The Morning Doo
- Thread starter Steve97tj
- Start date
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...b4e0b-d461-5e17-8a72-cd4baebc1539.html?ref=nf
TROY, Mo. • David W. Thompson, the president of a Troy bank, was in his office Tuesday afternoon talking with a salesman about advertising when his receptionist buzzed him with an emergency.
"David, we've got a problem," she told him.
Thompson said he looked out his office window into the bank lobby of Peoples Bank & Trust. He saw that his tellers looked fearful. And he saw a man wearing a heavy jacket and a zombie-style Halloween mask calmly walk away from the tellers, carrying one of the bank's money bags.
Thompson, 58, followed the man outside, onto the parking lot, and locked the bank door behind him.
Thompson let the robber get to his truck — then Thompson pulled his personal handgun, a Colt .380, and pointed it at the robber's face before he could drive away, he told the Post-Dispatch.
"Sir, get out of the truck," Thompson remembers demanding. "You're not going anywhere."
And when the man put his hand in his jacket pocket, as if he had a weapon, Thompson scolded him again.
"You don't want to go there," Thompson implored. "This will end badly."
By that time, another bank official who also carries a concealed weapon had joined Thompson on the lot.
"Now you have two guns on you," Thompson said. "Don't try anything."
The robber, it turns out, had no weapon of his own. He only pretended to have one — but Thompson said he wasn't scared.
"It worked out wonderfully," Thompson said Wednesday morning. "I had the element of surprise."
The bank robber never took off his mask or said anything during the confrontation on the parking lot, Thompson said. He said he thought the man was on drugs because he walked slowly and had slow movements to his right and left.
Thompson said he pulled the man from the truck and stood between the robber and the truck. Thompson could hear the sirens in the distance.
Police arrived within 60 seconds of the time the bandit walked out of the bank. Police forced him to the ground and pulled the mask off his face. The man's eyes looked a bit dazed, Thompson said. Thompson didn't recognize the man but one of his tellers later said she did.
Police opened the man's wallet, and Thompson saw a debit card for Peoples Bank, at 430 East Wood Street.
"That's when I realized he was one of our customers," Thompson said.
The man, Donald R. Lee, 58, of the first block of Ruby Drive in unincorporated Lincoln County, was charged with first-degree robbery. His bail was set at $50,000 cash-only.
Afterward, Thompson did some research on the suspect. Lee had opened an account with the bank in April, Thompson said.
The man had walked into the bank a few minutes before the lobby was to close for the day. There were about 60 employees in the three-story building and about three customers in the bank, Thompson said.
The man had ignored, and brushed right by, two bank employees who told him to take off the Halloween mask. The teller also told him to remove the mask, but he said, "No, you gotta give me all your money."
The tellers then saw the masked man put his hand in his coat pocket, indicating he had a gun.
Thompson credits his tellers for their handling of the situation.
"They did exactly what they were supposed to do," he said. "They stayed calm and nobody caused a stink."
Thompson said his own training kicked in, too, and he knew to let the robber get outside — so his workers were safe —and to lock the door behind him. He wasn't scared. Mad is more like it, he said.
"I didn't have time to get scared," Thompson said. "I was excited. Your adrenaline pumps. He robbed a bank, he menaced my employees — and I don't allow that," said Thompson, a life member of the National Rifle Association who proudly supports conceal-carry laws.
When he got home Tuesday night, his wife ordered him a "victory pizza. " He was so giddy from nabbing the bandit that he didn't get to sleep until about 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Thompson, who was born and raised in Lincoln County, has been with the bank 36 years. It is a family-operated business. He started as a bookkeeper in 1978 and was promoted to president about nine years ago. He was mowing the grass at the bank when he was 8 years old and his father ran the bank. His father is now 82 years old and is chairman of the board.
This is the first bank robbery in Thompson's tenure. There was a robbery in the 1930s, he said. As the story goes, the two brothers who robbed the bank were caught by police and served their time. When they were released from prison, "they came back to their hometown and became fairly responsible citizens and customers of the bank."
Thompson said, "If this guy (from Tuesday's robbery) wants to serve his time and come back, I can't say I wouldn't let him be a customer."
Its a shame criminals don't learn to shoot from this guy...
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The ole' super glued to the floor flip flop trick... This could be useful at Harlan...
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=db3_1235907519
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ouch... that looks like it hurt... Branch pierced through his cheek...
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=024_1352370241
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Turbo diesels are cool no matter what they are.. One good way to maximize farming ability!
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