Armed robberies are on the rise and seem to keep coming

• Armed Robberies Becoming a Trend

Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) -- Strong Armed Robberies are on the rise, especially in the last four months. And it seems the high profile cases keep coming.

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Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) -- Strong Armed Robberies are on the rise, especially in the last four months. And it seems the high profile cases keep coming.

In the last four months, there have been 18 strong-armed robberies in Fargo, up 3 over the same period last year.

But Fargo Police remain confident; this is still a safe, business-friendly community.

Lt. Joel Vettel: “We've proven that we take and address those issues very quickly and that those people are brought to justice and ultimately we get them out of our community and stop them from doing the things we don't want them to do.”

Overall, the numbers are fairly stagnant. 41 robberies in 2009, 39 in 2010 and 42 in 2011.

The numbers are only up slightly, but take a look at the past few months. Bank of the West New Year’s Eve, Stop'N Go, four days prior, McDonalds, November 13th, shots fired at Royal Liquors October 28th, Stop'N Go again on the 26th, and on October 13th, Cash Wise Video robbed by a man with a shot gun.

The High Profile cases are everywhere.

Vettel: “Really what happens is we'll have a string of those through the copy cats. But ultimately when we are making arrests and bring those people to jail, we see a decrease in those.”

Despite the upswing, local business leaders aren't worried.

Craig Whitney: “When you see something like that, it gives you reason to be concerned, but the crime statistics are still very low, this is still a very safe place to live.”

Whitney says with the tremendous growth this community has seen, these kind of problems are not surprising.

Whitney: “With growth there's always challenges but we have such a business community here, and it's a great place to do business.”

Lieutenant Vettel told me earlier, of the 18 robberies in the last four months, 7 have led to arrests, 6 are still under investigation, three only happened within the last week and two were discovered to be mis-reported.

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