The Bank Robbery

It was a hot day at the small seaside town in Cornwall, the suns rays were shining down blasting heat out like an electric fire, the sky was a clear bright blue with only the faintest of clouds showing like puffs of steam from the kettle spout. Most of the towns inhabitants were outside soaking up the glorious sunshine, taking in the clean salty fresh air and enjoying the fantastic weather while it lasted, most that is except for John, Ted and Mac who were hidden away inside their cool, comfortable semi detached house in the ‘better area’ of town with the curtains drawn tight to stop the spying eyes of their nosey neighbours looking in.

The room was in darkness except for the lamp which was being used to illuminate the desk at which the three were huddled tight in there conspiracy, tight together sharing secrets that the rest of the small community must not know about and must not find out about, keep the curtains tightly drawn, the doors locked and only speak about ‘it’ in the safety of the house, these were the rules that were in force.

Ted was a tall slender man, his hair was as black as a ravens wing which made his naturally pale face appear even paler, he was the clever one of the group had always been better than the others at understanding things and formulating actions. John was a little shorter of about the same weight, but he had a shock of wild ginger hair quite out of control which just seemed to do its own thing no matter how often it was combed or gelled, he also had a mass of freckles on his face so many that it was difficult to tell were the freckles ended and the skin began.

As is often the case John unfortunately had the proverbial bad temper, which so often accompanies red hair, he was extremely fiery both in complexion and in nature. Mac was the shortest of the three and also the fattest, he had a huge round belly that made it impossible for him to see his own feet, at a glance one could think he was pregnant so large was his belly.

Mac was also a little slow on the up take, not quite intelligent as his parents would have hoped for, always a few seconds behind everyone else, it had always been like this even in school and Mac did dent seem to mind as what he lacked in brain power he made up for with muscle power. The three were huddled around the desk looking down at a diagram that Ted had drawn, the diagram was of a building, a building in town, in fact the town bank which the three were intending to rob or in Mac’s words ‘turn over’.

All three of the men were heavily in debt for various reasons, Ted enjoyed an hour or two each day at the ‘bookies’ having a flutter on this race or that, John had a liking for the cards and was know to partake in all night poker games and Mac, well Mac just seemed to have got in a mess ‘having been taken for a ride’ on more than one occasion. With each month that passed the situation was worsening and none of them could see a way out of the mess other than by following the plan that they had devised, it was either that or loose what little they had left as their homes would be reposed to pay off the outstanding debts and loans.

The robbery had been planned down to the very last detail, it had taken weeks of surveillance and planning, but Ted was good at planning and the other two had nothing better to do with their time than watch the comings and goings at the bank and so the plan was formulated. It was a simple plan, nothing could go wrong, everything was ready and in place all to do now was just to wait for the day, it had to be Friday, late afternoon was best after the towns shop keepers had banked the weeks takings and everybody was starting to relax ready for the weekend.

The get away car had been chosen, it was an inconspicuous Ford that belonged to a worker in an adjoining office, and it was always parked in the same spot on the car park out of general site and therefore easy to ‘lift’. Ted and John would go into the bank armed with the shotguns that they had bought from an old farmer some miles away, Mac would wait outside in the car ready to drive them away, they would then dump the car, bury the money using only small amounts gradually to pay off their debts. Friday was the day it was all going to happen!

Friday soon came, the three spent the morning going over the plans one more time checking each detail and making sure that each one knew what their job was. They arrived at the car park on time nerves were beginning to take hold and when Mac stated that the get away car was not in its place John lost control and flew into a fit of rage telling Mac in no uncertain terms that this was not the time or place to be fooling around and to get a grip. It was Ted who took over confirming that the car was not in its place and telling John to get a grip, horror of horrors the plan was already starting to go wrong what to do now? We’ll take that one over there instead,” said Ted taking control and pointing to a red Volvo, “its too late to back out now”.

They took the car and drove around to the High Street, Mac parked up on the opposite side of the road to the bank and the other two got out. The High Street was very quiet, the glorious weather that had started the week had continued so the last thing on most peoples mind was shopping, most of the town folk were either lazing in the park or their gardens, the more energetic where down on the beach splashing around in the clear blue sea, or making sand pies with the children in the golden sand.

This suited the three men, less people on the High street to see anything, less nosey neighbours sticking their noses and prying eyes into other peoples business. Ted and John pulled on their ski masks, put on their yellow marigold rubber gloves, and lifted the violin case containing the guns off the back seat and got out of the car, Mac stayed put in the drivers seat with the engine idling slowly waiting to make a hasty but unobvious retreat, Ted and John marched across the road and burst into the bank shouting “put your hands in the air, no funny business, this is a raid, give us the money and nobody will get hurt”.

There were only two people in the bank the young trainee cashier who was learning the trade under the supervision of Miss Moneypenny ready for the day when Miss Moneypenny would eventually retire, and Miss Moneypenny herself, they were no match for the highly dangerous, well organised armed robbers who burst in with such force and threatened to put a bullet in them if they so much as blinked, was how Miss Moneypenny later related the incident.

You over there, sit in the corner with your hands on your head and don’t make a move or the old one will get it”, shouted Ted to the young trainee, meanwhile John had moved behind the banks counter brandishing his violin case and shouting “Miss Moneypenny grab all the loot you have and put it in these bags, don’t make a wrong move or you’ll bite lead” and with this John produced two Tesco carrier bags from his pocket.

Miss Moneypenny quickly filled the two bags to overflowing, she couldn’t hand them to John quick enough and even emptied her handbag and stuffed this with money and offered it to him as well, ‘I had no choice”, Miss Moneypenny later recalled “they were brandishing a gun to my head and threatening to hurt Jane in the most awful ways, if I had been alone I would have stood and fought, but I had to protect young Jane she has her all life ahead of her, they wouldn’t have got a penny from me, over my dead body, they even stole my handbag empting my things out and stuffing it with money”.

Meanwhile Mac was sitting outside across the street listening to the car radio and fiddling with all the various buttons on the console to determine what they all did, his stomach was rumbling unmercifully, he hadn’t eaten since breakfast that morning, and Mac was known for wanting plenty of food as often as possible. They haven’t been long he thought, they be a bit longer yet, no chance of them coming out in the next few minutes, just time to nip to Ronald Mc Donald and get myself an extra large burger with all the trimmings, and off he went making sure to take the car keys with him so that no one could steal it.

John and Ted came backing out of the bank they didn’t want to run for fear of drawing attention to themselves, but they knew that they only had a matter of minutes before Miss Moneypenny would be on the blower to the local cops.  The cops arrived in seconds sirens wailing, blue lights flashing and the High Street was under siege, Ted and John had no chose but to go quietly, as after all they looked rather obvious sat outside the bank with ski masks and rubber gloves in place, violin cases slug on the back seat and Tesco carrier bags overflowing with money in their possession, it really wasn’t very difficult for the police to find the robbers. Meanwhile Mac sat happily munching away on his burger dreaming of all the burgers that his newfound fortune would buy him!