Here’s a neat little piece of local history to get you through the workday: Security cameras installed at St. Clair Savings and Loan, located at 6235 St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland, were the first in the world to capture a bank robbery and help identify the suspects.

The robbery occurred just after noon on April 12, 1957 when a man, later identified as 24-year-old Steven Ray Thomas, pointed a gun at a teller while his accomplice, 18-year-old Wanda DiCenzi, stuffed over $2000 into a bag. A third individual, 18-year-old Rose O’Donnell, was waiting outside in a getaway car.

Later that evening, the footage from the robbery was broadcast on national news, and the trio was caught soon after.

After their capture, then Cleveland Police Chief Frank Story remarked that no one in their right mind would walk into a bank with a hidden camera and rob it, a statement that, of course, has proved false over the years.

Here are some photos from the incident, as well as a still shot from the security footage, courtesy of the Cleveland Police Museum’s Facebook page.


This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2014.

Alaina Nutile is the Web Editor who oversees all digital content and social media initiatives for Cleveland Scene Magazine and Detroit Metro Times. Before joining the staff in June 2013, she interned at Business Insider in New York City, and at La Hora in Quito, Ecuador. Alaina is a graduate of Kalamazoo College in Michigan, where she double majored in English and Spanish. Her interests include Japanese food, Breaking Bad, and career development advising.

3 replies on “In 1957, Cleveland was the first city in the world to capture a bank robbery on film”

  3. According to an article from the PD of October 9, 1957, Thomas was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in the Ohio Reformatory. The others were sentenced that day (obviously after that day’s PD was published), but I was unable to find a story about their sentences.

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