Aug. 17--The Summer School Bandit may or may not go to summer school. He is simply a young man who is believed to be a student.

The Rorschach Bandit wasn't a character from "Watchmen." He just happened to dress like him.

The 20 Questions Bandits are unusually inquisitive during their robberies, and the Buckshot Bandits carry shotguns in robbing and taking over a bank.

And the Bad Rug Bandit, well, he looks like the proverbial favorite uncle who couldn't get over losing his hair.

They are the colorful nicknames that the FBI has given some of the serial criminals who have held up banks in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas and part of the tools law enforcement officials use in their crackdown.

Authorities know that quirky monikers based on identifying features or habits have the potential for creating more news coverage, greater public interest and possibly tips that may lead to the capture of the bandits as the number of robberies in Los Angeles spikes this year.

"Some people might think, oh, we're there to mock the bandit," says Steve May, the FBI's bank robbery coordinator in Los Angeles. "I'm not trying to do that at all. It's definitely not to mock them or be childish with it. It's really just driven by what they've done, and it's more of an investigative tool.

"When a bandit's named, it's easier to track a person than showing up (at a bank robbery) and saying, 'Which guy robbed that bank?' Instead, you could just say, 'It's the XYZ bandit,' and the law enforcement person already knows who that is.

"It's just an easier way of tracking the bandits."

There have been at least a dozen bank robberies in the San Fernando Valley this year, according to the FBI's online database -- on pace to surpass the total of 14 all of last year.

Southern California was at one point known as the bank robbery capital of the country, but the number of robberies in the region had been steadily declining -- until recently.

In Los Angeles County, the number of robberies dropped from 407 in 2000 to 135 in 2007, but then increased to 171 last year. This year, there were 78 as of May.

Law enforcement agencies have long relied on the media and the public to help catch crooks, but the FBI's fairly recent use of nicknames is also a twist on the long-standing practice of Mafiosi, street gangs and outlaws to describe themselves with quirky tags.

"For the FBI to use criminal nicknaming to get the public's help in catching these criminals turns the phenomenon on its head," says Elizabeth T. Adams, a professor of pop culture at California State University, Northridge.