Topic: Satire
Great Moments in Law Enforcement: Sumter, South Carolina The police chief said, "We responded as we should have responded" The Sumter Item headlined "Oops!". the Columbia and Charleston t.v. stations called it a "false alarm." Other terms spring to mind.by rtbohan
(Libertarian)
Friday, February 15, 2008
On Wednesday, Febuary 13. a courier entered the Wachovia National Bank in Sumter S.C., placed a valise full of money to be deposited on the counter, and apparently asked the teller for a deposit slip.
Another teller, apparently very observant but overly edgy, saw this and thought: "Valise on counter, Man writing note, We're being robbed!" She immediately pressed the silent alarm, alerting the police.
A number of police cars began pulling into the parking lot, the police surrounded the bank, but not one went inside. Thanks to many onlookers with cell phones, the news quickly spread through the city that the bank was being robbed and the robbers were holding hostages inside the bank.
Instead of going inside to stop a robbery, without even looking inside,the police stood by the door and began nabbing bank patrons as the left.
The first person to exit the bank after the police arrived--there is no record of how many left while the police were en route--was a woman wearing blue scrubs who had just made a deposit. The police pounced on her, handcuffed her,and hustlled her to a partol car and locked her in the back seat where press photographrs got pictures of her. Officers later told reporters that the call had gone out from headquarters that the bank was being robbed by a woman wearing blue scrubs. Sumter apparently has a far more sophisticated silent alarm system that most cities.
The woman was released when the police looked at the recipt for her deposit and decided they had the wrong woman in blue scrubs. They then pounced upon the next person to exit the bank--not a woman and not wearing blue scrubs. He was simply a man who had gone in to cash a check so that he and his wife could go to lunch. He remained handcuffed and locked in the police car while the police qustioned witnesses, including his wife whom they found in the couple's car in the parking lot.
Eventually they got to the courier and locked him in the police car. After an hour, they took him to police headquarters where he was held until the businessman who had hired him to make the deposit showed up and verified the legitimacy of the man's errand.
The bank issued a statement saying that its employee was reacting with "an abundance of caution." "Overabundance" might be more apt, but let that go.
The Sumter Police Chief stated that "We responded as we should have responded. Once we were able to get him in custody and put the pieces of the puzzle together, this is what we got."
The Sumter Item and the state wide media got a great deal of fun out ot what they called "a false alarm." Other terms spring to mind: "False Arrest", Future Lawsuit", and "Fubab!" prominent among them.
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2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved.
Published: Friday, February 15, 2008
Last modified: Friday, February 15, 2008
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2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved.