What if the Bank Gave a Party and Everybody Came

My spouse, the effervescent Ms. Miller, called me today during a planning meeting (yeah...just like Office Space...meeting to plan...planning to meet) in a snit about a bank robbery in progress at the Wachovia Bank down the street. I heard via KRLD 1080 on the way home from work that the hostages had been released and and a "subject" nabbed about 1/2 mile away from the bank. I went home via Highway 342 about 5:30 PM and the intersection at 342 and Ovilla was blocked. There were more news reporters than there were peace officers. It was like the shark aquarium at Sea World. I'm glad no one was injured and that the authorities treated the entire situation as if it was serious-I definitely would want them to treat things as serious if I, a member of my family or anyone actually...were in the bank or being held hostage.

Other blogs/bloggers/blog posters have tried to kick the Red Oak Police Department in the shins for their actions. I just disagree with that angle. It's easy to ridicule the Police for the ticket "scam" and get mad for being cited on Lowrance recently(Tuesday)..hell it was MY stupidity that got me that citation...what am I droning on about? It's walking a thin line between whining/griping for no reason and just plain ole' BS to whack the Police for over or under-reacting. It's also easy to put a "Keystone Cops by-line or something similar but dead wrong in this case.

We don't know ANYTHING about the facts, the tone of the people making the call and the initial situation. We do know that the system works, we saw a great example of inter agency cooperation and had a ringside seat to how an operation was supposed to happen.

I'd much rather see 100 police protecting our community than see the alternative....a bank robbery gone bad, hostages shot and/or people killed. Anyone that chides the ROPD in this case is either short-sighted, delusional or just not thinking through the situation.

Here's what Fox had to say about this weird deal...snipped from the Fox news story...you make the call...

"RED OAK --
Call it the hostage situation that wasn't. A three-hour ordeal ended on a strange note in Red Oak Thursday evening shortly after FBI SWAT team
members stormed the Wachovia bank on S. Ovilla Road, shortly after seven people who they believed were hostages were cleared from the
building.But those seven weren't hostages, because there
was no hostage-taker."The original call came in
as a bank robbery and hostage situation, and we treated it as such,"
said FBI Special Agent Lori Bailey on FOX 4's 6:00pm newscast.The
whole thing started around 1:30pm when someone allegedly tried to
hold up the bank. Someone sounded the bank alarm, and the suspect
tried to run away. He was captured a short distance away.As this was
happening, an alleged accomplice was being questioned nearby by Red
Oak Police. That person led them on a short chase before being captured. But the people inside the bank, whether employees or customers,apparently went into lock down mode-- and no one was sure who was in or out of the building.The FBI, along with about a half-dozen other agencies, treated the situation as if the people inside were in imminent danger. For all they knew, a third suspect could have
been hiding somewhere in the building.At 5:30pm, FOX 4 viewers
watched live as five women and two men exited the building one
at a time under heavy guard by FBI agents. Each was led to an unmarked
federal car and taken away. They were the supposed hostages, either bank employees or customers.Moments after the last person left, the FBI agents dressed in SWAT team gear entered the bank on South Ovilla Road in a tight block formation, with guns drawn. They quickly determined the building was indeed empty."