BANDITS FOILED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 641, 20 September 1933, Page 5

BANDITS FOILED

NEW PROTECTIVE DEVICE GIVES ALARM TO TELLERS REFLECTIONS OF MIRRORS Sydney, Sept. 17. The official oi'gan of the New South Wales Police Association in its Septemher issue discloses that a bank at Pico, California, has installed an ingenious means to foil bandits who hold up banks, shoot the man behind the counter, and depjart with the money. Other institutions in the United States have become interested in the device. According to the report, "the bandit who walks into the teller's enelosure and gives the curt command to 'stick 'em up' has not much ehance of being obeyed, for he is looking at the reflection of the teller, and not at the man himself." If the bandit fires his automatic at the figure, all that he does is break a mirror and sound an alarm that brings all other tellers' guns into action against him. The teller's body is actually round the corner of the cage. He is seated or standing at a corner built at right angles to the one facing the customer. Opposite him is a mirror placed at an angle so that his image is caught and reflected in order to be visible to customer or bandit in front of the barred cage. It is impossible for the robber to hit the teller, as business is transacted through a sliding drawer, that operates in front of the grating.