Robbery at PNC?
Robin 
tbd According to Lehigh Valley Live, the bank was robbed at 10:30 this morning.
http://s.lehighvalleylive.com/M62jLvd
Baci's mom I just came by there and it is all blocked off with yellow police tape. I stopped for gas at the BP and a friend of mine was there and told me it was robbed around 10:30.
Mariann ya it was robbed . the guy ran into the apartments next to the bank then i guess they lost him
Htown Southside Yes it's true, got an email from a daycare nears there that they are are precautionary lockdown because of it. Hope they find him soon.
NJHalsMaybe if they post a picture of the robber quickly, he will be caught. A picture of a police car doesn't do much good.
maja 
EG_1982 
noname Maybe this is why a state trooper almost ran me off the road heading east on Rt 57 about 15 mins ago. No sirens, no lights, just doing about 80 MPH.
Nice picture of Mike. :)
Hope all the tellers are ok,. Such nice women.
botheredbyu I went there yesterday looking for a coin sorting machine.....I even joked to my friend that walking into a bank with a black bag does not 'look good.' (I had my coins in a black bag) I hope they catch the guy quickly!
Hastings once again an PNC employee didn't enforce the no hats, hood, or sunglass policy PNC has laid out and trains their employees to follow.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/crime-law/bank-dress-code-could-help-deter-robbers/nM5jJ/
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2010/01/pnc_and_provident_banks_ask_cu.html
darwin They have a sign on their door saying to please remove your hat when coming into the bank. Guess the employees arent enforcing it.
Darwin ,
I'm pretty sure a guy robbing a bank is not going to follow the banks dress code. I understand the dress code is to deter robberies but I just don't think someone who is going to rob a bank is going to say I can't rob that bank because they don't allow hats, hoods, or sunglasses. So don't blame the employees that this bank got robbed by saying they enforce the dress code.
If someone is going in to rob the place, do you really believe that someone telling him to remove his hat, is going to make a difference?
madhatter seriously you don't get it. PNC's policy is when someone walks into the branch to greet them and if they are wearing a hat,hood, or sunglasses to kindly ask them remove them. By doing so it serves 2 points, one lets the person know someone has noticed them and 2 allows the cameras to get a better look.
I'm not saying the robber would not walk into the branch because they have the sign, what i am saying is maybe he would get nervous and change his mind if someone says hello to him when he walks in and asks him to remove his hat.
And sorry but Corp PNC will blame the employee for not following their policy and she/he may be fired as a result of this robbery.
Wow, I agree with Darwin.
That's my bank and no one ever greets me when I walk in. Maybe they only greet the customers wearing hats and sunglasses.
I'm sorry. But I would not ask someone to remove their hat. He'd either hold me as a hostage or shoot me. It's kind of a dumb idea. Why put the employee at risk?
copygirl Then i suggest you never work for PNC if you can't follow their corp policy :)
most bank robberies don't involve a actual gun, they are done by note passing. Yes if a guy comes running in with a gun it would dumb to ask him to remove his hat. But if you say hello to every customer and ask them to remove their hat it may cause the robber to get nervous and change his mind
If someone is going in to rob the place, do you really believe that someone telling him to remove his hat, is going to make a difference?
actually studies have shown, having a greeter and simplie saying hello to customers and asking them to remove their hat has lowered the # of robberies.
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1130/outfront-bank-robbery-crime-how-to-reduce-robberies.html
I agree that having a greater "lobby presence" would make a robbery less likely, but you can't know exactly what was going through the person's mind, how desperate or how mentally unstable they are. Asking them to remove their cap could set them off and cause more trouble. Enforcing PNC's policy really doesn't go beyond the signs that are posted on the door. There is no way that any of the employees are going to get fired for this. I'm sure they've already been through enough and they really didn't do anything wrong. They lived through the ordeal, which means they did what they were supposed/trained to do.
Gobbledygook so many perfect people on here huh? Lets be thankful the tellers are safe, the robber didn't get away with much money and that they catch them!
Btw, the tellers ALWAYS greet me when I walk in there.
britttttt http://www.publiceyes.org/pnc-bank-6212011-columbus/
asked to remove his hat and still robbed the place, but by removing his hat cameras got a clean shot of him and they were able to ID him
Hasting right in the artcle:
A white man wearing all black, including a baseball cap, gave a note to a teller that said he had a weapon, although did not display it, emergency dispatches indicate. He left on foot toward a Home Depot store.
Enforcing PNC's policy really doesn't go beyond the signs that are posted on the door. There is no way that any of the employees are going to get fired for this
I hope your right and i am by no means calling for anyone to get fired. I worked at PNC and saw first hand employees get fired because they did not enforce the no hat policy and the person committed a roobery and aonther time fraud.
If this person got away with more than $5k then the someone will get fired, that is PNCs lost prevention limit. A penny over $5k and it is automatic loss of employment..
I've never heard of a teller being fired for getting robbed, only for trying to prevent a robbery. How do you narrow down who gets fired? Every teller on the line would be equally responsible for not asking the robber to remove their cap. By the time the robber was speaking with the teller, it was probably already too late to say anything like "Please remove your cap." So that particular teller can't be held more accountable than the entire teller line. If the teller was over their cash limit at the time of the robbery, then maybe there are grounds for termination, but they can't always help that depending on how busy the branch was.
You worked at PNC, so you know that they (like all banks) have yearly training on how to handle a bank robbery. If anything, the teller will be thanked for doing a good job keeping cool, not raising suspicion and endangering any lives. PNC will have an investigation as to how the situation was handled.
Jen 
Hello I'm pretty sure the robber cased the bank before walking in today. He may have walked in yesterday, a week ago or a month ago. The reason that policy is in place is to let robbers know that we have this strict policy in place which will then hopefully change their mind. It's not about asking him that day to remove the hat and sunglasses. The employees should always enforce this policy. This is a precautionary measure.
I bank there as well, all lovely employees they always greet me. I am glad no one got hurt, and hope no one gets fired. I even wrote a letter of commendation once for the young man, Mike, who helped me track down a payment to Verizon that was not applied to my account.
Once, while at the window, a man next to me threw a fit because he was asked for ID. The teller tried to explain that she was filling in at this branch for someone being out and that she did not recognize him. He was a jerk, she got the ID, I thanked that teller on my way out for doing her job! I'm very sure there are people who don't want to follow the no hat/sunglasses policy, regardless of how many times they are asked.
tripsy I also worked at PNC and they did have suggestions on what to do when you were being robbed however they always told you safety was first.
If you could hit the silent alarm great if you feel like your safety was at risk don't. Lock the doors when they leave, write down what you remember as soon as you can, give bait money if you can without causing a safety issue.
I have NEVER heard the $5,000 thing. You are telling me that if you are held at gunpoint you should sit there and count out $5,000 to give to the robber or you will be fired? If so I wouldn't want to work for a company like that anyway so fire away. However, I have never heard this before.
Nosila 
maggiemay darwin - you said you worked at PNC and saw people get fired over a robbery? As far as I know this is the first time this PNC has been robbed. If it was a different PNC and you dont work there anymore, was it you that didn't enforce the policy and you got fired? Just asking. Please clarify.
I always thought banks used exploding dye packs / CS tear gas
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question671.htm
http://www.bankersonline.com/articles/bhv02n05/bhv02n05a4.html
http://www.popcenter.org/problems/robbery_banks/4
skippy i didn't get fired i was on the other side of the firing. Was told i had to let some people go by loss prevention team for not following policy. Decision came from above me and i had no choice.. Banks put policies in place to prevent fraud/theft and when those policies are not followed employees are held accountable.
I did not mean to imply that the teller that got the note should/will be fired. Sounds like she did the right thing and followed procedures. There is suppose to be someone in the lobby greeting people. Doesn't happen all the time but when there is someone there they must follow the no hat,hood, sunglasses policy.
When PNC reviews the tape they will see if there was someone in the lobby. If there was then that person could be held accountable for not asking this man to remove his hat.
Now if the person that was suppose to be in the lobby was helping another customer and therefore could not stop what they were doing to ask this man to remove his hat then that would be ok. PNC will review every camera angle to see what every employee was doing at the time
Nosila the $5k limit is correct, again it is a corp policy and not one that is shared with the branch employees. Again if no one did anything wrong during/after the robbery, then no one will be fired.
Skippy, banks no longer use dye bags. some idiots robbed a bank, stuck the $ with the dye bag down their pants and it exploded when they left the bank. they all then sued the banks for damages. Went to jail but still sued. Since then most if not all banks got rid of dye bags. They have others ways to trace the $ either by GPS or marked bills.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18354303
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/877397/posts
I have never been greeted by anyone in the lobby of any bank to the best of my memory. Whatever happened to the good old days where a robber would just wear a ski mask?
emaxxman emaxxman - they cannot find ski mask at a regular department store and cannot afford to buy ski mask at a sporting goods store. Pantyhoses are not in style any longer so they are not freely available at home.
Lena robbers want to go in and out without being noticed. They don't want the alarm to go off before they leave so they can get a clean gettaway. Someone walks in with a mask, an employee will sound the silient alarm and cops will be there in minutes (hopefully). Instead they want to blend in go to 1 teller and hand them a note. teller won't be able to sound the alarm until after he leaves and the other employees probably won't even know theres a robbery taking place until after he leaves. You'd be amazed how fast this guy was probably in and out. 2mins tops is my guess.
HA HA.
i was at another bank at the time of the robbery... and no i wasn't robbing that one either
:)
@Hello - good point!! JK, darwin.
I have been a customer of that PNC bank since it opened and have NEVER been greeted when I walked it.
Does anybody know about the robbery at Home Depot this morning? Someone at work just told me about it. That's all I heard.
JessMphone Although my PNC home branch is in Byram, this PNC has been my go to bank since they opened, so I am very sorry to see they were robbed and had to go through all that stress. I've been to over 15 of the the branches over the years and they always greet me when I go into the lobby. I find the tellers and managers to be very friendly and helpful everywhere I go.
Wendy Darwin, have you ever been robbed? Maybe the teller did ask him to remove his hat and sunglasses, maybe he handed the note and said this is a robbery before any other words were spoken. Unless you were there, your speculations are useles and this is what is wrong with this site. Robin asked if the bank was robbed. Yes or no answer, not your long winded useless opinion!
Justmyopinion P.S. I am in that branch a lot. Always get greeted, nice staff. It's a scary thing!
ianimal 
CR37 nevermind that is too long it won't fit, so i'll stick with Darwin
Yes the bank was robbed. Now this thread can end!!!! No one else post, the OP's question was answered. move to another thread everyone!!!
Yes they do have a coin counter. They are very nice tellers, but never greet me.
Mansfield police dept. Posted a picture of suspect and bmw on their Facebook page. Sorry but I can't attach the link from android.
ms_warren_county 
Denis They removed the coin counting machine a few months ago but they have one at the Naughright Road branch.
They've also released a picture of the car. The picture is not too bad so hopefully someone will turn him in.
http://www.nj.com/warrenreporter/index.ssf/2013/08/mansfield_police_release_pictu.html#incart_river
Bonv Wonder how much money he got.
If he ran towards Home Depot, why are they looking for a car???
Looking at that picture, it makes me wonder, why wouldn't a company put in place a policy that makes their employees ask customers to remover their hat , hood and sunglasses when they walk in the door??
oh wait they do!!!
and that teller station is in the middle so he had to walk about 10 feet from the front door. So someone had plenty of time to "greet" him and ask him to remove his hat and sunglasses which would have probably scared him off.
-justmylongwindeduselessopinion
Like I said previously, been banking there since they opened and no one has ever greeted me. Obviously they didnt greet him either. He was wearing the typical "bank robber" outfit too. He's an idiot on a few levels, one being even though he was wearing sunglasses, dark cap and dark clothes, he is still recognizable. Moron!
They will catch him.
"Is it a bullet-proof glass between a "customer" and teller on the picture?"
Highly doubt it. Bulletproof glass would typically be a lot thicker, plus it's not really effective when the glass is only 12" high and you could easily shoot over or under the partition.
It's pretty much just there just to prevent people from leaning in or reaching into the teller's area.
Mark Mc. Why would asking a man with a gun scare him? Sounds more like it would just piss them off and for like the 10 bucks an hour they would pay I would say fire me if you do not like that I did not stop the guy with a gun.
jdem because he most likely didn't have a gun. just a note. Again if he came in with a gun he would have shown it.
and you can't pick a choose which corp policies you are going to follow.
If banks do not want to pay for better security then boo hoo for them. The world is full of dirt bags and if a guy can just walk in with a note and walk out with a bag of money then something tells me they feel there is no need for a real security policy other than a no hat rule so sucks to be them when it happens. I feel bad for the tellers since even now the only security I see there is what looks to be an 80 year old man in a sport coat. I am sure he is nice but not much to keep employees and money secure.
There is no glass between customer and teller at that bank
I have seen him too and he doesnt look like he could stop anything that goes on. Sorry. He does look like a nice man though.
Don't know what PNC pays, but I know some banks pay tellers in upwards of $13.00 per hr
13 an hr for TELLER! Not! I work at a bank usually you start out 10 an hr I know a lot of banks do
Irish-eyes Yes, 13.00 an hr. I know two people that do and they have been at their bank for a little over 1 year. Not in this area, in Union county, so maybe that's the difference.
Its a small town bank, like First Hope.
Who cares 10 or 13 , does 3 bucks make a person willing to approach the man who says he has a gun . It sure would not for me. To me you either pay an armed guard or at least build the structure to protect the employees and money so a theif would not bother trying
jdem, you have no clue what you are talking about. No one is saying the employees need to approach the man once he states he has a gun.
Banks try to put policies in place to prevent crimes from happening and to help catch them after they happen. They make sure no employee tries to STOP a robbery while it's occuring.
Having an armed guard may prevent someone from walking into the bank to rob it, but so may just having and employee greet the person and ask him to remove his hat/sunglasses. Robbers want the $ but they also don't want to get caught. So if they sense they have been ID'd they are less likely to go ahead with the robbery.
I have to admit, I don't think anyone at that branch is being paid enough to enforce the no-hat sign on the door.
The PNC in PNC Bank does not officially stand for anything. The company was formed as a merger between Pittsburgh National Corporation and Provident National Corporation in 1982.
sapphirebluz maja, it says he was just released on bail two days ago, but it doesn't say how long he was in jail. It looks like it could be the same guy sans hat:)
Ooops, sorry. Here it is
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Bank-Robbers-Demand-Note-on-Back-of-Bail-Release-Form-221717031.html
Thanks
Says he was released on Tuesday, so could he make it to Mansfield by 1030am? Hmmm...... Kind of looks like him, but he didn't cover up in the other 3 robberies, so why this one?
That's what I get for reading too quickly, I thought the robberies occurred today.
Unlikely he would head to Mansfield after being bailed out but stranger things have happened. lol
I think the bigger picture, regardless of the hourly wage or what PNC stands for or having a change machine, is that this happened so close to home. With routes 80 and 78 so close as an escape route our community is changing. What can be done? Hire additional police officers? That would mean an increase in taxes. I'd love to hear what the town council members (Hackettstown, Mansfield, Washington and Mt. Olive) are saying about the crimes here recently. Does anyone know if crime is on any agenda? It needs to be addressed.
Darwin the only people that would listen to a greeter to remove the hat and glasses are the people who are of no threat to start . You sound like one of those managers that has glorified ideas of cheap ways around issues and spends more of the companies money trying to implement a dumb rule that doesn't help than putting true procedures in place that help.
I like how everyone seems to have the answers, but were any of us there ? Probably not. Let's be thankful no one was hurt.
Sleepy Reader If you ask a person walking through the door to take off their hat/sunglasses and they refuse it is meant to tip off that there is a problem to anyone in the bank at that time, (security, other tellers, etc) which could in fact discourage the robber from continuing on or giving the other employees time to notify authorities that there is a potential problem . It's not often that the robbers are walking in waving guns in the air, saying it's a hold up. Today it seems they are simply walking up to one specific teller, with a note, trying to draw as little attention as possible. I think that by the tellers drawing attention to ANYONE walking through the door, it simply will HELP discourage this from happening. Again, ready HELP not completely prevent, this like this from happening The other fact I find funny is all of the people on here who believe that the employees are not paid enough to do something corporate require them to do. So, if i feel i am not paid enough, i should just not do all that my company requires of me? I am pretty sure that when you are hired at a certain rate per hour you are also told what is expected of you. I do not believe in putting yourself in danger but when you work in a bank, or with the general public there is always a chance of something like this happening. A scary fact of our society. When he walked in the door, the tellers did not know his plan to rob the bank, but they could see that he had a hat and sunglasses on which is against policy. They chose not to acknowledge him as they are REQUIRED by their job to do, which is a problem. If employees feel a policy is not worth following they are putting themselves at risk to get in trouble when things like this happen.
justwhatithink Teller did the right thing, no one hurt, no hostage situation, who cares about the money! I am sure cops, co-workers and anyone in the bank would agree.
whythinkwhy LOL jdem, not even close to being right, but nice try. I'm just a simple employee that thinks i get paid enought to follow all my company's policies and procedures....
I know the nerve of me to be that responsible!! :)
and thank you justwhatithink, i have been trying explain that, but some just don't get it
That's why they have the older gentleman out front of the bank. He opens the door for customers and he asks them to remove their hat and sunglasses before going in.
I witnessed him do it this morning. Guess its a deterrent.
Armed guards, dye packs, all of you science quiz experts are missing the obvious:
trap doors.
Reggie Voter darwin, we all get it. But a 10 foot buffer does not give an employee time to react 100% of the time, unless staring at the door and ignoring other customers is their only job. 10 feet of space does not allow for much reaction time if you are multitasking. And if the policy is so effective, it should be stressed every day, practiced once a week, and feedback should be given every time the policy is followed or ignored. So it is as much a policy/management failure as an employee failure. And let's not forget to blame the robber.
Trap door would be fun! Or just lock the door and buzz customers in. Easy.
@maja - Buzz customers in? Who decides which customers you would buzz in? The ones not wearing a hat and sunglasses? Or would you have speakers outside and say "take off your hat and glasses before we buzz you in". Don't think that would work.
If someone opens the outer door and does not have the offending objects, buzz them right in. I'm sure there aren't tons of customers. Just play a recorded message for "offenders".
And isn't this discriminating against people with vision problems who have tinted eyeglasses? Or does the tint go away that quickly? Anyway, if I was a teller, I would want to work for the bank that put us behind the bullet proof glass. They can afford it. They sure are't paying interest to the customers.
excellent points Maja. And that is why banks like PNC have morning huddles prior to opening in which the review the current policies and what changes have been made. Create a gameplan for the day. They also discuss who is going to be the lobby leader during which hours. If that is not happening in the branch then that's on the branch manager. I worry that quiet suburban banks fall into the " that won't happen in my little branch" mentality and get lazy.
But with the Budd Lake branch robbed last year you would hope it would have been seen as a wake up call for the banks in the area and they would have made an effort to follow the procedures in place.
Comcast has bulletproof glass so their workers don't get attacked by disgruntled customers, not to prevent robberies
eapos just wondering how would a bullet proof glass for the tellers help if a customer hands them a note that says give me $ or i will shoot someone in the bank?
"But a 10 foot buffer does not give an employee time to react 100% of the time, unless staring at the door and ignoring other customers is their only job."
ok that might be true so if that is the case how would the buzzer work. Wouldn't you have times where the employees are busy helping another customer and wouldn't have time to buzz someone in? So you would have people waiting outside the bank instead of in line inside?
LOL true, but probably both reasons. Just meaning Comcast workers are safer then a bank worker. I do remember years back a man went to Comcast and threatened to blow it up. That was before the bullet proof glass was put in.
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