User:GravityFong/Reader's Digest/Jan 2007/The Stickup

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Christmas lights still sparkled on the exterior of the Mercantile Bank on Tuesday morning, January 10, when Lucy Medina arrived for work. A new year with all its promises lay ahead of her -- and the shock of a recent robbery was beginning to recede. Before plunging into her workday schedule as a senior teller, she made a quick phone call to check in with her fiancé. Lucy's supervisor, Karen Webb, who had also survived the gunpoint stickup on November 16, arrived before 8 a.m. Karen opened the night drop and the drive-thru window, preparing the bank, located in a strip mall a mile from Walt Disney World, for business. The day started in routine fashion.

The November heist had gone off without a hitch for Tano Alessandrello and Amanda Moeller. The two had cased the branch, pretending to apply for a checking account, and planned their every move. Just like in the movies. Then, five days after Tano's 50th birthday and two days before Amanda's 26th, they put on disguises and went to the bank at lunchtime.

Amanda, a fair-skinned, blue-eyed blonde, had dyed her hair black, and wore sunglasses, a snugged-down white ball cap, and latex gloves. Tano was silver-haired, had a tan complexion and blue eyes, and he was wearing a bulky black wig and a moustache so big that it looked fake. He carried a 9 mm automatic handgun. Amanda wielded a butcher's knife from her kitchen.

Two employees were in the bank. The robbers forced them into a back room. Amanda put plastic ties around one woman's wrists, while Tano forced the other down the teller line, filling a bag with cash.

When he was done, Tano ripped the cassette tape from the surveillance camera and the phone in the back room off the wall, warning the two employees that if they tried to get out, they'd be shot.

The robbers were in and out in less than five minutes, disappearing into the Disney tourist traffic with $37,883.

They kept the bills in a shoe box in Amanda's closet. A single mother of an eight-year-old daughter, Amanda had been working as a manager in Tano's various enterprises since she was 18. She used the cash to catch up on bills. Tano would drop by her place whenever he needed a little extra for his current business, a condo cleaning service, and for gambling. Within a month, the money was gone. The two decided to head back to the bank and make another withdrawal.

That morning in January, newly hired bank manager Ray D'Angelo had called a meeting to talk about sales targets. And the second teller, Connie Kirk, had come in shortly after 8:30.

There were a few drive-thrus, but the first walk-in customer didn't appear until around 9:25, a small woman in a red baseball cap and red sunglasses, holding a folded piece of paper. Karen heard one of the tellers buzz her in and went to greet her.

The woman held the door, and a man swept past, pulling a tan turtleneck collar over his nose. They both had guns.

Vigilant and quick, Lucy hit the silent alarm as soon as she saw the man cover his face.

"This is a stickup!" he said. "Get out from behind the counter, now! Get to the back." The two robbers directed the four employees into a small room in the rear where they took lunch breaks or went for a snack.

"Everybody get on your knees," the woman ordered. "Face the wall. Hands in front of you."

Karen, who had a heart condition, leaned her head against the wall. To the others, it looked as if she might pass out.

"You in the black sweater," the gunman said to Lucy, "you're coming with me."

His accomplice stayed in the doorway, training her gun on the other three. She was little more than five feet tall and wearing blue jeans with cuffs so long, they wrapped under the heels of her sneakers. The hair sticking out from her red cap was curly, thick and black -- it had to be a wig.

The man took Lucy behind the teller counter and produced a white gym bag. "Give me all your money," he said, holding the bag open. She reached into a drawer. Banks use special money packs that discharge dye to identify robbers. But Tano anticipated Lucy's move. "And I don't want any explosives," he said.

So following bank precautions to do as robbers order, Lucy coolly emptied the teller drawers of cash and placed the bills into the gym bag.

Then a car pulled up to the drive-thru window, and the robber backed behind the vault door to hide. "Take care of him," he told Lucy.

As the vehicle pulled away, the gunman grabbed the driver's $80 deposit and added it to his haul.

"Now the vault," he said. This time, he wanted more.

"It's on a delay," Lucy told him, adding that the vault had a built-in 15-minute time lapse -- a feature designed for an occasion such as this.

The robber ordered her to dial the combination. "Get on your knees," he said. And the wait began.

A few moments later, however, a phone started ringing. The man let Lucy answer it. It was the alarm service she had buzzed, asking for the security code. Lucy calmly recited the six-digit number -- and had the presence of mind to change the fifth number from a seven to a zero.

"Hmm," the dispatcher said. "That number's not showing up. Is there a manager I can talk to?"

"Well, they're busy with a customer right now," Lucy said politely.

"Is everything all right in there?"

"No," Lucy said.

"Well," the dispatcher told her quietly, "there are deputies outside and they want to see somebody."

When Lucy hit the alarm, the police had gone into action. Within minutes, the first units arrived at the bank without sirens or lights.

Lucy turned to the robber. "There's a deputy here. He wants to make sure we're okay. They want to see Karen. They know her."

"Get her," Tano said.

Before hanging up the phone, Lucy took a chance. She pressed the speaker button on the phone, leaving the line open so the dispatcher and police could listen in. Tano didn't notice; he pushed her toward the break room, the gun at her back.

"Just tell them there's a power outage," he told Karen.

Karen Webb went outside by herself. She told the officers what the real situation was inside. In the background, other officers were gathering and blocking exits, shutting down traffic on the busy frontage road, and evacuating nearby offices. SWAT and negotiating teams were on their way to deal with the hostage takers.

Karen was worried about her friends inside, but police protocol calls for saving each victim, not letting him or her return to become a hostage. Deputies whisked her away.

"She ditched them," Tano announced.

"Great!" Amanda said. "It could have been so simple. Somebody had to push the alarm. How stupid can you be?"

Connie slumped to the floor. Ray made an appeal. "Do you mind if I stand up for a minute? My knees are uncomfortable," he said. The robbers then allowed their three captives to get chairs and sit -- but made them face the wall.

"It's been two hours," Amanda said to her partner. "We should have been long gone by now!" She was getting jumpy. She looked at the wall clock. She told Lucy to turn on the television set in the break room -- and found herself on live TV. News reports showed the bank. It was surrounded. A remote-controlled robot and an armored personnel carrier for transporting SWAT teams were on the scene.

Things were not going as planned. Tano was getting nervous and needed a cigarette, but no one had any. Then he went to a phone in the front and began bargaining with the police.

Just before noon, the robot delivered a pack of cigarettes to the drive-thru window. But no light. The two stickup artists began frantically opening every drawer and cabinet in the bank. Finally, Amanda snatched the toaster oven from the break room and used it to light their smokes.

A while later, Tano appeared at the door. "Ray, come with me," he said. Police negotiators had made the case that Ray was a diabetic and should be released. Tano, who had recently discovered he had the disease himself, chose Ray to be the hostage exchanged for the pack of cigarettes.

Time dragged on as the remaining two hostages sat watching their fate play out on television. Up front they could hear echoes of phones ringing and the angry voices of their captors. At one point, they heard Tano yell, "Back off!" and slam down a receiver.

Moments later, he and the woman appeared and took Lucy. They led her to the front door, and Tano pointed to a Taurus in the parking lot. "We're going to go get a car."

Amanda grabbed Lucy by the hair and stuck a gun to her back. Tano opened the front door and yelled, "I'm coming out! If anything happens to me, she's going to get hurt."

He went to the Taurus and began to back it up. But the police had put spikes under the tires. The car waddled to the front door. Tano jumped out and ducked back into the bank. He was furious.

Connie was weeping when Lucy rejoined her in the eerie break room illuminated only by the TV. "What did they do to you?" Connie asked. "They wanted me to drive them," Lucy told her, and burst into tears herself.

Just before three o'clock, the door opened again. It was Amanda. She told Connie she was being released.

Now Lucy sat alone in the flickering light of the back room facing the wall. She began to shake uncontrollably.

After a while, Amanda came in and sat down behind her. "Do you know why we kept you?" she asked.

"No," Lucy answered.

"Connie was just freaking out too much," Amanda said.

"Lucky me for staying calm," Lucy responded.

"Yep, lucky you," Amanda responded. And after a pause: "Lucy, who do you think hit the buzzer?"

The minutes had now become hours. Tano went around the bank turning off all the lights. He couldn't get the hallway lights to shut off, so he took a mop and smashed them.

The security camera up front also now had an annoying beep. "How do I turn that off?" he asked Lucy.

She told him she didn't know. What she didn't tell him was that a new surveillance system had been put in place after the November heist. It no longer used tape, but supplied a direct feed to the outside. All of Tano's and Amanda's movements were being monitored.

At one point, Tano asked Lucy if she wanted some money. She refused. Then, almost ten hours into the ordeal, he appeared with her purse in hand. "There," he said. "I put a couple thousand in there. Keep it. That's your overtime pay."

"Put it on," Amanda told her.

Then Amanda draped Ray's dark jacket over the purse. Lucy didn't know what their next step would be.

She went with them down the darkened hallway. As they came to the door, Tano and Amanda sandwiched Lucy between them. Then, at about 7:30 p.m., under the eyes of a swarm of police, the three ran outside.

Tano had confiscated all the employees' keys. First he tried to escape in Connie's white Lexus, but as soon as the car moved, it was clear that spikes had already punctured its tires.

Tano drove the hobbled car around the parking lot, finding all the exits blocked. Helicopters churned overhead, shining spotlights on him.

"Get these lights off me," Tano yelled at police over his cell phone. "We have guns. We have dynamite. I'll blow this place up and take everyone with me!"

He had the keys to Ray's SUV and apparently decided he could drive that vehicle over the sidewalks and elude the blockade.

Again, using Lucy as their shield, he and Amanda hurried to the SUV and shoved her into the backseat.

Once more, the police called him on the cell, appealing for Lucy's release.

"No, I'm not going to let her go now," Tano said. "She's my lifeline. She's the only thing I have going for me. I'm not letting her go."

He put the SUV in gear, and as it began to move, there was a loud pop.

A bullet shattered the back window, showering the two women with glass. Lucy burrowed into the floor. There was a slight movement in the front seat.

The shot killed Tano.

Amanda jumped up, screaming, and put her hands through the broken window in surrender.

The shooting stopped.

Amanda Lynn Moeller and Gaetano Alessandrello carried $78,580 out of the bank this time, including $4,250 in Lucy's purse and $8,600 that Amanda had stuffed into her bra. But the money didn't make it to the shoe box in the closet.

Amanda signed a Miranda waiver and agreed to speak with detectives without legal counsel present. She told police all about the job in November, their planning and disguises.

She also said that Tano had coached her -- and she has entered a plea of not guilty. Her trial is scheduled for November 6. This time, however, she will be the one forced to sit silently in a chair and worry about her fate, and her former hostages will be doing the talking.