Just a Matter of Time
Jul. 22nd, 2003 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowynYesterday, there was an attempted robbery at one of our branches, a few miles from my location.
The majority of bank robberies -- 80-90%, I guess -- are very simple and straightforward. Robber enters bank, approaches teller, demands money, is given money, and leaves. These are almost universally successful in the short run, and, almost as often, unsuccessful in the long run. The robbers get the money initially, but the police usually catch them in short order after the fact. Often, in these types of robberies, the bad guy never even shows a weapon.
An attempted robbery -- where the robber gets nothing -- is rather rare. In hindsight, I should have known from that fact alone that this was a bad one.
The robber came in carrying some kind of long-barreled firearm. I've heard it was an AK-47, but not from someone who was there, or whom I would trust to so much as tell a shotgun from a rifle, for that matter.
The tellers fled the teller line to a room behind them, where they locked the door and hid, leaving the gun-waving crook alone with the security guard and the branch manager. The crook pulled the trigger on his weapon. It didn't fire, although it was apparently loaded. Possibly the guy had failed to take the safety off. The security guard had drawn on him, but did not shoot. Eventually, the robber fled. No one got hurt.
Not for lack of trying. The criminal pulled the trigger. Thank goodness most criminals are idiots.
Bank robberies happen all the time. Toddler Bank only has 13 branches, even now, and there's been at least one robbery or attempted robbery every year that I've worked for Toddler. Never at my branch, not yet.
But they happen. It's almost like one of the parts of doing business, an inevitable fact, not a statistically improbable event.
It's just a matter of time.
The majority of bank robberies -- 80-90%, I guess -- are very simple and straightforward. Robber enters bank, approaches teller, demands money, is given money, and leaves. These are almost universally successful in the short run, and, almost as often, unsuccessful in the long run. The robbers get the money initially, but the police usually catch them in short order after the fact. Often, in these types of robberies, the bad guy never even shows a weapon.
An attempted robbery -- where the robber gets nothing -- is rather rare. In hindsight, I should have known from that fact alone that this was a bad one.
The robber came in carrying some kind of long-barreled firearm. I've heard it was an AK-47, but not from someone who was there, or whom I would trust to so much as tell a shotgun from a rifle, for that matter.
The tellers fled the teller line to a room behind them, where they locked the door and hid, leaving the gun-waving crook alone with the security guard and the branch manager. The crook pulled the trigger on his weapon. It didn't fire, although it was apparently loaded. Possibly the guy had failed to take the safety off. The security guard had drawn on him, but did not shoot. Eventually, the robber fled. No one got hurt.
Not for lack of trying. The criminal pulled the trigger. Thank goodness most criminals are idiots.
Bank robberies happen all the time. Toddler Bank only has 13 branches, even now, and there's been at least one robbery or attempted robbery every year that I've worked for Toddler. Never at my branch, not yet.
But they happen. It's almost like one of the parts of doing business, an inevitable fact, not a statistically improbable event.
It's just a matter of time.
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-22 09:02 am (UTC)If I worked in a bank, I'd be armed. With something. No matter what the "rules" were.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-22 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-22 12:02 pm (UTC)Licensed security guards are usually covered under a different set of laws than the rest of us second-class citizens.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-22 11:11 am (UTC)Not that I'm complaining, per se! But I worry about that robber still being out there. What if he figures out to take off the safety next time? =P
no subject
Date: 2003-07-22 11:30 am (UTC)Hopefully, the cops will catch the guy. But I dunno. :/