Spare Change: Street-Wise Bankers Foil Getaway

Executives at Sequoia National Bank have shown that they would go to any length to protect their customers' money - including chasing down and tackling a robber on the busy streets of San Francisco.

Two weeks ago Mark Feathers, vice president of $35 million-asset Sequoia, with the help of the bank's chief credit officer and chief financial officer, caught a man minutes after, they said, he had robbed the bank's sole branch for the second time in two days.

"I was not there the first time we were robbed, and when I came in later that day, they said they really needed me earlier," said Mr. Feathers, 37. "So I guess I might have been overcompensating a bit."

On June 19 a robber took $1,085 after passing a teller a note saying he had a gun. The next day he came back, witnesses said, and got $300 from a teller working her first day at Sequoia.

However, Mr. Feathers tailed him out the door with chief financial officer Gary Cristofani and chief credit officer Mike Sanford close behind. After covering a few blocks, the suspect realized he was being followed and ran into traffic to get away.

After a brief chase, the man hailed a taxi. But the nervous driver fled, leaving his cab and a passenger behind, after Mr. Feathers yelled to him that the man had just robbed a bank. Mr. Feathers finally caught up to the suspect on the sidewalk, putting him in a wrestling hold from behind and then, with the help of his colleagues, pinning the man down. The police appeared within minutes.

Mr. Feathers, a stocky 5 feet, 6 inches, attributed his instinct to pursue the suspect and ability to subdue him to his military training and experience as a high school wrestler.

"I was concerned for myself and bystanders," he said. "And it just seemed like the logical thing to do."

Joe Garrett, Sequoia's president, said customers were all impressed by the length the executives would go for the 14-year-old bank, which he said had never before been robbed.

"I guess we really showed the depositors that their money is not just FDIC-insured," Mr. Garrett said.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER