Its been 6 years. I wrote this 3 years ago. April 1st A fools Day!? 3 years ago on April 1st, 2008 I was working at AmericanBank and it started out like any other day. I was an opening Teller and I worked long days starting at 5:55am and some times went to 6:30pm. As I was going about my usual business and tellering my teller manager received a horrible phone call at around 10:30 that her Grandmother who has been ill and had a nurse who was to check in once a day was found passed away in her apartment. My manager left the bank within minutes of the phone call leaving us one short for the lunch rush. We being understanding of course, covered for her to our best ability. Around noon we got super busy and the Branch Manager stepped behind the teller line to help out. Seems like a nice gesture, but it wasnt. She was worthless and didnt have a clue about telling, which in return made it harder on us to stay afloat. We worked through the rush and managed to not tick anyone off. After that the first teller was to go to lunch. She headed out leaving us down to 3, if you count the branch manager. So there we are around 2:20pm when out of no where a stranger runs in the bank and yells out loud. Not understanding what he is yelling at first, none of us did anything out of the normal. With in seconds he pulled out a gun of his over sized jogging jacket. He waved it around and then the image came together, I understood his words more clearly and I understood why he had a large duffel bag in his arm. He continuously told us not to punch the button (to call the police) for some reason, the branch manger took that statement as get down. So she got under the teller desk and left me standing up. The man came up to my counter with his gun and his bag and demanded me to place the money in his bag. I was very calm for some odd reason, maybe out of shock. I had very clear thought process, I remember specifically thinking that I can not take the money from my drawer, if I did I would be short and that would result in write up. So since I could not take the money out of my drawer, I took the money out of the drawer of the teller next to me. I took the money and placed it in the bag, I must have been going to slow because at that point the man grabbed my hand and told me to hurry. His hand which was wearing a black cotton glove, like the cheap kind you buy at the dollar store, touched mine. That the only physical thing I remember about him. I placed some more money in his bag and watched as he ran to the door turned around and waved his gun as he commanded us not to call the cops. I waited until he left the bank and ran to the door to lock it after the ran out. At this point a personal banker got up from under her desk and she joined me at the door we took down a license plate of the car we thought maybe he got into. Then the shock affect went away and the trembling in the knees and hands and nauseous feeling all came into play. We then went back to our desk and pushed the button that alarms the police that we had been robbed. We waited, waited and waited some more. We are not allowed to call the police on our regular phone, because it is not always a secure line, so when you are being thought how to be a teller you are instructed never to call the police on the phone. After we received no response from the button we decided as a branch to call the police on the phone. The police arrived shortly after. I guess they thought that the button was an April fools joke. (Funny right!?!?) Five seconds after the CCPD showed up the news, fbi, secret service, and the bank president showed up. (The license plate was NOT correct it was a Lady who was leaving the drive tru....woops) Four hours later and after a lot of questioning and interviews things calmed down and I was able to go home. (In case your wondering I balanced to the penny that night.) I thought I was fine, I told the Hubby what happened and I told him I was fine, if I could get that puppy I have been wanting ;) (Happy Birthday Loukah) So we went and picked him up. After we got home, I didnt sleep to well, but I figured it was just from feeling a little overwhelmed. The next morning I went to work at 5:55am. Thinking I was fine, I mean I was only alone until 8:30 am or so and I was locked in the bank and only the drive tru was open. Yea, that thought sounded really good until the first car drove up and I freaked out. I locked myself in the restroom and called my teller manager who had only found out what all happened a few hours earlier. She came in early and worked those few hours with me. So yea, since then they have caught the man who robbed us and he is currently in jail. Serving 15 years for his 3 robberies. He tried to get parole after only 9 months and I fought it hard with a Lawyer to have the parole board say no. I have gotten over most of it in the last 3 years, if you dont count the fact that banks creep me out... lol. But what doesnt kill us makes us stronger. :)
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 19:52:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015