High Drama

It's not often that my life takes on the drama of a tv action movie. But it almost happened this morning.

I went to the SunTrust branch bank right in the middle of the medical complex of hospitals in my quiet suburb of Sandy Springs. I pulled into the drive through and put my deposit in the pneumatic tube and sent it off. After a minute of sitting there reading my paper, a young woman teller came on the little screen and said: "We have a security issue here, and I'm going to have to return your deposit."

My first thought was she meant the computers were down due to a computer security issue. Then someone pulled down the venetian blinds that closed off the real window into the bank building, and that did make me wonder. But I thought they just meant to indicate that they were closed.

So I got my deposit back and drove off. It did occur to me that maybe there was a bit more of an ominous tone -- and as I drove around through the parking lot to get back onto the street, the thought went through my mind that maybe I should tell that nicely dressed business man about to go into the back that he shouldn't. And then I thought -- had she really been trying to tell me to call the police? I even looked at my deposit slip to see if she had written a note on it. But no.

So I pushed those thoughts aside as being overly dramatic. Until two blocks up the road -- here they came 1 . . . 2. . . 3. . . 4. . . 5 police cars one right after the other, really speeding with blue lights flashing, heading to the bank.

Nosey as I am, I turned around and drove back by. The bank was surround with police with guns drawn and all looking expectantly at the entrance -- and even more police cars coming from the other direction.

That's all I know, except that I went back a couple hours later to try to make my deposit -- and to find out what happened. The bank was locked and a sign said: Closed due to an emergency over which we have no control."

How's that for a quiet morning in Sandy Springs? The chilling thing is that I could just as well have decided to go in to make the deposit, because I have a CD that's about to mature and I need to find out what the renewal interest rate would be. If I had decided to do that this morning, I would have been inside instead of safely at the drive through.

Whew !!! It's nice to have a little high drama when you're safe. But I worry about the tellers who I've come to like over the years. I hope no one was hurt.

Ralph