THE BANK ROBBERY

Life goes on with everyday events, special events getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas and then there was the bank robbery.    

Transcript

THE BANK ROBBERY                   

By James R. von Feldt

All Rights Reserved

Well, Hello.  Glad you stopped by.  

Lots going on in town this week.   

The Christmas Float Committee has been bombarded with applications so much that it appears there won’t be room for all of them on stage at the Pavilion.  Earlene Dobbs suggested we have a Christmas Float Parade first, whereby we select the winning Float, then place it on stage with lights and all.  There’s going to be a special meeting Friday night at the town hall. 

Last week, we got the Thanksgiving Flags hung on the telephone poles all along Main Street, only to find that they were hung upside down.  It took another day just to fix that.  I liked them the way they were.

Frosty is down with the flu, so Juan is making the evening rounds around town now.  He says he likes wearing the Town Marshal hat.  

Pastor Zook is looking for help.  I heard him tell Sally at the Gas & Grill this morning that the AWANA program has grown – kids from Milton, Troy, and Bloomfield attending this year.  They need extra help on Wednesday evenings if you’re free.  The kids eat a few hot dogs, learn verses from the bible and play games.  Everybody has a good time.  You can help Larry Knight with games.  

And, of course, you’ve probably heard about the fire at Dan’s barn.  It was wet hay that started it, they say.  The official 911 call came in at about noon yesterday.  We were already there.  A huge crowd showed up to help, but there wasn’t much we could do but watch.  Well, the crowd did hook up the water pump pipes at the pond.  That took a lot of hands.  

Our volunteer fire and water trucks showed up before Milton and Bloomfield’s trucks.  It took a bit longer before the volunteer fireman showed up.  By that time, Dan had a good deal of the smoldering hay out of the barn.  He was using his big tractor with the hay fork.  Cousin Cliff said he heard about the fire on his police scanner.  A lot of people have those now since the bank robbery in Bloomfield.

It seems that three guys from Missouri were passing through town and, having run out of money, thought they’d just stop by the bank and pick up a little cash.  Ella May over at the bank told me that they just walked in like they owned the place.  They went up to Marvin, who was in the teller window, and told him to give them all the cash he had.  

You know Marvin.  He’s a bit hard of hearing.  He kept asking them, “What? What? What?”  Pretty soon, they were yelling at him.  She said one of the guys had his hand in his jacket like he had a gun and raised it up real high to show Marvin he was serious.  That’s when Marvin threw some cash at them and then feinted, leaving the guys looking at each other.  He must have hit the panic button on his way down because that’s when the bank alarm started ringing, the lights blinking, and doors automatically shut and locked. 

Bobby Joe Wilcox was cleaning up in the basement, heard all the noise, and came running up the stairs carrying a mop.  The robbers saw him and grabbed him.  He broke free, and a mighty tussle ensued.  

“There he was,” Ella May said, “swinging away at both of them.”  He got loose and fought them off with the mop forcing them up the stairs toward the loan department.

Meanwhile, according to Jake Weaver, who was outside looking in to see what was going on, deputy Mooney was talking to the third guy who was in a car with Missouri tags.  That’s the one they think filled up at the gas station and drove off without paying.  Well, anyway, He had parked in a parking spot reserved for horse and buggy.  

When the alarm went off, everyone was looking at the bank.  The third guy just drove away.  They haven’t found him yet.

Well, when Bobby Joe started getting the best of the robbers, they turned and ran up the stairs to the loan department, barricading the door.  Mike Johnson our loan vice president, said he hid under his desk when he heard the alarm go off and stayed there until it was all over.  Said he never saw the robbers, and they didn’t see him.

Everybody in the area heard the upstairs window crash as it broke.  Deputy Clair said they tore the drapes into ribbons and made a rope.  That got them down to the ground.

The entire city police force showed up at the front door of the bank, even Kelley, who answers the 911 calls.  But nobody could get in.  Larry Dodge, the security guy is on vacation somewhere in Wisconsin.  He knows where to look for the instructions to unlock the doors after they shut down because of the alarm.  Eventually, Harold Bitzer and his helper took one of the doors off so the police could get in. 

Peter, the new guy in town, was in the waiting room reading the Wall Street Journal when it all happened.  He came over to Ella May and asked why the lights were blinking.  I think his hearing is going.

For a while, the bank was full of policemen looking everywhere and under everything as if they might catch a robber that was left behind.  It looked like an old-time Charlie Chaplin movie for a while.

When the police finally determined the robbers had escaped through the window, Chief Armstrong gave new orders and they all ran out the door.  They started searching the neighborhood door by door.

Seems like Melvin Miller gave two guys a lift in his buggy.  Left them off at the ball diamond over by the highway.  

Sheriff Davis says they’re still looking for them.

Well, that’s it for now.

From where the corn grows tall, and pigs fly.

Take care.  All my love,   

Grampa Jim