Chilling memories of the day an armed gunman burst into my bank!

April 7 2006 started off like any other day… Yep, I was late for work at the bank on that day, too. But hey, I was ALWAYS late for work. It was 'who I was'. Trust me - working as a mortgage manager for one of New Zealand's leading banking institutions day and night was exhausting to say the least - and I really needed those sleep-ins!

But you know something? If I could've known what was going to happen later that day……

God knows I wouldn't have come to work at all!

9.45am: I pulled into the underground car park of Westpac Bank in Takapuna, reluctantly facing up to the challenge of the long day and night ahead. My job as a "Mobile Mortgage Manager" saw me spending 50% of my time in the branch (catching up on admin, processing housing loans and refinancing existing mortgages, along with other related paperwork), and the rest of my time on the road, seeing clients and trying to bring new home lending business on board.

I got out of my car (a bright red Volkswagen with bank insignia all over it), entered the stairwell and headed up to the ground floor where my homeloan processing office was situated.

God, I hated that office! Come to think of it - it wasn't really an "office" at all… it was more like an "orifice!" A tiny, pokey little room with no windows or ventilation, partially hidden from view behind the front tellers' desks.

Little did I know how important that interior design flaw would prove to be!

10.am: "Holy crap" - there were over a dozen voice-messages that needed clearing from that first hour I hadn't been at work. Fuck it - time for a coffee:)

I kid you not! My role as a home loan specialist was one of the most demanding roles I'd ever had in my life - and I'd had my fair share of tough jobs since leaving school in the early 1970's - including spending the first eighteen months of my working life in the southern ocean on a deep sea fishing trawler!!!

Typically, my day would involve coming into the bank branch and sifting through the reams of paperwork from my previous night's home loan appointments. I would then process whatever mortgage lending applications needed processing, and then pass the files on to the banking consultants who would ultimately open the bank accounts for the customers.

In between times, I would field a constant barrage of phone calls from folks wanting to know when their home loan would be approved (or in some cases, declined). Plus, I would also have to attend the ridiculously high number of mind-numbingly boring (and often needless) meetings with banking management and other staff, just so we could have it rammed down out throats how much harder we had to work in order to gratify management's lust for higher shareholder profits!

12.30pm: I was so busy trying to get a complicated home loan application approved by the credit guys down in Wellington that I had to cancel a lunch meeting with a client and 'go hungry'.

Oh well, only four and a half more hours of this crap and I can escape from here and go home. Not that I'd stay home for very long. Just long enough to grab a bite to eat… and then it would be time to head off to my evening home lending appointments and interrupt someone else's dinner!

3.20pm: I was feeling light-headed from not having eaten. Maybe, after I get this last mortgage loan approved I could quietly slip out the door and go home for a couple of hours?

3.29pm: I glanced at my watch… surely the guys in Wellington HQ would've looked at my last home loan application by now. What was taking them so friggin long… I wanted to get out of there! Guess I'll just have to call them and see what the problem is.

I reached for the phone… and that's when it happened…

"Hand over the money, bitch! … and make it quick or this guy gets it in the head!"

My whole world f-r-o-z-e!

In an instant, the quiet, muffled sounds of customers and bank tellers chatting with each other were replaced with the terrifying, frantic shouting and screaming of a "drug-crazed" gunman high on methamphetamine… just 20 feet from where I sat!!!

Incredibly, he couldn't see me from where he stood. But I could see him. My once-despised 'tiny excuse for an office' had suddenly - and dramatically - justified its existence.

I could see the gunman - a large, muscular Polynesian looking guy - holding a gun to the head of a young, innocent Asian customer. He was threatening to shoot him dead on the spot if the trembling, ashen-faced 19-year-old teller didn't hand over the money - and quickly!

"Hurry up, bitch… or YOU get it as well! I want all your 'fifties and hundreds' - NOW!!!

I knew that I was the only person in the entire bank that this armed robber hadn't seen - at least, not yet! So, as quickly and quietly as I could, I crawled under my own desk with the telephone handset in my right hand… and dialed 911.

"Which emergency service do you require, sir?" came the operator's almost mechanical utterance.

"P-O-L-I-C-E!", I whispered as forcefully as I could.

"Police emergency; how may I help you?", said the woman on the other end.

"I'm calling from under my desk at the Takapuna branch of Westpac Bank… we have a robbery in progress… the gunman is threatening to kill staff and customers… send as many cars as you can - NOW!"

I then reached out from under the desk and held my phone up as high as I could so the policewoman on the other end could hear, first hand, the rantings and ravings of this gun-toting madman just feet away from where I crouched.

3.31pm: Less than two minutes had passed since this maniac robber had burst through the bank's doors… but it had felt like an eternity.

Suddenly, I noticed that the shouting had ceased. The hush that had fallen over the people in the bank was now being slowly replaced by a series of nervous comments - ever increasing in volume - from staff and customers alike.

"Quickly, follow him and see what car he gets into"…"Get his licence plate number"… "Someone call the cops, quickly!"…"Is anyone hurt?"… "It's ok, sir, he's gone now"…"Was that a REAL gun?"

You cannot begin to imagine the fear I saw on those folk's faces… it was truly awful.

At that moment, I emerged from my hiding place, still with phone in hand and police on the other end, and yelled to the teller to give the best description of the offender that she could. I handed her the phone so she could tell them directly.

But she just stood there. Her eyes were vacant and staring wildly. Unable to speak. Shocked beyond belief at what she had just witnessed and endured.

I grabbed the phone back off her and gave the police my own description of the guy. Some other staff came into my office and also volunteered whatever helpful information they could.

3.34pm: "They've just got him, sir", said the policewoman on the phone. 

"They've just WHAT?", I asked in stunned amazement.

I couldn't believe what I had heard that policewoman say to me. After all, I had been on the phone to her for just five minutes - including the two minutes that the armed robber was actually in the bank!

"They've just apprehended the offender two blocks away from your bank, sir. I've just had a call through from one of the arresting officers saying that he was cornered in his getaway car - apparently he got caught up in peak hour traffic while trying to avoid the pursuing officers!"

I thanked her for all her help and then hung up.

Everyone was in a state of shock - although some of them didn't actually realize it themselves. But I knew all too well -having experienced two previous armed hold-ups in my life - that the shock wouldn't fully hit them for a day or two. Perhaps even as long as a week later.

3.36pm: My phone rang. It was an angry client wanting to know "how much longer I was going to take to get an answer for him regarding his mortgage application". I politely informed him that we had just been held up at gunpoint and 'would he mind waiting a little longer'.

I then immediately telephoned the head of credit and said something like…. "I've just been through an armed hold-up, I'm seriously pissed off, I'm shaking with shock… and so I'm not ASKING you to look at Mr Smith's application any longer… I'M TELLING YOU TO F**KING WELL APPROVE IT HERE AND NOW!!!

Needless to say, I had the mortgage loan approval emailed back to me five minutes later…

…And so ended yet another increasingly typical day at the bank

If YOU'VE ever been through an armed hold-up or been threatened with a gun, please post your comments below.