Posted on 08/02/2009 2:04:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Seattle bank teller who chased and tackled a would-be robber says he has been fired for his efforts. Former Key Bank teller Jim Nicholson told KOMO-TV, Seattle, he knew it was against bank policy to not comply with robbers, but he didn't let that stop him from vaulting over the counter and giving chase to a man who had demanded money last week.
The broadcaster said Nicholson, 30, caught up with the alleged robber a few blocks away and tackled him.
"If I allowed him to get away, then he would just continue doing it," he said. "He could come back to our branch. He could go to another bank.
"I had hoped that they would give me a reprimand, or maybe a write-up -- something like that. But it ended up in termination."
He added he had no hard feelings for his former employer.
Key Bank officials didn't return the broadcaster's calls for comment.
If the Police catch anybody...FIRE THEM. Sheesh. If I had an account there I would cancel it.
I realize that policy is policy, and those rules are in place to not jeopardize lives. But that being said...I like his spunk! Too bad he wasn’t allowed to carry a firearm... might could have ended it without a chase!
Who in their right mind wouldn’t want this HERO as an employee?
A democrat
Exactly.
Key Bank bought out my bank in Bremerton, WA when they first came to WA state back in the 1990s. It took me less than 2 weeks to see that I wanted nothing to do with them and changed banks. Good move. I met the love of my dreams who would become my wife at that new bank!!!
Did you teller?
“Who in their right mind wouldn’t want this HERO as an employee?”
Well, sadly, the dimwits in charge at this place >>>
Randalls employee fired for chasing suspected purse-snatcher receives several job offers
Claire Osborn | Thursday, July 30, 2009
Austin American-Statesman
Troy Schafer, who was fired from his job at a Round Rock (TX) Randalls after chasing a suspected purse snatcher out of the supermarket, is getting several new job offers, he said.
He has received 250 e-mails since he appeared on CNN news Wednesday and FOX news today, including one that has resulted in an interview Saturday. “It’s been a tremendous outpouring,” he said.
The interview is for a job in Texas as a general manager for a retail company, he said. He also has gotten several offers to run home-based businesses plus an offer from someone in the military for a position in aviation, he said. “I’m a simple person,” he said. “I didn’t expect all this.”
Schafer, 36, was fired from his job at a Randalls at 2051 Gattis School Road after he chased a man who had allegedly just snatched a woman’s purse inside the store on July 21. He ran across a field and through an apartment complex before the suspect dropped the purse.
Schafer picked up the purse and chased the suspect, a 15-year-old boy, for another quarter mile before police arrested the teenager. “I haven’t run like that since I got out of the Army in 1995,” he said today.
A Randalls spokeswoman has previously said that Schafer violated a store policy because employees are trained not to pursue suspects in situations like the purse snatching.
Schafer said he had been working for Randalls as a floating manager since January. For the last two months he had worked for the store at the Round Rock location as a produce manager, he said.
He has received e-mails since the incident from all over the world, including Canada and Iraq, he said. “A lot of people send e-mails saying ‘You’re a hero,’ but I don’t think I am,” he said.
“It just touches my heart that people are coming to my aid when I need somebody now.” Many people from the military, including a retired army colonel and the chief medical officer in Fort Polk, La., have also e-mailed him, he said.
“I’m really proud of what I did,” said Schafer who is married and has a son. “It was the right thing whether it cost me my job or not.”
Nope. She wuz a bank VP. I went for the big money!
I almost got fired for a similar thing. I was an investigator the local familay court. While waiting for my case to go in I heard glass breaking. I ran out to the lobby and saw a Deputy Sheriff struggling on the floor after the kid had take him thru the glass in the lobby: the kid was was going for his gun. I jumped in and got called on the carpet.
Somehow I think this guy will find a new job-and likely a better one. There have to be some people out there who will hire a guy like him.
I'm not arguing with you because I understood your point. But the biggest failure of these type of policies occurred on 9/11/01. The airlines had always been operating under a 'just comply with the terrorists/hijackers' policy.
If we had the opposite policy in effect, sure some people would get hurt and/or killed as a result of their bravery but criminals would at least know- 'if I go out there and do something stupid, people are liable to jump on me and f--- me up'.
Maybe in the short-term, but over the long-haul, these policies endanger more lives, because it keeps these people free to commit the same crimes again.
Exactly.. Heroes spring into action and do the RIGHT thing.. No time to think about anything else! He’ll do sooooo much better elsewhere.. God Bless him.. I wish him much success!
In principle I agree with you. I really do. However I used to work for a large bank with a huge retail presence here in the Midwest (LaSalle Bank, taken over by Bank of America) and it was also our bank's policy that the Teller's would comply with demands for cash from bank robbers as a means to keep the Teller's themselves safe.
The logic behind it was that any bank teller that was injured (or worse, killed) by refusing to comply with a robbers demands means the bank is liable for the death of that employee.
How so you may ask? Because when the lawsuits start being filed, who gets sued? The would-be bank robber, or the bank itself?
The bank of course, that's who has the bigger pockets.
I agree with you the guy's a hero and that he stopped future crimes from happening. I'm just telling you what the bank's views on these types of actions are and why they don't want employees arguing/fighting with/pursuing robbers themselves. (Don't shoot the messenger on this one.)
it’s like in “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen”. We’re in the New Age of Reason here. The New Enlightenment.
Let’s execute war heroes for overachieving and fire bank employees for setting the bar too high.
While I was working I treated the companies money and merchandise as I do my own, and protected it that way. I got warned after I chased a shoplifter down, but I’m still just not going to stand there and watch some lowlife POS walk out the door loaded down with loot. It is just wrong, and cowardly!
Hmmm. No-interest community property loan.
I'll bet they didn't.
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