VENTURA : Bankers Learn What to Do in a Robbery

Customers of California Federal Bank in Ventura were turned away at the door Wednesday afternoon by a sign reading “Warning: Robbery Training in Progress.”

The bank’s 10 employees were learning not how to rob a bank but how to protect themselves should their bank be robbed, a lesson that included a simulated holdup.

The seminar was organized and presented by Ventura Police Crime Prevention Supervisor Russ Hayes, who told tellers, loan officers and managers what to do if someone enters the bank demanding money.

“Your primary goal should be protecting your lives and the lives of your customers,” he said. “If he should ask for money from your main drawer and your reserve cash drawer, don’t be cute. Give it to him.”

Besides emphasizing the importance of noticing physical characteristics of the robber, Hayes explained the differences between revolvers, pistols and rifles.

He passed around unloaded guns to give employees a close look at the weapons so they could give a better description to officers.

After watching a videotape that described robbers as “customers without passbooks,” the employees were told to take their usual places to await the simulated robbery.

As the workers talked quietly and nervously among themselves, a man suddenly burst into the Victoria Avenue bank, fired blanks from a revolver into the air and shouted for everyone to “put your hands up and fill these bags with bills, large ones only, and don’t put any bait money in there!”

Bait money, kept in a special section of the cash drawer, activates the bank’s cameras when it is removed.

The facial features of the phony robber--Detective Hiram Hernandez--were partially hidden by a red baseball cap and sunglasses, but his navy blue jacket with the word POLICE in large yellow block letters on the back was a dead giveaway that this wasn’t the real thing.

Nonetheless, the employees treated the robbery as if it were real, holding their hands high and then activating the alarms and dialing 911 after Hernandez left.

“I was scared,” Manager Bing Smith said. “It was very realistic, and I don’t think any of us will forget it. I do feel, though, that we’re robbery-proof.”

The seminar and fake robbery will be presented to the city’s nearly 45 other banks and savings and loans as part of the Police Department’s efforts to minimize commercial thefts, Hayes said.