Opinion ID: 52553
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The First National Bank and Trust Robbery

Text: On April 14, 2004, shortly after 9:00 a.m., several armed men held up the First National Bank in Tequesta, Florida. Bank security cameras captured the robbery on film. The bank had just opened. Five employees were present, but there were no customers inside at this point. Eileen St. Denis, the Vice-President and Regional Manager of First National Bank, was meeting with another manager at the time. Hearing a commotion, she looked up to see five hooded men burst through the front doors of the bank, brandishing assault rifles. One of the men came over to her office and ordered her to get down on the floor, threatening to kill her if she did not comply. St. Denis reported that this man appeared to be the tallest one of the five and that his gun was a long black rifle which sported a brushed silver piece on one section. She also reported, as witnesses had in the case of the Bank of America 10 robberies, that the robbers were dressed entirely in black and wore gloves on their hands and masks over their faces. Marie Salter, one of the bank’s tellers, was standing at a copier behind the teller line when the men entered and ordered everyone to get down on the floor. She complied, but stood up when the robbers began to demand money. Salter stood up and handed the robbers the keys to her cash drawer from over the counter. She immediately crouched back down on the floor. One of the men then jumped over the counter and began to go through her cash drawer. When he complained that there was no money in the drawer, Salter stood up again and called out for Rayma Buckles, the acting head teller, who had the combination to the vault. Buckles did not respond immediately, but when Salter called out the second time, Buckles got up and approached the counter. One of the robbers came up behind her and prodded her towards the counter with his gun. Realizing that she had left her keys behind and could not get through the electronic doors that led into the teller area, Buckles asked the robber behind the counter to open the doors. He refused. When she attempted to go back to her desk for the keys, the robber who was standing behind her refused to let her turn around. Both men ordered her to jump over the counter. Buckles tried and made it to the edge of the other side, but before she could jump down, the robber behind the teller line grabbed her by the neck and pulled her down onto her knees. The 11 robber who had been standing beside her jumped over the counter as well and both men dragged Buckles across the floor to the vault. Buckles opened the vault and stood just outside. The men emerged from the vault after a few minutes and dragged Buckles back to the teller line. Then they jumped the counter once more and fled. Salter stood up a few seconds after they left and was able to see the men depart in a gold SUV, which she later identified as a gold Jeep. She called in the description to 911. After the men fled, St. Denis and another senior Vice -President audited the head teller’s cash drawer and the vault. The men had removed all the money in the cash drawer and the vault, including ten $100 bills that represented “bait money.” St. Denis determined that the bank’s loss totaled $94,670. She closed the bank at 9:11 a.m., just minutes after the robbers left, and it remained closed for the rest of the business day, which would normally have ended at 4:00 p.m.