Despite the long odds against another successful holdup, the police said, Mr. Taylor was spotted shortly after 9 a.m. by plainclothes officers on the sidewalk outside his original target, the HSBC branch. Paul J. Browne, a police spokesman, said Mr. Taylor was seen looking from the sidewalk through the branch’s windows, where he apparently spotted uniformed officers, and turned to walk away.  He was arrested, and the police said he was carrying a threatening note similar to those that were passed to tellers in each of the four previous robberies. The police declined to disclose the wording of the notes, but said they threatened violence if bank employees did not turn over cash. Mr. Taylor, who was apparently unarmed, was charged with four counts of robbery.  The bold series of bank robberies, along a commercial strip that was crowded with holiday shoppers, came as a shock not only to the mall’s many customers, but also to law enforcement experts.  “This is amazing,” said Peter K. Manning, the Brooks professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University. “Most property crime is compulsive crime, but this is a little extreme.”  Still, police records provide many examples of serial robberies in which criminals display consistent methods and single out a small area.  Over eight days in March, someone entered three bank branches on Montague and Court Streets in Brooklyn — all just a few blocks west of the Fulton Mall — and made off with cash after telling tellers that he was carrying an explosive device in a box. That robber left boxes behind but no bombs were found, and no arrests have been made.  Mr. Taylor, whose previous criminal record was confined to charges of breaking a window and jumping a subway turnstile, lives 10 blocks south of the two bank branches in the Gowanus Houses complex.  The police said Mr. Taylor’s methods were consistent. The first three robberies — on Friday, Saturday and Monday — took place between 10 and 10:40 a.m.  He entered the banks unobtrusively, investigators said, stood in line briefly, and said little to anyone after he passed his threatening notes.  Although Mr. Taylor did not wear a mask, the police said, his clothing partially concealed his face from several angles where bank security cameras were positioned. On Friday, he wore a full-length winter parka and fur-lined hood, worn up to cover part of his face, Mr. Browne said. His other outfits included headphones, sunglasses, a hooded sweat shirt and a baseball cap that partially obscured his eyes, he said.  Customers at the Bank of America branch said yesterday that they were dismayed that anyone could rob it twice in a single day and shocked that anyone would even try.  “It doesn’t make any sense,” said Sean Hossain, 18. “The first time I can understand. But the second time? How can he come back and no one recognize him?”  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Busy Bank Robber at Fulton Mall Was Too Predictable, Police Say. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
After robbing banks in the same area in quick succession, Orlando Taylor, 26, was captured when he tried to commit his fifth robbery in five days.