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Does your bank have a guard?


Alpo

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I worked at a bank in the early 70s. I have banked at 4 different banks in my town and one in Chesapeake Virginia.

 

None of these banks had a guard.

 

They just faked the bank robbery so they could shoot the bank guard on the NCIS rerun I'm watching.

 

Just got me to wondering how many banks actually have a guard.

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Considering that according to the FBI stats the average bank robbery nets only about $3,500 it just doesn't pay for the bank to hire armed guards. If they went through a contractor rates would be somewhere around 18 to 20 per manhour. in-house security would cost even more by the time you added everything together. I have been in the security field for over 30 years and you get what you pay for.

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I wonder what amount of actual currency is stored at the typical bank nowadays. I still think that cash probably accounts for the majority of small transactions ($10 and less) but how many of us go to the bank on a regular basis to either withdrawal (outside of gun show season) or deposit cash. From what I have seen at my business (auto body shop), most of our customers are either writing checks or using their debit/credit cards. 

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I have not seen an actual “armed bank guard” in many years, nor have I seen anyone resembling a non-uniformed, plain-clothed, security “guard” or person at the two banks where I have my accounts at, or at other banks I’ve been in.  Not for many years.

Cat Brules

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21 minutes ago, Flatwater Monte said:

I wonder what amount of actual currency is stored at the typical bank nowadays

When I started work at the bank, in 1974, one of the vice-presidents took me in the vault and showed me their big "cash on hand". A pack of 50 $10,000.00 bills. It seems like he said that that was used when doing large cash transfers between banks.

 

I wonder how easy it would be to spend a half a million dollars in $10,000 bills?

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In today's legal environment, if I shoot someone with no weapon trying to steal my car, I go to jail.

 

Some bank guards and armored car drivers carry guns. Does a thief with no weapon who grabs a sack of money from the guard's grasp and tries to run away with it, get shot in the back?

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The job of a SECURITY GUARD is to OBSERVE and REPORT. NOTHING ELSE.

The weapon (if they are even carrying one) is for protection of life only.

 

Unlike the police, if a "civilian" (which is what a security guard is) draws a weapon it should only be upon belief that his/her life is in danger or someone else's life is in eminent danger. At that point you pull the weapon and discharge the weapon until the threat no longer exists. And you better have a good lawyer.

 

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Damn near fifty years ago years ago, back in my early banker days, branches would often have off-duty police officers moonlighting as tellers.  It was considered good duty... :rolleyes:

 

Many years later, when Palouse and I were working for a li'l outfit in San Francisco called Bank of America, I once had the opportunity to take a tour of the bank's main vault.  It was impressive... but was most assuredly NOTHING like Scrooge McDuck's Money Bin.  Money Eyes

 

And at this point I gotta say that when I see some fool in the movies who supposedly has a million bucks (or more) "in small bills" in a briefcase I don't even bother to laugh anymore.  I seem to recall that a million bucks in twenties would weigh something like 85 lbs or so...  that's the time for me to just change the channel or, if in a theater, make a head call and snack bar visit.

 

 

                                     scrooge-mcduck-money-bin | The Kingdom Insider

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1 hour ago, Palouse said:

In today's legal environment, if I shoot someone with no weapon trying to steal my car, I go to jail.

 

Some bank guards and armored car drivers carry guns. Does a thief with no weapon who grabs a sack of money from the guard's grasp and tries to run away with it, get shot in the back?


Yes. I don’t believe the guard would be prosecuted.

 

However, a lot of people won’t shoot someone in the back unless they feel they’re being physically threatened.  Hard to feel that if the distance between you keeps getting wider.

 

Cat Brules

 

 

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2 hours ago, Alpo said:

When I started work at the bank, in 1974, one of the vice-presidents took me in the vault and showed me their big "cash on hand". A pack of 50 $10,000.00 bills. It seems like he said that that was used when doing large cash transfers between banks.

 

I wonder how easy it would be to spend a half a million dollars in $10,000 bills?

 

One trip to the Bugatti dealer, with a down payment on a new Veyron, will do it.  Simple and easy.  It's the payments that will crush you.  And the sales tax.  And the insurance.  And the visit from the Feds regarding your large cash transaction.

 

LL

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4 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

I seem to recall that a million bucks in twenties would weigh something like 85 lbs or so

1,000,000 is 10,000 100s, so 50,000 twenties.

 

The internet appears to be on agreement that a US paper bill weighs approximately one gram.

 

50,000 grams converts to 1763.7 ounces, which is 110.23 pounds.

 

Working it another way, 50,000 grams is 50 kilos. A kilo is ~ 2.2 pounds. 50 times 2.2 equals 110 pounds. It checks.

 

Damn heavy briefcase.

 

Also if the internet is to be believed, this would take up 3445 cubic inches.

 

This case

41amPuwo1lL._AC_SY1000_.jpg

15 by 12 by 4 holds 548 cubic inches, so six cases to hold the volume of paper.

 

More, actually, as the size of the bills - 6⅛ x 2⅝ - will not fit perfectly in the 15 by 12 case.

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Our little bank is drive through only for the foreseeable future and  before that they didn’t have a guard and they don’t have the plexiglass dividers either. Down in Escondido a lot of the banks have guards because some of them got robbed quite often, it must work because they haven’t been robbed.

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8 hours ago, Flatwater Monte said:

I wonder what amount of actual currency is stored at the typical bank nowadays. I still think that cash probably accounts for the majority of small transactions ($10 and less) but how many of us go to the bank on a regular basis to either withdrawal (outside of gun show season) or deposit cash. From what I have seen at my business (auto body shop), most of our customers are either writing checks or using their debit/credit cards. 

My wife sells  a lot of produce from the ranch she works at to farmers market vendors and they pay in cash because the ranch has been burned to many times with bad checks. During peak seasons she’ll make multiple cash deposits in the thousands of dollars at our local bank each week. Because it’s drive through only for almost everybody she has to call ahead so they’ll let her into the bank lobby to make the deposits in the company accounts. 

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8 hours ago, Palouse said:

In today's legal environment, if I shoot someone with no weapon trying to steal my car, I go to jail.

 

Some bank guards and armored car drivers carry guns. Does a thief with no weapon who grabs a sack of money from the guard's grasp and tries to run away with it, get shot in the back?

In Georgia if someone tries to steal your car, with you in it, it's open season.

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Out here in the country, no bank guards. In the big city is a different story. I remember like 40 some years ago I was way up in Canada. The bank there the entire teller area was enclosed by bullet-resistant glass with no entrance from the patron area. Business was done through a turn table and the teller had no cash available. The teller had to go to the center of their area where second entire enclosed area was manned by employees along with guards where the cash was obtained. Then that cash would be carried by the teller back to the turn table and distributed to the customer. Was one heck of a security system.

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The Bank branch, where we deal at, the tellers do not have a cash drawer.  if you make a withdrawal the teller goes to the rear of the teller area where they use a personal pin card to open a cash drawer to withdraw money from, then brings it back to the wicket.  Most people today withdraw cash from the bank's ATM.

 

Just as an aside, I haven't handled any cash for over a month and a half due to Covid-19.  Stores want you to use credit or debit card only and preferably with a tap capability instead of using the buttons.

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The only time I have known of an armed guard is when I'm inside doing business.   Of course this is Arizona where maybe one person out of every five or six is likely carrying concealed anyway.  Armed robberies do still happen but it's a right dicey thing to attempt.

 

An armed citizen is every bit as capable of killing a bad guy as a paid, uninterested, and semi-trained "security" guard and a lot more likely to shoot.

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One bank branch here has no physical tellers. When you go in you talk to a video monitor. The person you are talking to could be in the building behind a locked door or across the country. They use the vacuum canisters like the drive throughs do to send money and documents.

My understanding is they did this setup because the branch is way out past the edge of town and was robbed frequently. 

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Our bank has a guard. He's a kind of elderly fella and carries a 38 revolver. Usually you can find him napping over in the corner or arguing with our deputy. Yep, Asa Breeny is a good guy. Sometimes he even helps with the night watch over at Weaver's department store.

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11 hours ago, Cat Brules said:


Yes. I don’t believe the guard would be prosecuted.

 

However, a lot of people won’t shoot someone in the back unless they feel they’re being physically threatened.  Hard to feel that if the distance between you keeps getting wider.

 

Cat Brules

 

 

Again, this may depend on where it takes place.

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A bank I used to go to had a guard but he wasn't armed. I asked the mgr. why he had an unarmed guard. He said the guard being armed was dangerous and he would get shot first! He said we just give them the money.

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1 hour ago, Tennessee williams said:

Our bank has a guard. He's a kind of elderly fella and carries a 38 revolver. Usually you can find him napping over in the corner or arguing with our deputy. Yep, Asa Breeny is a good guy. Sometimes he even helps with the night watch over at Weaver's department store.

Do they have DQ’s in Mayberry?:P

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Haven’t seen a bank guard since maybe the 80s and that was in Florida. Never seen one in Cortez.

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$1,000,000 (one million dollars) 

— $100 bills = 22 pounds

— $20 bills = 22x5 or 110 pounds

 

Cat Brules

 

 

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Funny thing, but when I was in China all the banks had bulletproof glass protecting the employees and you had to put your funds in a stainless tray. And this is a country where nobody has guns, not even most of the cops. Yet here in the good ol' gun-happy USA you walk in to most of the banks in my area, and you could literally strangle any of the employees if you wanted to. Except for my nearest bank, where the counter lady literally has more chest hair than I do and could probably crack any skull that threatens her/it. :blink:

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20 hours ago, Alpo said:

When I started work at the bank, in 1974, one of the vice-presidents took me in the vault and showed me their big "cash on hand". A pack of 50 $10,000.00 bills. It seems like he said that that was used when doing large cash transfers between banks.

 

I wonder how easy it would be to spend a half a million dollars in $10,000 bills?

 

First off, that is so freaking cool.  I've always wanted to see the big transfer bills.  Was that salmon P Chase's picture?  I think there's a $100k bill too that only the federal reserve branches use.  I'm not sure it's legal for us peons to possess those large bank transfer notes.  If it is legal, it's not legal to spend them.  They're worried that collectors will take that money out of the economy. 

 

To answer your original question.  My mom worked at a bank since as long as I can rememeber.  Back in the 80s I remember seeing guards at her bank.  But at some point they decided that guards were just a liability and they implemented other anti-theft measures.  Such as the dye bag and limiting cash on hand.  I have not seen a guard in a bank since then.  In fact the last bank guard I saw was at a grocery store branch.  The first grocery store branches carried a lot more cash than the stand alone branches, especially on payday.  But for some reason, I still see bank guards all the time on TV and I have never thought twice about it before now. 

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Drug stores are more likely to become victims of armed robbery than banks. As far as shooting someone,  I would advise anyone to check with their county or state attorney's office before you even strap that gun on the first time. The internet is not a good place for legal advice. 

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I've never seen one, other than on military bases on payday. There would be a Marine guard at each entrance wearing a 1911 and carrying a Thompson sub-machine gun.

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Until the long time controller for the company I worked for from 1978 through 2012 retired direct deposit was never offered even though it was the most popular employee suggestion.  A branch of the national bank was 3 blocks from work & right off the Nimitz freeway.  There also was another branch about 4 miles south right off the freeway.  There were 3 robberies of these branches in a short period of time.  So, shortly after these incidents there were counter to 10+ foot high 2 ' thick LEXAN panels.  No more bank robberies.  I haven't seen these panels since I moved to Northern NV.

 

Now when I made 3 trips to Colombia in 1980-1981 I saw armed bank guards, some sitting on platforms like in saloons in some westerns.  The hotel Tecandama in Bogota had a assault rifle carrying guard at each lobby entrance.  There were as many police & military personnel carrying assault rifles there as I saw every time I visited Siagon in 1970-1971.   I didn't want to send much time there; but, to get to & from the job site you had to pass through there.

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