A Bank Robbery

My international travelling days seemed to be over now. My job didn’t call for it, although I did start to ponder the possibility of a switch in position when I finished school, which might include travel. But a couple of opportunities did come up. 

There was a guy named Kenny from YWAM who knew my family and had come to Regent University. He and his family also lived with the Browns and he also got the missionary scholarship. He had finished school and was now working freelance for CBN. The International Department decided to have him make some films and I got to help.

They decided to shoot a film in London and Bombay and they asked me to do the sound. I was only too happy to oblige. Once again, I had some serious issues with jet lag in both countries but I pulled through. It was nice to go back to my favorite city and this time in India was rather different than the last. Since it was a business trip rather than a missionary one, we stayed in a nice hotel and had per diem.

I also got to go to Mexico for the first time. We inserted commercials into the International 700 Club in the transitions, which encouraged people to call or write or were just messages of encouragement. The commercials I was using were getting quite old so we decided to produce some new ones. We commissioned one of our producers to write and direct. He had a lot of Mexican connections so we decided to shoot them there so save on costs.

They wanted me to go on the trip as executive producer for part of the shoot and I had to take some cash for incidentals. I got a check for $5000, which I had to cash at a local bank. Two days before the trip, I took Courtney with me to the bank, which was in a shopping center that was in a bit of a “the other side of the tracks” area in those days. It was fairly busy and after waiting in line, I got to the counter and handed over the check. Courtney was standing next to me but asked me if I could hold her.

Right after picking her up I heard yelling. I looked to my left and a man with a mask had jumped up on the counter and was pointing a gun at the tellers, telling them to put all their money in a bag. All I could think of was that I wanted to get Courtney away from that gun. I started backing up. As I could only see one guy involved and he was looking the other way, I decided to just keep backing up. Hoping he didn’t have any accomplices outside, I just kept on backing up until I was right out the door.

My van was parked right in front of the bank but very quickly I decided against getting in. I didn’t know how long the robber would be and I didn’t want him coming out and commandeering my van with us in it. I also had to get that check back.

There was a large trash can to the side of the bank which was partially made of rocks. I thought it was far enough away from the front door to keep us hidden and sturdy enough to protect us if bullets started flying. I crouched down behind it and tried to keep Courtney quiet. Of course, there were no cell phones so I couldn’t call the police. But I figured they would be by before long.

The robber soon came running out with a full bag. He began running across the shopping lot parking lot, dropping cash and stopping to pick it up. A car came racing up, he jumped in and they off they squealed.

The police arrived and they closed and locked the bank. But I had to wait around to get my check back. After a while, they finally gave it back to me through the drive through and I cashed it at another branch the next day.


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