ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN)  -- It was an image that got the nation talking: Two giggling young women in oversized sunglasses robbing a bank. The "Barbie Bandits" helped their hometown earn the dubious distinction as the nation's bank robbery capital.



Here one of the so-called "Barbie Bandits" is captured on surveillance video at a surburban Atlanta bank.



Atlanta's FBI field division topped Los Angeles in reporting the most bank heists, with 350 for the 12 months ending September 30, 2007, according to the FBI, which annually names areas most prone to bank robberies.



The Los Angeles area was No. 2 with 338 heists, followed by Philadelphia with 316. Just Thursday, two suspects overpowered a security guard at an Atlanta, Georgia, bank, took his gun, robbed the bank and fled with money in hand, police said. Eventually, police shot one of the suspects in an exchange of gunfire. Two more armed bank robberies took place in metro Atlanta Friday.



The FBI says violent crime is up across the nation, especially in major metro areas like Atlanta. So it's no surprise Atlanta has become a prime target for bank robberies, FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett told CNN.  Watch Hotlanta or Heistlanta? »



"This goes hand in hand with those figures," Emmett said.



Atlanta's rapid growth over the last decade has also been a factor. A recent Atlanta Business Chronicle article reported that metro Atlanta has 26 more banks than in all of North Carolina -- roughly one bank for every 3,500 people in the region.  See photos of bank heists in metro Atlanta »



"We would attribute a lot of that [bank robberies] to the growth and the fact that the banking industry has matched that growth with an increase in bank branches throughout the area," Emmett said.



Atlanta's rise in bank heists comes just as Los Angeles has aggressively countered once out-of-control bank robberies. Los Angeles has gone from more than 500 bank robberies in the mid-2000s to this year's 338, the FBI stats show.



According to the FBI, its Atlanta field division reported 350 bank robberies in the last year -- the most notorious of which were the "Barbie Bandits" and "Grandpa Bandit" robberies. The FBI says 122 of the heists were armed robberies, or robberies where a weapon was visibly used.



Emmett said many more of the robberies were what law enforcement officers classify as "note jobs" -- where a robber gestures as if he or she has a gun on them in a demand note handed over to the teller. Also factored into the total number of robberies were ATM heists and a record nine armored car robberies.



Those armored car robberies are particularly disturbing to Emmett. "Anyone that would confront an armored car courier knowing that he's already armed and in somewhat of a defensive posture, that mindset is very troubling for law enforcement," he said.



While Emmett said there is no "typical" bank robber, he said he has seen some trends, most notably that they are often people battling drug addictions. He also said bank robbers are often repeat offenders.



Two recent high-profile cases in Atlanta seem to confirm that. Two women dubbed the "Barbie Bandits" were arrested after working with a bank employee to rob a Bank of America in the Atlanta suburb of Acworth. They both later admitted to police to having drug addiction problems. Recently apprehended 69-year-old Bobby Joe Phillips, dubbed the "Grandpa Bandit," is suspected to have robbed seven banks in Tennessee and the Atlanta area and had a criminal history.



Emmett says typically very little money is taken in a bank heist. Joe Brannen, president of the Georgia Bankers Association, agrees, saying "the average is $2,000 to $3,000. It's not as big a payoff as most people think it is."



With the holidays in full swing, authorities are steeling themselves for a spate of bank robberies with robbers looking for quick holiday cash. "I would make the assumption that a large part of it is the increased [financial] pressures
Who says it is the result of violent crimes? When to expect the most robberies? What city has the most bank heists?
FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett the holidays Atlanta's
question: Who says it is the result of violent crimes?, answer: FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett | question: When to expect the most robberies?, answer: the holidays | question: What city has the most bank heists?, answer: Atlanta's