Raiders and Shotguns…Oh my!
Sometime between 93 and 95: I have gone to work as usual. It was pretty much the same as always. Opening accounts, taking loan apps and reviewing, creating and maintaining reports, organizing documents, etc., etc. At the time my desk and my immediate boss’s desk were next to each other. By the way, we both became best friends. Hey Dayna, do you remember this incident?
It was sometime in the afternoon. At my desk, I had a couple with their two pre-teen kids. I was explaining about the types of accounts to them so they can decide which ones to open.
Suddenly….
Are you ready for this?
Four men with shotguns and wearing jackets which read “Raiders” on their back rushed through the front doors yelling more than once
“EVERY ONE GET ON THE FLOOR AND KEEP YOUR HEADS DOWN”
I immediately went under my desk and started to push the alarm button. This alarm button goes off at the nearest Police Station and they would also have the address where it is coming from. My desk was covered, on the front side and the 2 sideways so when I went under it, no one from the front or the sideways could see me under the desk. My back was faced towards the wall. I could put my head on the floor to peep. That is what I did. Dayna went under her desk too. The family at my desk dropped on the floor too after hearing those scary orders from those robbers yielding shotguns.
I was thinking about the kids. The reason I was concerned was that my daughter was of the same age group as these kids. Selfish reasons again! Just like how you feel helping the helpless.
While peeping through the gap between the floor and the wooden plank in front of my desk, I saw about 10 to 12 customers in line, all got on the floor face down.
One of the robbers jumped over the counter and yelled at all tellers to lie face down on the floor while pointing and waving his shotgun at all of them. One guy went to the back door and started guarding that entrance, while one was at the front entrance and the 3rd was controlling the customers and also taking the money from the tellers along with the 4th guy. It took less than 5 minutes for them to rob the bank.
Amazingly the cops were waiting outside for these crooks to come out. They won’t come in to jeopardize the safety of all customers since the bad guys have shotguns. As soon as they went out, the cops followed them and it was actually caught on tape by news people and if you can find it on the Internet you should be able to see it. Cops were following these crooks and it was on the freeway. Finally, during the chase, these crooks thought if they can throw the moneybags out, then the police wouldn’t have any evidence.
What a serious problem they have. Obviously not so smart are they? Well, maybe they don’t know the news helicopters were on to them. I doubt that though. They could have heard the news while driving. In any case, they got caught after all that commotion. During this invasion, one of the burglars kicked one of our tellers for lifting his head up.
That teller quit the next day. I hope he is okay. No wonder LA was the capital of Bank Robberies. Thank God it no longer is. OR is it?