The briefcase bandits
“Everyone lie down on the floor and put their hands on their heads!� yelled one of the briefcase bandits. There were five of them in ski masks robbing the Sun Trust Bank in Las Angeles, California. Two of them were armed with hk-mp5 submachine guns and the others were armed with an assortment of hand and shot guns.
They quickly dashed over and spray painted the cameras so that they couldn’t be seen. One of them said, “We have 5 minutes to get the cash and get out of here.â€Â? The others were busy keeping control of the hostages, and one was with the manager trying to get him to open the vault. The manager opened it and 4 of the 5 robbers went in with big briefcases to collect their money, and one stayed to watch the hostages to make sure there wasn’t any funny business. They came out around 2 minutes later and radioed for the driver to come get them. He said, “Roger that–I’m around the corner.â€Â? They ran out just as the driver was pulling up. He said, “What took you guys so long?â€Â? One of them replied, “The manager was putting up a fight so I had to shoot him in the arm before he would open the vault door.â€Â? The rest of them laughed. The driver floored it and when they were down the block they could hear sirens in the background. They drove to their hideout, which is an apartment in the ghetto of Las Angeles. They all got out of the car with their briefcases bursting with money and they entered the rundown, dirty apartment. They took off their ski masks and dumped all of the money onto one gigantic table. One of them picked up a handful of the 100 dollar bills and said, “I love the smell of success.â€Â?
Their names were Rob, Eric, Tim, Philip, Joe and the getaway driver was named Jerry. They turned on the big screen T.V. and divided the cash amongst themselves. After that they ordered pizza and then they left and went their separate ways. All of them were fairly young kids who were 16 and 17 years old. They were very bored and had nothing better to do than rob banks. All but one of them lived in the ghetto and they were a mix of races. Joe was the only one who didn’t live in the ghetto; in fact, he lived in a nice neighborhood and had the nicest house on the block. He had two reasons for robbing banks, one is that he didn’t have anything better to do and the second is that he didn’t want to work for his money so he decided to get it the easy way. Joe’s father is the chief officer of the L.A.P.D.; he was a very busy man who worked a lot and didn’t have much time to spend at home with his son. Joe’s mom died when he was a baby and he never knew her.
After he got his share of the money he went home and played some video games. At around 8 o’clock his dad arrived home, as usual tired from his job. He made Joe turn off the video game. They sat down and watched the news together for a while. Then the news anchor says, “The brief case bandits struck again at the Sun Trust Bank in the business district of Las Angeles.� Joe’s father said, “Those bandits have robbed one too many banks and I’m going to catch those little punks if it’s the last thing I do.� Little did he know that one of those “little punks� was sitting right next to him. When Joe heard his father say, this he gulped and sank into his seat nervously. Joe went to his room to do his homework. After he finished his homework he went to sleep.
At 6 o’clock he awoke to the annoying buzzer of his alarm clock. He got dressed and he ran to catch the bus. When he arrived at school he met his friends at their lockers as usual, and they walked to hang out in the cafeteria. They were chatting when Rob got the bright idea of robbing another bank. He said, “Let’s hit another bank this weekend, it’ll be fun.� “Ok,� said Jerry, “my dad will be out of town so we can use his car again and after we can all go back to my place and count our cash.� They all agreed. This time it was Riggs Bank in a more rural area so they wouldn’t attract as much attention as last time.
On Saturday morning Joe woke up and had his breakfast. They had all agreed to meet at Jerry’s house at noon with their guns and he would drive to the bank and park down the block as usual. As Joe was leaving he told his dad that he was going to a movie and then back to Jerry’s afterwards. He said good bye and then he went off to make some quick change. They pulled up to the bank at 1 o’clock and everyone but Jerry quickly got out of the car with their guns, ski masks and big briefcases. They ran in screaming, “Put your hands above your head and lie face to the ground. This is a robbery!� Rob said, “We have 4 minutes and thirty seconds.� Tim went up and got the manager to open the vault door. This manager happened to be a wimp so he opened the door without any struggle. Tim signaled to Joe, Eric and Philip to come and get the cash with him. They ran in and Rob stayed out for hostage control. He could see them in the vault stuffing their briefcases and pockets full of money. They came out and he radioed Jerry and said happily, “It’s in the bag.� Jerry put his dad’s car into drive and sped around the corner towards the bank. They were waiting for him at the curb and they all jumped in and made their getaway. Jerry pulled into the garage of the apartment complex and they all hopped out and ran up the stairs to his apartment because they figured the elevators would be too risky to take. They walked in, ordered some Chinese food and spread the money across the table the way they usually did. A half hour later they heard “ding dong� and Jerry jumped up off the couch to grab the food. He tipped the delivery boy nicely and he left. Then they divided up the money, stashed the guns and went their separate ways.
Jerry dropped Joe off at his house. When Joe walked in it was kind of late. His dad was sitting on the couch watching T.V. He said, “How was the movie?� Joe said that it was great and they talked about it for a while. Then his dad turned on the news and coincidently the anchor was talking about the most recent bank robbery. Joe’s dad was getting really fed up with all of the robberies and it was making him very stressed because he had no idea about who had been robbing all of these banks. He said, “One of these days the briefcase bandits will get over confident and slip up.� Joe was thinking, “They’ll never catch us and we’ll be rich.� He went and watched the T.V. downstairs because he didn’t want to watch the news; he had already lived it. He turned on Channel 47 and there was a cool Kung-Fu Jackie Chan movie on.
It was late, his father had already gone to bed and Joe had started to doze off just as the phone rang. He jumped up and hurried to answer it because he was afraid that the phone might wake his dad up. He answered it and said, “Hello.� It was his friend Eric. Eric said, “I just talked to the other guys and they said that it’s really getting too hot to keep robbing banks so they’re going to make one last big score and they’re going to quit.� Joe agreed and then they set a date. Jerry’s dad is coming home on Thursday so they plan to rob a huge federal bank in the business district of Los Angeles on Tuesday. This way they’ll have enough time to get the guns out of Jerry’s house before his dad gets home.
On Tuesday morning Joe told his dad that he was going to study at Jerry’s house after school for a big English exam that they have on Friday. So after school they all went to Jerry’s house to get prepared for the biggest robbery job of their lives. They all hopped into Jerry’s dad’s car and put on their ski masks with their briefcases in hand. It was around a 20 minute ride to the bank. Jerry dropped off Eric, Tim, Philip, Rob and Joe. They pulled out their guns and ran into the bank screaming, “Reach for the sky, nobody move!� That was a federal bank so they had to do the robbery fast. Philip ran to get the manager to open the vault and Rob said, “We have 2 minutes to get the money and run for it.� The manager opened the vault and everyone except Rob ran in, to stuff their pockets and briefcases full of money. While they were in the vault a cashier at the bank tripped the silent alarm, which alerted the police that they were being robbed. Joe’s dad was sitting at his desk when a lieutenant came in and said, “There is a robbery in progress at the federal bank.� Joe’s dad said, “Now I’ve got those thieving punks! This is the end of the briefcase bandits.� Joe’s dad told the swat team to go in and he rode in another car.
When they arrived the police surrounded the building and moved in. Rob said, “Oh crap guys, the police are here!� Joe said, “It doesn’t look like we can get out of this. If we give up maybe we can get a break on the charges.� They all decided to give up and the swat team came in and arrested them. Before the swat team had gone in Joe’s dad had instructed them not to remove the robbers’ ski masks. He said, “I want to see who those pathetic pukes are before anyone else does.� Joe’s dad removed the masks of the kids and realized that they are all Joe’s friends. His dad then removed the last robber’s ski mask and saw that it’s his son. He is so ashamed that his son is a robber and he feels so stupid that a robber was right under his nose the entire time that he runs back to the office. His son is thrown in jail and his father doesn’t even show up at his trial. His son is sentenced to 10 years in jail because he and the others gave up.
Ten years later Joe got out of prison and went to the police academy. He graduated at the top of his class and went on to be the chief officer of the L.A.P.D. Joe also didn’t have to worry about a retirement plan because he put all the money from the robberies in the bank before they got caught so he still had hundreds of thousands of dollars for when he gets older.
By:
Besoge!