It may be the latest sign of the tough economic times: bank robberies are on a significant rise in the past year. Three banks were robbed on Tuesday morning in Manhattan and Queens, a day after five other banks across the city were robbed in just a matter of hours.

Eight bank robberies in four boroughs in a little more than 24 hours may have many branches changing the way they do business.

“Many of the banks don’t have the barriers, they don’t looks like banks, they look like living rooms,” says New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

As WCBATV was putting this story together, another bank robbery happened at 103rd and Broadway. And within minutes, two more were heard on the NYPD radios, both in Queens.

Following the police radio to Queens, CBS2 reporters came upon detectives still collecting evidence from a gray Dodge Durango. The thief had tried getting away from a Chase bank on Hillside and 204th Street, but a dye pack exploded inside the car, and he was caught.

Minutes later on Queens Boulevard and 102nd Street, an Apple bank was robbed.

“As it stands now they’ve turned into virtual cash machines, people are walking in there; over 80 percent of bank robberies are just based on notes,” said Kelly.

Experts note the connection between recessions, and a rise in bank robberies.

Just comparing now and the same time a year ago, bank robberies are up a whopping 54 percent in New York City. Bank robberies are also on the rise in major cities across America. And while some men who work next door to the bank that got robbed on Broadway this morning may not be criminologists, they know a trend when they see one:

“Right now with the economy, people losing jobs, all these corporations downsizing, people are looking to feed their families, they’re looking for some kind of support and they’re going to do what they’re going to do,” said Upper East Side resident Willie Rodriguez.

Since the eight robberies in the past two days, police have arrested suspects in two of them.

During the Great Depression, Willie Sutton gained a kind of “populist notoriety” because of all the banks he robbed. And when he was asked, why did he rob banks, his answer was: That’s where the money is.

(Source: WCBSTV / CBS HD)