7th bank robbery of the year sees armed men get away with a mere JD53 — police

AMMAN — Two armed men have reportedly robbed a bank in Amman at gunpoint and escaped only with JD53, police said on Sunday.

 The two alleged robbers, including one who was disguised in women's clothes, reportedly entered a bank in the Wadi Rimam area early on Sunday morning and demanded cash from the teller, Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

"The two suspects managed to escape with JD53 in cash," Sartawi said.

The police official could not be reached to explain the relatively low amount of the alleged stolen cash.

The State Security Court sentences convicted bank robbers to 15 years in prison because “attacks on financial establishments in the Kingdom endanger the safety of society, disturb public order, spread fear among citizens, endanger the lives of bank employees and jeopardise economic resources”.

Sunday’s alleged robbery was the seventh incident targetting a local bank in the Kingdom since the beginning of the year. Police have managed to arrest the majority of the robbery suspects and retrieve most of the stolen cash.

In 2018, one money exchange shop and eight banks were targetted in Jordan. In some of these cases, the robbers were armed or used fake weapons.

Seven of the nine suspected robbers in 2018 have been arrested so far, while two suspects, who escaped with over JD105,000 in cash from two banks in the Wihdat neighbourhood and in Irbid, remain at large.