The passenger who was in the van aimed his gun sporadically to the other patrons in the bank, continuing to exclaim threats to them.
“I want everyone on the floor, and I also want you all to stay still. I don’t want to see anybody talking, moving, or doing anything. Keep your heads on the ground, and stay still!”
The driver in the van then walks up to Jesse’s terminal, pointing his gun at his head, alerting him to empty the contents of his terminal till, and cash cart into his bag.
“Put all the fucking money into the bag. Go faster, or I’m gonna fucking shoot. I want everything in the bag. Everything in the cart I want in the bag too, now!”
This was the first robbery Jesse was involved in with this bank. He however was trained on dealing with robberies, and as a teller he is to do whatever they ask him to do. Jesse emptied all of his contents of his terminal drawer into the bag. Jesse was aware that he could use a dye pack, which is a stack of fake money which detonates a bomb of hard to wash paint onto the robber and cash bag to thwart the robbers, but he decided not to do so. After emptying his cash drawer, he unlocked his cash cart located behind his drawer, and emptied the money into the bag. Jesse did not to give the robbers any emotions or eye contact. He also did not show any fear as he was trained and instructed not to do so in such occasions. The robber continued to aim the gun towards Jesse’s head as he was emptying the substantial amount of cash from the cash cart into the burlap sack, going as fast as he humanly possibly could. The robber was getting very impatient over this.
“You need to move faster, and put the money in the fucking bag. I will kill you if you don’t go faster. Hurry up. Get the money in there now!”
Jesse then emptied all of the money from his cash cart. As soon as he was finished with that, the robber with his gun aimed at Jesse the entire time, instructed him to step behind his terminal and into the lobby with the rest of the accosted patrons of the bank.
“I want you to lay the fuck down, don’t get up or I will shoot you. Lay down!”
The passenger of the van then took over his position, and aimed the gun at Jesse and the other hostages in the bank. Everyone in the building was under intense mental anguish and panic, as this stressful and unprecedented event takes place. Russell again was just overthrown with guilt that he’s not managing the robbery accordingly. Thinking to himself he’s being a terrible and irresponsible bank manager, and not stepping up to his duties. He could only think that he’s letting Peter down, and not living up to the expectations set onto him. Russell’s only defense at this point is to just continue to stay down and to not get involved, under the pretenses that hopefully all of this would be over and be done with relatively soon. He could only lay motionless on the floor for right now.
Peter however was on the brink of losing control. Bank robberies are the one thing Peter was always scared and afraid of in the banking and finance industry, as according to him, they either end well, or they end bad. It always scared Peter to be in situations such as this, and for that reason Peter likewise with Russell was going against company protocol, and decided to distance himself from the action.
The robber who as driving the van, then proceeded to walk himself over to Jennifer’s terminal. While pointing his gun at her, in a very forceful and demeaning loud tone, instructed her to empty her cash drawer.
“I want all the money, all of it. Empty everything out of that drawer, and put it in the bag. Empty the whole drawer, and empty it now. I want to see that drawer empty now. Empty everything, and do it quick!”
Jennifer was also trained to deal with bank robberies, however this was the first time she had ever been involved with one. She was extremely terrified with panic and fear due to being in this situation. Like Jesse, she did not give the robbers any eye contact, and simply responded to whatever demands they asked for. Although Jennifer wanted to try to see if she could control the situation, putting an end to it. Out of fear, Jennifer decided to do something that Jesse opted out of doing which was to use a dye pack in other to halt the heist. In an inconspicuous way, Jennifer lifted the bottom of her cash drawer, and attempted to place a dye pack into the burlap sack. However, the robber quickly noticed her charade and fired shots onto a wall inches away from Jennifer, in order to scare her to a deeper extent.
Due to the fact there was a silencer enabled on the gun, the gunshots did not make any impactful or forceful noticeable sounds, or cause any attention. The bullets from the gun, did however startle and make Jennifer feel uncomfortable than she already was. The robber who is very furious from that, aimed the gun at her head again.
“Do not fuck with me, I saw that shit. Put the money into the bag. I’m not going to warn you again, the next time, I will kill you. Put the money into the fucking bag, and do it now!”
Jennifer then began to go into an extreme panic mode, and rapidly emptied her cash drawer. After she finished emptying her cash drawer, she went over to unlock her cash cart. The robber was starting to become more and more impatient.
“Open that up now, very quickly. We should have already been done at this point. Open that drawer up and put everything into the bag, and do it fast!”
Jennifer finally got her cash cart open, and she quickly put the stacks of money into the sack. Trembling with anxiety, Jennifer tried her best to overcome this fear, making sure that she managed to empty the cart as fast as she could. Knowing that the robber was losing his patience and cool with her, she tried her best not to damage his emotions with her. After Jennifer finally emptied her cash cart, the robber unlike with Jesse did not instruct her to go into the lobby. He instead grabbed her very forcefully by the back, aiming the gun towards her head.
“Because you pulled that stunt earlier, I’m not done with you. You clearly want to play hero and savior to everyone. You listen to everything I tell you to do, or else the results might be unfortunate. I will not hesitate to shoot you. Don’t scream, don’t say shit!”
Even though his head was down to the ground, Russell knew that one of the tellers were being held hostage by the robber. Russell was very close to reaching his boiling point towards this situation. He began to really feel upset and scared; even more scared and nervous than he already was, now that the robber was taking one of the teller’s hostage. He was in a predicament to where he was unsure of what to do, and what was the safest and sensible action for him to make. With that, he decided to continue to stay down the ground despite that. Peter as well noticed a teller was being held hostage. Like Russell, he didn’t want to act on any impulses quite yet, and continued to stay silent on the floor. Peter was under stress seeing one of the bank tellers in that condition, and worried for their safety. He just wanted everything to be over with, and for the event to end in a positive way. Peter just wanted the robbery to end as soon as possible.
The robber who still had Jennifer hostage, escorted her over to the entrance of the vault, and the safe deposit lockers. He wanted to complete the second portion of his job, which was to get whatever he wanted out of the vault and the safe deposit lockers. The robber was aghast to find out the vault was security locked. In order to go inside, he needs an employee of the bank to give him access to it. The robber was unaware that by Jennifer being a bank teller, she would be able to assist him with this at all. She had no access to any of this, and that only Russell and Peter being bank managers could open the vault and safe deposit lockers. They were the only ones who had security access to the vault. The robber still had no knowledge of this, and aimed the gun towards Jennifer’s head, instructing for her to give him access to that section of the bank.
“I want you to open all of this up. Once you do all of that, I’m gonna take what I want, and we’re gone. You’ll never see us again. So just open all of that up now!”
Jennifer stood in shock, as she is not able to comply to what the robber wants. She cannot open anything in this part of the bank. She began to panic and was scared as to what she could do. She thought the only right thing to do,
is to honestly tell the robber that she cannot allow him to go in to that room of the bank. Jennifer very nervously responds to the robber.
“I can’t let you in there, I don’t have access to the vault and the safe deposit boxes. I’m sorry I don’t. I can’t get you inside of there.”
The robber who was the passenger in the van, began to feel very remorseful of himself, and didn’t expect for the robbery to drag on this long, and for it to go onto this harsh of a level and degree. He wasn’t as rough as the other robber was, and he felt a lot of hurt from taking a part in all of this. The previous two robberies they committed earlier in the day, weren’t this savage or this drawn out. He began to wonder what a mistake they possibly made, by deciding to choose this bank to rob. All the sorrow building up inside of him was starting to become too much, and he just had a feeling of something not being quite right.
The other robber snapped once again, and began to produce great anger from the current situation. He was planning on already being done with the heist at this point, and knowing the possibly that someone in the shopping center perhaps called the police already by this point. They have been in the bank at the present moment for about three minutes. Which was longer than what they originally anticipated and structured for. The robber is at his wits end, and wants to get out of the bank as fast as he can. He starts to act more on impulse and on anger. Still pointing the gun at Jennifer, he gives her more threatening demands.
“Well I’m not leaving until I get inside that vault. So somebody in this bank has to have the key to let me in. There has to be someone in here that can do it. Come on!”
The remaining inhabitants in the bank stay silent, and do not respond to the remarks of the robber at all. Basically ignoring his remarks and claim most definitely out of fear and shock, to not cause any escalation to an already damaging and frightening stance. The robber likewise is not at all content with this behavior or response that he was given, and in desperate need to get what he wants. He fires several rounds onto the floor, giving an ultimatum.
“If I don’t get inside this vault in ten seconds, everyone in this bank is going to die. Every single one of you. Let me in this fucking vault, right now!”
Directly after hearing of all that, Russell without much thought about it all, began to get the vault keys from his pocket, and positions himself up off the floor. Before he could raise his whole body up, Peter immediately starts to spring up from the floor before Russell was able to. While Peter is kneeling on the floor with his hands raised, he notices the robber holding Jennifer hostage.
“I’m the bank manager, and I have the vault keys right here. Don’t harm the woman. It’s okay, just let her go, and I’ll let you inside of the vault, just let her go please.”
The robber refused to take his hands off Jennifer, in fear that she would press a silent alarm, or do something else that would foil the robbers wishes. Peter while standing up whispered something to Russell.
“Russ, stay down and be quiet.”
Everyone else in the bank, aside from Peter and Jennifer, remained on the floor with their heads down. With the fact that Peter was currently taking care of the situation, Russell felt temporarily more safe with himself, and wasn’t as tense as he was earlier in the robbery. The other robber who was in the lobby watching over the rest of the patrons in the bank, still in a more scared and compliant mood over the more overbearing and threatening robber. The other robber who still had the gun pointed to Jennifer’s head, and still restraining her, was refusing to let her go.
“That’s not gonna happen. She’s not leaving my sight, I don’t trust her at all, so no I’m not letting her go. I’ll let her go once I get what I want from the vault, and that will be it.”
Peter at this point had no other choice but to reluctantly decide to open the vault. He did have a plan which he wasn’t completely sure would work and would be the safest, but one which he thought would definitely calm the situation down. Peter’s plan would work as follows; as soon as the robber entered the vault and demanded money to be into the sack, Peter would engage the emergency lock of the vault, in which the door would very quickly close behind the robber. Peter would run outside of the vault and press this button in a hidden location on the outside of the vault door that would within a split second lock the robber inside of the vault. It would also cause the building to trigger an emergency silent alarm in which the authorities will quickly arrive at the bank. Peter knew that this was possibly the only plan that could possibly work, due to the unpredictable behavior that the robber was exhibiting towards everyone, he needed to rectify and deal with this problem. Peter grabbed the vault keys from his pocket, and walked towards the vault, with the robber still pointing the gun at Jennifer.
“Yes, I’m going to open the vault right now, calm down. It’s fine. I’m opening it.”
Peter then unlocked and opened the vault door. With the vault door now open, the robber walks inside the vault with Jennifer still as his hostage. He set down his full sack of cash inside the vault, and went inside his pocket to grab the other empty burlap sack. While continuing to hold the gun towards Jennifer’s head, he ordered for Peter to open the vault boxes which contained the most amount of money, and to quickly put the contents into the sack. Peter began to unlock the safe deposit lockers however; he was struggling to get them open. The robber being impatient demands Peter to get the lockers open.
“Put in the money in the bag, right now. Then I’m gone, and nobody gets hurt. I need you to put the money in the bag from the boxes right now!”
Peter was struggling to open the lockers, and the robber was mistaking this as Peter disobeying him. The robber in an out of control psychopathic rage, does the unfortunate. While Peter’s back is turned opening the locks, the robber aims his gun towards Jennifer’s chest.
“Maybe I need to send a clearer message to you, because you aren’t understanding me.”
The robber then shoots Jennifer, several times. She falls onto the floor, due to the impact of the shot. Her body lays motionless and unconscious. Due to the fact the rest of the patrons are held hostage on the floor, and unable to see what sadly just occurred, and also due to the fact the robber’s gun had a silencer, they unfortunately do not understand the severity as to what just happened. Peter turned his head behind and stood in frozen shock seeing Jennifer.
Upon seeing Jennifer shot, the robber who was sitting in the passenger seat, decides to run outside of the bank and rapidly leave the scene throwing his gun away in a trash can located in the lobby of the bank. The other robber who was inside the vault, didn’t see his partner run out of the building. The robber then threatens Peter.
“I’m not playing. Open the fucking boxes, Do it now. Just open it and I’m gone!”
Peter now in immense panic and shock, is finally able to get the boxes open. He quickly empties the contents of the vault inside the burlap sack. After emptying the money into the sack, the robber ordered for Peter to carry his other money sack outside of the vault to the lobby of the bank, while still holding the gun at his head. Instantaneously, Peter decides that now is the right time act out on his plan that he originally had in mind, to lock the robber inside the vault until the police arrived in the bank. Peter knew this would be his only chance he would have to trap the robber inside the vault.
Peter dropped the sack and started to go outside of the vault, right after pressing the emergency lock button. Unfortunately, the robber saw him press the button and was able to get outside right in the nick of time, yet the robber left behind his gun and money sack while trying to leave the room. The robber is extremely agitated. Out of sheer anger and frustration that the robber locked his money and his gun inside of the vault, the robber acting despicable rapidly reaches inside his sock and pulls out a long handgun. He shoots Peter in the back of the head as he’s running out of the vault entrance. Everyone else in the bank did not hear this gunshot, as the handgun the robber used also had a silencer and the shot went unheard.
They have no idea that Peter was just shot, so they remain outside in the lobby on the floor. As his unconscious body lays on the floor, the robber then reaches into Peter’s pocket to get the vault key to retrieve his gun and his money bags. He successfully opens the vault door, grabs the items and starts to run outside of the vault. However not even within a couple seconds later, the police finally arrive. Several police officers storm into the bank guns drawn on the robber.
“Down on the floor now! LAPD! Get down on the floor now!”
The robber realizes he’s in tough spot, and doesn’t know what to do. In a last ditch effort, he decides to sprint out of the bank entrance, darting through the police.
“Fuck, you’ll have to kill me before I leave this fucking bank. Fuck you all!”
The robber is fatally shot in the chest, by the police instantaneously. He drops to the ground, with his money bags he had in his hand also dropping to the floor. The police then confirm the robber is dead, and search the bank for suspects, before clearing the bank.
It was finally over. This hell hole was now finished. The police instruct for all hostages and the rest of the patrons in the bank that it is now safe for them to get up. Russell who was laying down the entire time finally gets up. He can’t believe this madness is now over. That entire time full of unpleasantness has come to an end. He notices Jesse and Yvette, but he doesn’t see Jennifer or Peter. Russell then proceeds to walk away from Peter’s desk area towards the vault area. A police officer restrains Russell from entering the area, and asks Russell who he is. Russell then responds to the officer.
Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained Page 5