Canton bank to increase its security

CANTON — SeaComm Federal Credit Union is beefing up security at its Canton branch so that it can't be robbed the same way it has been twice before.

On Jan. 9, the branch at 101 E. Main St. was robbed by a man who fled behind a barn at the rear of the credit union. In 2006, two men robbed the bank and made off through heavy brush behind the bank.

The barn has been removed and an 8-foot fence will soon go up, SeaComm President and CEO Scott A. Wilson said.

"The barn was perhaps a staging area for the perpetrator that was out of sight of the public," Mr. Wilson said. "We've had two situations where they came in from the rear. We think this will mitigate it."

The barn was part of the property SeaComm purchased from St. Lawrence University in 2003 to build the branch. The bank demolished two houses on the property but left the barn up.

"The barn didn't have the historic value we thought it might," Mr. Wilson said. "It's really been a vacant building for us."

With the barn gone, the bank will soon install an aluminum security fence and eventually thorny olive bushes.

"It'll be one more barrier," Mr. Wilson said.

The bank will add extra lighting and is changing some of the curbing that directs traffic, Canton Code Enforcement Officer Russell B. Lawrence IV said.

"I think the only way out will be under the watchful eye of a camera," he said.

Canton Police Chief Alan P. Mulkin was unavailable for comment on the status of the investigation into the robberies.

SeaComm evaluated the security at all of its offices but made physical changes only in Canton, Mr. Wilson said.