Birds Of A Feather

If someone were to ask why we robbed banks, I would explain that we are sociopaths.  We do what we want in this silly world.  Thing is, nobody would know to ask, because we never got caught.  The only people who know what we did are us four girls.  

Our first job went according to plan.  Barbie walked out of the bank.  Nobody followed her.  I had the car at the curb.  She got in and tossed the purse, filled with cash, in the back seat.  I drove away. 

We met in college.  All of us were smart, brimming with confidence, and ready to take on the world.  As we got to know each other, we realized what we had in common.  None of us cared about anyone but ourselves.  

There is some irony in the fact that such selfish people can become so dependent on each other.  That is where being smart comes in.  I grew up playing volleyball and basketball.  The only thing that mattered to me was winning.  Sports will teach you that a group of people working together will accomplish much more than the same people working on their own.

The rest of the girls had similar experiences.  We didn’t pretend that we cared about each other.  But we understood that we needed each other.  And we all have the same power.  If one of us talks, we all go to prison.

Barbie and I were not on our own during the getaway.  Sasha pulled in behind us, in a large panel truck.  She drove slowly to bottle up traffic.  Candy followed a half mile behind.  She was the lookout and would alert us to pursuing police cars.  There were none.  I pulled into the rendezvous location, a warehouse, and waited for the others.

It was Sasha who figured it out.  Between the four of us, we had the skills necessary to rob banks.  

She is an expert at makeup and clothing.  My face is covered with freckles.  After Sasha’s first makeup session, she referred to my complexion as porcelain.  With the makeup, the wig, and the tinted glasses, I looked like a different person.  

Barbie is the bank insider.  Her family owns the biggest bank in her hometown.  She grew up in the business and knows the ins and outs of bank security.

Candy handles the weapons.  Her father had been an Army Ranger and was an avid hunter.  He started taking her and her brother hunting as soon as they were big enough to shoulder a rifle. 

And I am the driver.  My father owns a garage and a salvage yard.  If it has wheels and it isn’t running, I can fix it.  After I get it running, I can drive it as fast as any man.  My name is Jozefien.  It’s a good Dutch name.  The girls call me Josie.

The other three rotated as the robber.  But I was always the driver.  I am also the leader.  It has been that way since we met.  We are democratic up to a point.  We never do anything without talking it through.  Most of the time, everyone is in agreement by the time we finalize our plans.  If that isn’t the case, the ultimate decision is mine.

I’d already pulled the car inside the warehouse.  A few minutes later Sasha backed in the panel truck.  We swung the doors open and slid out the ramp.  I drove the car into the truck bay.  We stashed the ramp and closed the doors.  The getaway car was inside a truck, inside a warehouse with blacked out windows.  In the bathroom we washed off our makeup and changed clothes.  We went home in Candy’s car.

There are many ways to rob a bank.  We kept it simple.  Walk in, hand a note to a teller, walk out with money.  Drive away fast, but not too fast.  It works, but you better know what you are doing.  There are a lot of things you have to do right, and no second chances.

We did a lot of surveillance before we decided to rob a bank.  That required a place to observe without being noticed.  We tended to hit banks in suburban areas.  Often they are located near shopping centers.  That made it easy to hang out in a nearby parking spot or a restaurant.

Robbing a bank this way was actually easy.  The people who own banks would rather be safe than sorry.  They train their employees to go along with the robber.  They have insurance to cover the money we stole.  They do not want their employees shot or customers taken hostage.  The chase would begin when the robber got out the door. 

We selected the teller we would hit.  We decided that young, female tellers would be most likely to follow our instructions.  After we picked her out, we followed her home.  It was easy to find out her name and address.  That played into the psychology of the note we would hand her:

This is a robbery.

I have a gun in my pocket.

If you activate the alarm I will kill you.

Empty your cash drawer into my purse.

Leave out the dye bags or I will kill you.

My partner is near the door.

If you speak or move before he leaves, he will kill you.

Your name is … and your address is …

If we get caught, others will come to your house and kill you.

Everything after the first sentence was untrue.  But it was effective mental warfare.  The teller on our third robbery was the only one who ever disobeyed our instructions.  She put a dye bag in with the bills.  All of them gave us the money.