Folks, here's a story that had an amusing ending, but I think we can all learn from this as it could easily have turned tragic.
Recently, my wife was conducting some business at a Wells Fargo bank in No. CA, when an attempted hold-up took place.
A man ran into the bank brandishing a silver pistol (she couldn't even tell if it was a revolver or semi) and yelled "EVERYBODY DOWN". So everybody obliged by immediately dropping to the floor, and that's when the amusing part happened.
The bank robber should have known that this bank had bullet-proof glass encasing the teller & vault area, and because he told everyone to get down, all the tellers dropped to the floor and out of sight of the robber. The robber then spent about a minute or two attempting to get them to stand back up and give him money, but the tellers all stayed down while banging their silent alarm buttons.
The frustrated robber finally gave up and bolted for the door. A few people even followed him out and got his license plate #. I can't find any news about this, but I would assume that such an incompetent criminal has already been nabbed by local FBI.
It happened so suddenly that my wife never got a look at the guy, just his clothes/shoes and the silver pistol. Because it was silver, she initially told me that she thought the gun was fake -but I spent some effort to dissuade her from assuming anything about a man w/gun.
While this all turned out well, I can't help but feel that it could have turned tragic, if the robber decided to take hostages, or started executing customers to get the tellers to respond, etc. Also, following him out was, IMHO, a potential for disaster.
Any comments?
Recently, my wife was conducting some business at a Wells Fargo bank in No. CA, when an attempted hold-up took place.
A man ran into the bank brandishing a silver pistol (she couldn't even tell if it was a revolver or semi) and yelled "EVERYBODY DOWN". So everybody obliged by immediately dropping to the floor, and that's when the amusing part happened.
The bank robber should have known that this bank had bullet-proof glass encasing the teller & vault area, and because he told everyone to get down, all the tellers dropped to the floor and out of sight of the robber. The robber then spent about a minute or two attempting to get them to stand back up and give him money, but the tellers all stayed down while banging their silent alarm buttons.
The frustrated robber finally gave up and bolted for the door. A few people even followed him out and got his license plate #. I can't find any news about this, but I would assume that such an incompetent criminal has already been nabbed by local FBI.
It happened so suddenly that my wife never got a look at the guy, just his clothes/shoes and the silver pistol. Because it was silver, she initially told me that she thought the gun was fake -but I spent some effort to dissuade her from assuming anything about a man w/gun.
While this all turned out well, I can't help but feel that it could have turned tragic, if the robber decided to take hostages, or started executing customers to get the tellers to respond, etc. Also, following him out was, IMHO, a potential for disaster.
Any comments?
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