Bank Night

I received a call from a bank teller of a man trying to pass fake money. By the time I arrived, the man was already gone. The teller handed me (2) incredibly obvious fake $50 bills. The paper was bad, the color was wrong, and the printing was ridiculous. The fraudster thought he could fool the teller by handing her the 2 bad fifties along with $70 in genuine money. He then asked if he could get change for the $170 in five dollar bills. I guess he figured she would look at the good bills on top and ignore the counterfeit bills on the bottom of the stack. She took the whole stack to the back and called police. He became nervous and quickly left. Realizing he just gave away $70 in genuine money, he came back into the bank to get it back. The teller tried to stall him but he left again. I was disappointed we didn't catch him but was glad to see he lost $70 of his own money in the scam.

Later that night, a call came out from a different bank. An alarm was triggered in the drive-through ATM machine. I pulled up to see an armored truck parked next to the ATM. A uniformed armored guard was kneeling in front of the ATM removing the cash. I announced "Police", and approached him. Seeing a man in a dark uniform approaching at night, the guard reached for his holstered gun. "Police!" I announced again and prepared to take cover behind the armored truck if he drew his weapon. I don't blame him for being nervous. A few months ago, an armored truck was attacked by a team of armed robbers in tactical military gear. They pepper-sprayed a guard while he was transferring cash from an ATM and got away with quite a bundle.

I told him I was responding to the ATM alarm he triggered when he opened the machine. "Damn it!!", he said, "My dispatcher told me the alarm was disabled." I walked up to get his name and operator number to document my reponse. He was nervously transferring cash into a large box but didn't seem to be very aware of his surroundings. I could have walked right up to him if I hadn't announced myself from a distance. He was alone at the ATM with only the driver of the truck sitting in the cab watching. With the large amount of cash in the box I was surprised there wasn't any other guards outside with him. The only cover he had was the driver who is trained not to get out of the truck for any reason. As I walked back to my patrol car, I watched a grungy dressed man walk past the guard to another ATM machine behind him. The guard paid no attention as this guy used the machine and then walked by him again.

FREE PASS:
I was behind a driver who made a turn without signalling. I ran the license plate and found out the registered owner of the car was named Darren Duran. Anyone familiar with 80's pop bands will understand me when I say he's probably been punished enough for his name. He drove away without ever knowing the break he received.