payday loan stores in Texas, Illinois, California and Virginia reported robberies. In April, the store in Indiana reported the robbery along with a store in Virginia.

Keep employees safe

As I’ve advocated before when reporting on robberies at payday loans stores, businesses that keep a lot of cash on hand much be very careful to protect their employees.

Payday loan businesses should have security cameras installed, and, most importantly, for employees’ safety, there should always be more than one person working in the store.