As reported in the Seattle Times by Jennifer Sullivan. A local Seattle bank teller, Jim Nicholson, at Key Bank was recently fired for chasing down a would-be bank robber.
Termination seems pretty harsh considering Jim not only prevented a bank robbery, but actually held the man down until the police arrived. Obviously, he may have been injured or injuries to others could have occurred as a result of his actions. I imagine Key Bank has a standard operating procedure for handling a bank robbery, and Jim did not follow those procedures, putting others at risk. But I'm still finding it hard to believe that termination was the right move for Key Bank. Let's keep in mind that regardless of Jim, the would-be bank robber endangered lives when he walked into the bank and demanded money.
I've read many comments from readers about how monies and securities lost due to a robbery are insured through the FDIC. First, securities are not insured by the FDIC, only deposits. Currently, savings, checking and other deposit accounts, when combined are generally insured to $250,000 per depositor in each bank or thrift that the FDIC insures. Secondly, the FDIC does not typically get involved in a bank robbery. The role of the FDIC is to protect depositors in the event that a bank or thrift were to fail. You can read more about the FDIC here.
Losses that a financial institution incurs due to a robbery are generally insured by a financial institution bond. The typical financial institution bond will cover "loss of property resulting directly from robbery, burglary, misplacement, mysterious unexplainable disappearance, damage to or destruction of... The Definition of Property includes, money, securities, negotiable instruments, certificates of deposit, etc.
Finally, I can't imagine that Jim will remain terminated by Key Bank for long. Considering an already tough consumer/financial institution environment this can't be the type of publicity Key Bank is looking for.
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added 8/4/09:
Lori Matsukawa of KING 5 has done a follow up interview here.
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On 8/5/09 two more Seattle area Key Banks were hit by robberies:
One in W. Seattle: http://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=19565
Another in Auburn: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009607296_webbankrobbery.html
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