Dave Barry's Blog: IT'S GETTING SO YOU CAN'T TRUST ANYBODY

October 23, 2012

Syracuse, NY – A bank robber was quickly captured this morning when he returned to Alliance Bank after discovering the teller had not given him the full $20,000 he had demanded, Syracuse police said.

(Thanks to Sue Ferrara)

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

I had a person try to play the "change the bill" game with me when I was a convenience store clerk. I palmed a bill at a key point in the transaction.

I handed the palmed bill to the police detective standing behind the attempted perp. It was a great moment in retailing.

One bank used to keep a complete set of cashier trays so that employees wouldn't help themselves after another employee was robbed.

Posted by: Not My Usual Alias | October 23, 2012 at 08:28 AM

Brilliant!

You have to love these criminal masterminds.

Posted by: Jeff Meyerson | October 23, 2012 at 08:29 AM

I suppose the die packet clashed with his tie, too.

Posted by: Omniskeptic | October 23, 2012 at 09:08 AM

Future head of the Fed.

Posted by: EyeGore | October 23, 2012 at 09:25 AM

Is our bank robbers learning?

Posted by: Head_Smashed_In | October 23, 2012 at 09:42 AM

Sounds like my reaction the first time I realized that my nominal pay was not the actual amount on that pay check.

Posted by: Steve | October 23, 2012 at 09:49 AM

Serves the robber right for using the drive-through.

Posted by: padraig | October 23, 2012 at 09:52 AM

He should have had the teller open an account and put the money in there. Any mistake would have been caught immediately.

Posted by: LeDud | October 23, 2012 at 10:18 AM

It's getting so a guy can't make a dishonest living anymore. I agree with LeDud. I took a break from nursing for a year and worked as a bank teller. I thought it would be less stressful. It wasn't. My personal policy about bank robbers was to give them whatever they asked for.

Posted by: nursecindy | October 23, 2012 at 10:42 AM

Sometimes you just have to take a stand and demand what's yours, yaknowwhatimean?

Posted by: Dmentd | October 23, 2012 at 10:52 AM

A friend of mine worked for several years in banking. Started as a teller and worked up to branch manager. Now he's a high school football coach in Florida, which is a much lower stress job.

Posted by: wiredog | October 23, 2012 at 11:16 AM

Whoa ! How many times were you held up NC ?

Posted by: LeDud | October 23, 2012 at 11:54 AM

Dufus.

Posted by: Jan in Grimsby | October 23, 2012 at 12:00 PM

A math error.

Posted by: mazar larry | October 23, 2012 at 12:17 PM

Darwin award on the way.

Posted by: MikeyVA | October 23, 2012 at 12:39 PM

Hey, if you need $20k to pay off your loan shark or crack distributor, anything less doesn't work.

Posted by: Ralph | October 23, 2012 at 01:59 PM

hey, at least the guy could count!! A fine example of US educational system.