At 6 feet 1inches and 300 pounds, it takes a lot to scare Roland Garcia.

"You would never think, ‘Oh, I'm going to rob him,’" he said.

But early one morning, Garcia got the scare of a lifetime, just trying to withdraw $20 from an ATM.

"I was on my way to work," Garcia recalled.  “I reached for my money and ‘BAM’!"

Garcia was facing a gunman saying “do not move."

Garcia said all he could think about was, "am I going to die? Is this guy going to kill me?"

But while handing over his debit card with one hand, he said, "I made sure my truck was in drive, and I all did was take off."

Garcia got away, but other Houstonians haven't been as lucky. So the 11 News Defenders wanted to know exactly where are consumers most likely to be robbed at ATMs: in bank parking lots or drive-thru lanes?

To find out, we analyzed four years worth of crime data and narrowed down the hot spots.

First up: The area around Bissonnet and the Southwest Freeway where eight ATM robberies, spread over four banks, occurred between 2003 and 2006. The hot zone includes a Chase branch at 9525 Bissonnet, which has a lot of security concerns according to Mark Stephens, a 25-year police veteran and private security consultant.

"It's a great set-up for the criminals," he said of the Chase location. "There are a lot of places to hide."

For example, the Defenders found a gap between two rows of shrubs that was a perfect fit for a crook. A Chase Bank spokesperson called the landscaping “not a significant risk,” but Stephens disagreed.

"I mean you can squeeze down there, they would move back over you and then you would pop back up," Stephens said.

He also noticed there are other hide-outs too, such as a building column, and in the back of the bank he spotted a broken light.

"It's another security concern here with the lighting," Stephens said.

A Chase Bank spokesperson said repairs were being done, but yet described the broken lighting tower as “cosmetic” and maintained the ATM drive-thru lane had sufficient lighting.

Another Houston hot spot found was the area surrounding Bellaire and Corporate Drive. We found a total of eight ATM robberies, spread over four banks, here as well between 2003 and 2006.

Pedro Rivera was one of those victims.

"Soon as I punched in my PIN, I looked in the mirror and saw him behind me," Rivera said.

It was a man with a mask and a knife.

"And he came towards me," Rivera said.

Terrified, the 19-year-old stepped aside.

"I was like, ‘go ahead, take all the money that you need,’" Rivera told the crook. He made off with $200, and Rivera reported it to Houston police.

But when we checked with Wells Fargo, it said it has no record of the robbery and neither did several other banks we spoke with. Yet we did find police reports of the crimes.  So why the discrepancy?

Security expert Mark Batterson said banks don't always talk to the cops.

"All we can do at this point is hope that the banks know of these robberies," Batterson said. "That may sound ridiculous."

And police records show some banks have seen multiple robberies.

For example, four Bank of America branches were hit four times each in the past four years. Two were in West Houston:  the ones at 11288 Westheimer and 11814 Bellaire.

Then there was the Bank of America branch at 9660 Hillcroft.

In southeast Houston, there was also the Bank of America branch at 12188 Gulf Freeway near the Almeda Mall.

We also found other banks that had been hit four times:

In North Houston, a Chase Branch at 5207 Airline, which was hit last in July 2004, and a Wells Fargo branch at 3434 Tidwell.

"It is the bank's responsibility to up the security at those ATMs," Batterson said.

In fact, there is the Texas ATM User Safety Act that says banks are supposed to do yearly safety evaluations of things such as lighting requirements and landscaping standards.

But Batterson said the law is not what it seems.

"The reports are usually just getting filed away [at the bank], and that's the end of it,” Batterson said.

So why have a law in the first place?

Batterson and others say the law was created not to protect the public, but to indemnify banks from civil lawsuits by creating a minimal standard of safety the banks could claim they were following.

"In court they can say, ‘well here ya go, this is what we do,’" he said, making any lawsuit more likely to lead to summary judgment.

So how can you, the consumer, protect yourself?

"I don't suggest to my family members that they go to a bank ATM," Mark Stephens said.

The 25-year career lawman avoids them altogether because,  “everyone who sees you at that ATM knows you have cash that you just got out of the ATM.”

Instead, he advises getting cash at a grocery or drug store.

"You don't put yourself in a situation or position where you could become a victim," Stephens said.