 Even though robberies periodically take place in American financial institutions, they remain abnormal events. Together we will examine the emotional and physical responses which you may experience because of your involvement in a robbery. By understanding these feelings and by taking advantage of the support and victim services available to you, their effect on you may be lessened. It, um, it was exactly a year ago when I was involved in the robbery of our bank. You know, the whole thing only lasted a minute, but it sure changed my life forever. I never thought it would happen to me. The whole time he was at my window, I just couldn't stop thinking about that gun, you know. It was like everything else was just a blank. Initially I didn't even remember putting the money in the bag. Those responses may be typical for people involved in a robbery. One needs to remember that responses may be as varied as the people involved in the event. Some people may have no reaction at all. For others, the reactions may vary from extreme fear to helplessness to denial. People may focus on one aspect of the event, such as a weapon or a note. Some may feel disconnected from the event. Dreamlike, events may not seem real. Time and sounds may seem altered. My first thought was, is this really happening? Um, didn't seem like it was a real event. Kind of like you're watching it happen to somebody else. And all I could do is look at that gun. I could not give a description to the police officers of this man. All I could do is say he had this big black handgun. I think I was so terrified. I just, I numbed out. I was really mad. I was just like, I mean, you know, it just made me mad because he just comes in there and he just, you know, does his thing and he leaves. Everyone experiences the trauma of a robbery, although in different ways and to different degrees. Reactions may include symptoms of shock. Some people are not affected at all and that is normal. It's also normal to feel overwhelmed or helpless. You may feel numb as if disconnected from your body or experience a sense of immobilization. Denial can also be a part of shock. It may seem as if it was a bad dream. 20 and 40. Thank you. Thank you. Right after the robbery, the police came into the building and of course they questioned everyone. I remember feeling like I was really being rushed, you know, like my brain just wasn't keeping up. I don't know if that's the right way to describe it, but it was something like that. Because there was a bomb left in our last robbery, it was kind of, you just been through this traumatic experience and the police come in and start yelling at you to get out of the building. So that was kind of made it difficult to deal with. The first few minutes of the investigation are the most crucial. For that reason, the responding squads have a number of duties to perform. These include securing the premises, making sure that the suspect has left the scene, making sure that there are no hostages. They have to obtain and broadcast a description to responding squads as soon as possible. After the robbery, both the FBI and the police department did come out and respond to it and we did have to talk to both of them. And they were good in the respect that they let us know immediately that we were the victims, we were not the criminals, and the questions that they were going to ask were going to make us seem like we were criminals and not victims. You know, I was never really scared during the robbery, the time when it hit me was on the drive home. Driving to work every day for about four or five months, halfway to work, my hands would start to shake, my legs felt like they were going numb and my stomach would feel sick. After going to a seminar and talking with other people about their bank robberies and what happened to them, it seemed like the next day most of those symptoms went away from a daily basis and now it's just periodically it'll still come up. You know, we were there for a couple hours and I went home and I got on the couch and I hugged up in a little knot. I was just like, I wanted to go away, I was trying to, actually I felt like it was a dream. I cried all the way home, cried all the way home so that at least when I got home I could be okay for my son. People may have feelings that they may not know where they're coming from if it's weeks or days or months after the event. They may feel anger, much more profound than they're used to feeling. They may be uncomfortable with those feelings. They may feel unfocused, unable to function at their job or unable to function at home. They may also experience guilt. They may not know why. The misplaced guilt might be because they're afraid they should have done something about the event. They should have foreseen it somehow, even if that doesn't make sense. Being a supervisor, I felt responsible for the teller line and making sure they were safe. I felt feelings of guilt because we had been robbed three times and there was nothing I could do about it. Most of all, though, the sense of guilt that I felt for not doing anything about it. I really felt that there was something I could have done even though now I know there's nothing I could have done. I felt that that point, a week after, two weeks after. Why didn't I do something to stop it? Which is now a crazy thought, but I did feel guilty also. The way in which you may be affected by witnessing a crime may be different from the way in which it affects your co-workers. How people react to trauma depends on individual factors, such as how you usually handle stress and what other events are taking place in your life, both in and out of the workplace. Right after the robbery had taken place, they brought out a chair for me and I'd sat down and I started to just shake uncontrollably. At one point, I think they were considering calling the ambulance because they hadn't seen me react like that to the first two robberies. But I think that robbery had drummed up the other two robberies and everything else that has ever happened bad in my life. It all just happened right then and there. Whether the impact of the trauma is immediate or delayed, you should expect it to affect you in a number of ways. It could be physical or emotional or both. You may have trouble concentrating or find that your daily routines have changed. The important thing is to recognize that what you are experiencing is normal. But just because your reactions are normal does not mean they should be ignored. I felt so silly, you know, being scared after the robbery was all over, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. For the first few weeks, I had trouble falling asleep. I was exhausted and I was jumpy. I didn't really feel like eating either. I just kept checking the locks in the doors and peeking through the blinds. I was scared to death that somebody was going to call my house or that one of his friends were going to show up at my door or just something was going to happen. I have a 16-year-old son and I was petrified that he was going to walk out one morning and there would be somebody there. Some of the measures I took to protect myself after the robbery were that I parked my car closer to the door at the bank when I left. I made sure that my car doors were always locked, that when I entered my home that the hallway lights were on and as soon as I entered my home that my doors were locked. I kept my shades down for a while and for a while after the robbery when I slept I always slept with the hall light on. We also know that there's always a fear of retaliation by the suspect. What we'd like you to know from our years of law enforcement experiences is that this is a very rare occurrence. The reasons for this are twofold. Number one, the suspect faces additional criminal charges if he does threaten a witness and number two, it makes the suspect look more guilty if he does make a threat to a victim or witness. Frequently the sooner one receives help or support following a robbery the quicker one is able to return to normal functioning. It may also lessen the effects of a robbery. Your financial institution may have a program designed to help after an event like this has occurred. In some communities there may be a victim witness specialist who is specially trained to intervene and offer support or crisis intervention following a robbery. I was lucky because my bank provided an immediate debriefing session for me and for my coworkers. The session was led by a counselor who was experienced in working with crime victims and with witnesses. Frequently we find the best way to deal with the reactions following being a witness or a victim in a robbery is to talk about those reactions. One may feel most comfortable talking to fellow coworkers. These are people who might understand what you go through day in and day out, what the stresses of the job may be as well as people who may have been there at the time of the event. Some people are comfortable talking to family or friends. Others however may find that family or friends may have their own issues or ideas about what a robbery is about. They may also not know how to help and may feel helpless. They may eventually say things like, it's time to put it behind you and move on and may not understand that some of these issues may linger. That may be the time also to talk to a professional. It took a while for me to be able to talk about what had happened without bursting into tears. And then it seemed like I was talking and talking about it all the time. That really seemed to help. The crisis response unit came in and they asked who needs to talk to somebody. They were there in the background, not hounding us to talk to them, but we knew that if we needed somebody to talk to, they were there to help us through this. I think the best thing that I did to deal with this anger I felt for the robbers was to really talk to everyone that I could about it. Talking to people really helped relieve some of the emotions you're feeling. For me, the most surprising and the most disturbing part of my recovery is what my counselor calls recurrence. Just when things seem to be getting back to normal, I'll see something or I'll hear something and it all just comes flooding back. My daughter and I had gone out for dinner and was paying for our bill and a gentleman walked in very briskly and I turned around and I looked at him. He was walking towards me with his hands in his pocket very quickly and yet I froze. I just froze and I stood there and it was like my daughter was there and it was a total other situation. What would I do? I panicked. I just stood there. After it happened to be an employee coming to get his paycheck. Recurrence, the second stage of recovery, can be the hardest to understand or to communicate to others who have never gone through a traumatic event such as yours. While some people find their lives returning to an even keel fairly quickly, others experience a rollercoaster of emotions that can last for quite a while. Much of the time you will feel good. Other times you may find yourself reacting to events, sights or sounds which remind you of the robbery. Your desire for extra safety precautions for yourself and your loved ones is very understandable. Gradually however, your sense of control and normality will be restored. One of the things I did to help me feel more comfortable about going back to work, I had a friend pick me up and drive me to and from the bank. What changed for me after the robbery was I guess being more careful just in your general lifestyle. Be more aware of your surroundings. Taking the time to check things out maybe before you just go forward. I'm just much more alert and actually some of those things are positive because I am so alert and I've trained my daughter how to be alert and watch for things and so some of those things are very positive that I've learned. My need to feel secure became even more intense when I had to testify for the trial. The idea of the lineup or actually having to testify against them in court is really kind of tense. You're going to have to face that individual again and that's really the last thing you want to do but you know it's something that you have to do if you want to resolve this. Seeing him in that lineup and then again in the courtroom that was frightening. It just brought back all of my fears of having him come after my family you know for revenge. The prosecutor's office really understood my concerns and they really went out of their way to assure me that we were all going to be safe and we were. If the case that you're involved in should proceed to trial there are a few steps that you should be aware of. First you should know that very few cases actually proceed to trial. Either the evidence is so strong that the defendant decides to plead guilty or through the negotiation process an agreement is reached and the defendant decides to plead guilty. In that instance there is no trial your testimony would not be required and the defendant would simply proceed to sentencing. The first step though if the defendant decides to proceed to trial is serving you with a subpoena. The subpoena will inform you of the date and time that the trial is to occur and the judge assigned to the case. At that time also a meeting will be scheduled with you to discuss your testimony. Either the prosecutor or a law enforcement officer will meet with you. Prior statements will be discussed and your present recollection of what occurred will also be discussed. At that time further questions that are likely to be posed to you by the prosecutor will be presented to you and likely questions that you will encounter upon cross examination by the defense attorney will also be discussed with you. The day that you are to testify a victim witness coordinator if available will escort you to the courtroom. You also may wish to have a personal friend or a co-worker present in the courtroom to provide you extra support. Make your wishes known to the prosecutor or the law enforcement officer or the victim witness coordinator as long as that person is not another witness in the trial that should not be a problem. After the verdict is reached whether it's guilty or not you will be informed. If it is a guilty verdict the defendant will proceed to sentencing. The victim impact statement is a very important device given to you by either a probation officer or by the victim witness coordinator and that allows you an opportunity to inform the judge of the personal impact that the actual robbery has had upon you. You also may have an opportunity at sentencing of addressing the judge orally. Should you have any questions throughout this process do not hesitate to ask them of either the prosecutor, the law enforcement associated with the case or the victim witness coordinator. The prosecutor's office has two goals. One goal is, of course, to do everything legally possible to convict the robber. Equally important, the United States Attorney's Office cares deeply about providing services and support to help you understand the criminal justice process. Our victim witness specialist was wonderful. There wasn't anything in the world that she wouldn't have done for us. In the victim witness assistance program there's probably one of the best things that we came in contact with us. It helped us because it prepared us for some of our feelings that we were going to experience. It prepared us for the trial, things that we could expect if we had to go through a lineup, if we had to testify. And it just really helped knowing that there was someone there in our corner that knew how we felt and was there to support us. It's important for witnesses and victims of a robbery to feel that they've regained control over their lives. This includes being part of the judicial system. Even if the case does not go to trial, it is important that you be there for the sentencing phase of it. This is important because it gives you a say in what happens to the offender, and it also helps you put closure on that event that occurred in your life. It's hard to get up there with his friends and family members all sitting there thinking that eventually I have to walk out of that courtroom. And it was extremely difficult, but I made it through it and I got my point across. I felt very good because the judge used some of the things that I said in her sentencing. So I felt real good about that. It made it worthwhile. It's funny, but when the robbery first occurred, there is no way I could have anticipated how much it would affect me. It has completely changed the way I think about safety, and I feel an increased importance, I guess, on spending time with my family and my friends. In a lot of ways, these have been very positive changes. I feel stronger as an individual for having survived the whole thing. And the fact that others understand that this has been such a traumatic event for me, well, that means more than I can say. I have to admit, right after the robbery, I almost quit my job. But a lot of people told me to wait. They said I should just give myself some time to heal before I made such a big decision. And I'm glad I did. I still love working here. It's what I've always wanted to do. And I am going to keep on doing it. I am not going to allow this event to control my life forever. It's important to remember that things will get better. It may take longer for some than others, but you'll get there. Take the time. If you need to cry, cry. If you need to seek professional help, seek professional help. Talk to other people about it. Don't let anybody feel that they need to rush you through this. To take the ride along the roller coaster and let it go up and down and go in and out of court rooms and cry on your way home from work and cry on your way to work and eventually that's all going to go away. Every day it gets easier and easier.