SURVIVING... Same ole, same ole (Part 129h)

SURVIVING... Same ole, same ole (Part 129h)

Elle was awake and waiting for me when I got back. Still half asleep when I left she didn’t know exactly where I’d gone. After I told her she was upset and told me should’ve made sure she knew where I was going. I told her of my trek to Sabrina's attic and that I’d seen nothing untoward or that could’ve made noise. That’s when Elle reminded me of our first night in the house and how we’d heard a moaning sound and thought the house was haunted. We found out that it was a sick cow in the pasture across the road we were both relieved. Talking about it got us a laugh and eased the tension.

I couldn’t get back to sleep... too many things on my mind and not the least of which was Sabrina and wondering just how much of a pest she was going to be. Of course there was the racecar and work that managed to wend their way into my thoughts. But there was one other matter that was pressing... finding a new minister for our church. There had been a number of them that had shown an interest and had come to be the guest preacher but the vestry (governing body) wasn’t impressed. The one for that Sunday was being ”pushed“ by the diocesan (bishop for our area). That, in itself, raised a red flag for me. As I’ve written in prior posts, my preference was for the early (8am) service but with the guest minister preaching and the vestry observing him I knew I had to be there.

On the surface, the man looked OK but his sermon seemed a little long winded. After the service he and his family (wife and two daughters) visited with the parishioners in the undercroft. The vote on weather to offer him the position wouldn’t come up until Tuesday so I made an early exit. I was looking forward to going right home but Elle had another idea. While I was showering her mother had called and suggested we come to her parents house for an old fashioned Sunday dinner. I’d told Elle that I was committed to family for the day so there was no way to get out of that.

One word describes that day... BORING! I was actually looking forward to going to work. There was nothing out of the ordinary coming up which was nice. I made it through Monday and Tuesday without any problems but Wednesday provided me with the biggest crisis I’d experienced since I was hired.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Background... The bank building had been constructed in 1924 and, at the time,  safety deposit boxes were not installed. That didn’t happen until after WWII when two of the bank’s Trustee’s, who happened to attorneys, convinced the Board to install some primarily for themselves and for their clients. At first there was no fee (rent) charged but when the bank's outside auditors discovered it the bank started charging and there were complaints. So... the two attorneys agreed to pay the rental for their clients. (Read between the lines... they were very influential, both politically and financially) I knew nothing about the ”arrangement“ when I was hired and when learned about it I tried to avoid getting involved. For a box holder to get access to their box they had to go to a teller who then had to retrieve a special key that had to be inserted into the door along with the box holders key to open it.  (If you’re thinking it’s a lousy system, you’re right!) I found it very disruptive to lobby traffic as it took an active teller away from her window until the box holder was through the use of the box.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On that day one of the box holders showed up to get into his box. This particular individual was a well known figure in local politics and... one of the staff’s least favorite customers. Loud, demanding and rude are the things I remember most about him. Bombastic would probably suffice as a description. In any case he went to Gina’s window. It’s always been my thought that the man would try to find the newest teller so he could show off how self important he was. Gina had one thing going for her... a very patient resolve. She got the man to fill out the access card and went to get the bank’s special key(s)... only they wasn’t where they were supposed to be. (NOTE: there were actually two keys, exactly the same, but for some unknown reason they had always been kept on the same key ring) She went on down the teller line asking if anyone had the keys. By the time she’d gone from one end and back the box holder was spouting off to the lobby customers about how badly he was being treated. Bret, who was coming down the stairs at the time, went up to him to try and calm him down. I was standing by the gate into the lobby just about to get involved. Cara, the teller who was closest to me, briefed me on the key situation. Then I went out into the lobby to assist Bret and was greeted by a loud pronouncement that the bank had gone ”downhill” since Bret and I had been hired. The man was red in the face and I was hot under the collar. He’d been loud enough for the upstairs employees to hear him and one told Bert, the president. When he stepped from the elevator the man changed his “tune”. Bert had him calmed down fairly quickly and then turned and asked Bret what had happened. Armed with that information Bert turned back to him, chatted a bit, and soon the man  walked out without saying (shouting) another word.

Still in the lobby, Bert told the two of us to do a thorough search for the keys and, as a precaution, to call the box manufacturer and have a service man there first thing the next morning to drill out the locks to the man's box. We were warned that he'd be there promptly at 9am. With a little time to think about the whole situation and without the “noise” of the loudmouth we went to find who the last person to access a safe deposit box and found that Jerene had been the teller. Bret took her to his desk to question her while I went and concentrated on searching around her area. Just to be thorough I had Liz, the auditor, and Laura, her assistant, go through all the cash boxes, removing everything, just to make sure the keys hadn’t been swept into one of them by accident. When I didn't find the keys in Jerene's area I started looking through the other drawers at each teller station.

Each station had four drawers with the top one being for the cash box. The top drawers all had quality locks on them with steel plates around them for protection. The next two were to hold files and projects that the tellers would work on during slack times and didn’t have locks. The bottom drawer was the largest and was for the personal use of the teller. They had what I called a “common” lock. By the time we’d gone through all the drawers it was after 6pm. Everyone was upset and tired so were told to go home but to leave all their drawers unlocked. I still had some things to clean off my desk so I called Elle and explained why I was late. But, because it was after 6pm I wasn’t so sure she was “buying” my excuse.

To be continued...