At lunch I stopped by the bank to pick up some rolls of quarters for laundry. (The next time we move, a washer/dryer hookup will be part of our criteria.) For some reason, the teller was acting really nervous. When I asked to withdraw two rolls of quarters, she stammered that I should swipe my card while she went to get them.
This in turn made me nervous. I watched her talking to one of the other tellers, wondering what was going on. Did I have a doppelganger on the FBI most wanted list? Was I acting suspiciously without knowing it? Was I just really jittery from all the coffee I drank this morning? Is there some unwritten rule about how many rolls of coins one may reasonably withdraw at a time? Was I going to spend 20 minutes talking to the security guards before they were satisfied that all I wanted to do was withdraw some cash from my own account?
She came back with the quarters, I evidently managed to mistype my PIN, but I got it right on the second try, and the transaction went fine (except for her pronouncing my name wrong)—though I decided to keep my hands in plain sight, just in case. All told, it was an odd experience.
Always two there are
I have no idea why two rolls of quarters would make you look suspicious. Coin laundries and slot machines abound. 50 or so would be weird.
Maybe the teller was out and had to go to the vault or get the quarters from someone else’s drawer. My cousin used to manage a bank and she didn’t like people yelling, “Hey Sherri, get me some cash!” It made her feel…insecure… I’m sure in the post 9/11 world, it has to be even scarier to be a bank clerk.
Re: Always two there are
Maybe the teller was out and had to go to the vault or get the quarters from someone else’s drawer.
Sure, but the constant looking around was really off-putting.
Re: Always two there are
Yeah, I don’t know why that happened. I haven’t heard reports of a two-quarter roll bandit. 😉