Nothing like idiocy to make me grumpy

[mdlbear]

... nothing like being loved, and having the house to ourselves all afternoon, to make me un-grumpy, but that's not what this post is about.

I went to the bank earlier this afternoon to get a stack of $5's, and found that they'd installed a metal detector inside an airlock complete with a rent-a-cop standing outside. So you have

Comments

[hsifyppah]

I'd still be interested in the trade-off: theft losses vs. overhead and lost business.

There might be an additional financial factor if their insurance rates will go up if they don't have some idiotic "security" scheme in place.

[mdlbear]

Entirely possible, though in that case they could probably have stopped with the rent-a-cop. Or figured out something that didn't involve alienating their customers for no good reason.

[hvideo]

Let's assume that the take from the average robbery is $10k in cash.

I would bet that the cost TO THE BANK would be over 100k dealing with the aftermath. The man-hours lost investigating, additional insurance costs, loss of reputation/business, new procedures to be written, employees to be trained on the new procedures, etc. etc.

I would bet that they would break even if it stopped a single robbery per year.

[mdlbear]

Insurance costs would certainly increase. Not sure about the investigating; that would most likely be done by the police (these measures wouldn't stop anything that would need investigating by the bank).

[randwolf]

Mexican banks don't take that many security precautions. Say what? This is TFCU?

[mdlbear]

Exactly. One gets the feeling that something else may be going on; it doesn't quite make sense on its face.

[lisa_marli]

Who is doing this? Inquiring minds want to know.

[mdlbear]

The Union Bank near the corner of Stevens Creek and Winchester.

[lisa_marli]

Dumb. There are banks all over that area who aren't pulling that cr*p. Heck there's a Wells Fargo in the Safeway at W San Carlos and Meridian, and that's a rougher area

[jilara]

Random holds are why I dropped Bank of A--holes. "But this is drawn on an account in the same branch of this bank!" "Doesn't matter..." But that was a looooong time ago.

I believe some banks now add a service charge if you go to a teller, rather than an ATM.

[johno]

WAMU has had uniformed security at each branch for a couple of years now.

Some of the larger branches have 2.

At one branch, the rent-a-cop is so bored, he does the doorman and greeter stuff.

[lisa_marli]

Uniformed Security is Not Unusual. Even Greeting the People is a nice touch. He can look at faces and get an idea of what they are like. People tend not to rob the bank where the Rent-A-Cop has just taken a good look at you.
Doing the TSA Screening with a metal detector is a bit much though.