Surviving the Mob - Dennis Griffin [68]
“That night I sat in my apartment in Manhattan Beach and said a little prayer before I went to bed. A bank robber’s prayer. I said, ‘Lord, things haven’t been too good lately. And I would never pray for you to help me steal. But I’m going to do what I’m going to do tomorrow and I’m asking you to watch over me.’”
The next morning, Andrew got up early, was picked up by Tommy and Joe, and drove to Paul’s. After doctoring the license plates, they left for the bank. They’d done a dry run of the escape route the night before and were ready to do the job. Like clockwork, the Brinks truck pulled in within an hour after the bank opened. And just like they figured, there were two extra bags of money for the holiday. The guard loaded the bags on a hand cart and wheeled them into the bank. Back outside in a couple of minutes, he got into the truck and drove away.
“I exited Paul’s car followed by Tommy and we headed for the bank. I had on doctor’s-exam gloves and a sweatshirt that covered a bulletproof vest, sunglasses, and a New York Yankees ball cap. The bank had four or five customers at the time. I kept my head straight, went directly to the counter, and jumped over it. I heard a couple of screams, but kept my focus on the money bags. I grabbed the first two and threw them over the counter to Tommy. Then I took the other two bags and jumped back over the counter. Some guy decided to be a hero and made a move at me. Tommy pulled his handgun, grabbed the guy, and threw him on the floor. There must have been a lot of wax on the floor, because the guy slid quite a distance.
“At that time, a female customer came in and saw what was happening. She started screaming and ran outside. Tommy and I followed her out and went behind the bank. We threw the bags into Paul’s car, got in, and laid down on the back seat. As Paul pulled away, he’d have looked to any passersby like a grandfather out driving around all alone. We were safely inside Paul’s house in just about a minute after the robbery and Joe was right behind us.
“The traffic on the police scanner was that they were responding to a bank robbery and that roadblocks were being set up. They were also reporting that the robbers were a male and female team, because witnesses had seen me follow the screaming female customer outside. The cops pulled her over a block away and took her in for questioning. After a while, they figured out she wasn’t involved.
“I’d worked out an arrangement with Charlotte for me to contact her by beeper to let her know how the score went. If it was successful, I was to beep her one-four-three. In beeper lingo, that meant ‘I love you.’ I sent her the message, then shaved and took a shower, and everybody changed clothes. We bagged up our robbery clothes and gear and Paul’s wife disposed of everything. After that we counted the loot. The take was just under a half-million dollars. We split it four ways. Tommy and Joe had to take care of Sal DeMeo [their crew boss] from their end. According to protocol, I was supposed to kick some of my share up to Nicky. I didn’t, though. At least not right away.
“We stayed at Paul’s for several hours, eating, listening to the scanner, and watching the news. When we felt it was safe,