In Montville NJ, a 28 year old man has been arrested. He was trying to cash a bogus $3,000 check at a branch of the Commerce Bank. When the police contacted the bank's Security Department, the banker indicated there were other thefts as well.

With Gilberto Bras' in custody it was easy to see that he matched the description in similar cases. The Barnegat Police Department matched him as a suspect from a similar crime last August. As it turns out he has done this at five other Commerce Bank branches in NJ. He is suspected of taking more than $27,000.

When a thief finds a weakness, such as in a procedure, funds availability policy or in teller practices, they will exploit that. And where there are multiple branches that follow the same policies and procedures they often go from one to another committing the same crime.

In this instance the Security Department had begun to put the pieces of the puzzle together from as far back as ten months. Communication with law enforcement helped ensure that they too were aware that this single arrest was not for an isolated incident. Had the Security Department not centralized this information and communicated with law enforcement the bank's looses may have grown. Finding the "leak" is part one of the task. If the policy or procedure is at fault, plugging that hole is part two.