I work for a large regional medical center and there has never been enough space to house all the ancillary departments and employees. Areas like insurance, billing, payroll and information technology have always been housed in off campus sites which have moved around every few years. Things are much more stable now and we are in a rather large building with the insurance people though we are still off-site from the main medical center.
Years ago the medical center had leased a building for our group that we affectionately called ‘the motel’, as that’s what it looked like. It was a long, low slung, one story building that had seen better days and was nestled next door to a music store with woods bordering the backside. The music store had previously been a Volkswagen dealership, and there was actually a group of tax lawyers and accountants in the far end of our building. It was a strange grouping to say the least.
There were actually two buildings of our people here. The other building which housed our computer room was about one hundred feet east across the parking lot. Most mornings, early, we would walk over to the big building to get coffee or sodas or to work in the computer room. We were back and forth between buildings all day for one reason or another.
On the other side of the second building was an ATM machine, and a little farther over from there was a branch bank where most of our folks deposited paychecks every other week. These were days before direct deposits became the norm. So every other Thursday afternoon we would trek across the parking lot to the bank. The bank folks were really nice people and we had become friends with a lot of the people who worked there.
One morning my office suite mate had been across to the other building and was just about to wander back in the door when a car came sliding to a halt in the parking lot. She looked up to see her step-father in the car and all he said was “he robbed us at the bank”. “Call the police!” My friend took this to mean that her stepfather had been robbed. She ran into our building screaming “call the police, call the police, he’s been robbed!”
In the South, friends are loyal to the core. As soon as we heard, “ he’s been robbed”, we all hit the parking lot to see what was going on. Inside, calls were being made. Outside the stepfather had driven off to look for the robber.
We were standing outside the building when all of a sudden, around the wooded corner of the building, came a man running at top speed with his arms wrapped around a heavy, bulging towel full of money. He was struggling to hold his payload as bills spilled out and tumbled to the ground. He saw us, just as we saw him. And he turned on his heels and started running like the wind in the other direction. That was one huge chunk of money in his arms!
By now insanity had taken hold and three of us, all women, started chasing him on foot. This was probably the dumbest thing I have done in my life as we had no idea if he was armed or what had actually occurred . We still thought our friend’s stepfather had been robbed, but it started sinking in as he continued dropping more money as he ran. Later we were told we were screaming so loudly that they heard us in all the buildings down the street and people started to file out of their buildings to see what was happening. As we got to the main street, he darted across. So did we, right behind him, just like in the movies with all cars squealing brakes and dodging people. Somehow we didn’t get run over and we were not going to let him get away after all this trouble. One girl was running in heels.
About the time we crossed the street we saw him run in to the nearby salvage store. The police started to arrive on the scene and quickly put a stop to our adventure. They came in with guns drawn and canines showing teeth so we thought it might actually be a good time to stop. But we didn’t go far.
The police surrounded the salvage store. I think every person on duty must have shown up as there were blue lights everywhere. The squad moved in and turned the dogs loose inside the building. The suspect was found hiding underneath a counter still clutching what was left of the money. It was amazing how fast those canine officers had him rounded up. And as they led the bank robber away to the squad car it was said he told the policemen not to let those crazy, screaming women near him.
Most of the money was picked up and turned in. The police later told us there was still around a thousand dollars missing. We looked all around our building but never found anything, except on the wooded side of the building where we found a snake in a tree and had a whole lot of screaming going on. But that’s a story for another day.
We did finally realize it was actually the bank that had been robbed. All the bank staff was alright but we shared some tall tales next payday. They told us he did indeed have a gun. I guess with all the running and the money in the towel it was not very practical to draw a gun. I really never felt we were in danger though, as I never believed he would let go of that towel. He just wanted to get away.
The other girl that was running with us got stuck in high gear. She was talking so fast that no one could even understand her until after lunch. We made the paper as the crazy, screaming women who chased the bank robber. They had no idea we thought we were helping our friend. The bank robber went to jail and peace was restored to our tiny kingdom. We always did wonder what happened to the rest of the money.
I did learn one thing that day. I found I certainly have some interesting (and fast) friends and I hope they will be around for a long, long time.
Joyce Burns
© Joyce (Tidwell) Burns, ChynaMoon Creations 1997-2011
I am so excited. My poetry anthology Life in the Pond is going to be featured at the Miami Book Fair International which will be held on the Wolfson Campus of Miami Dade College in Miami, Fla. on November 13-20, 2011.
