After feeling safe enough to move, we all shakily stood up and looked wide-eyed at each other. "Did that just happen?"

I remembered my tellers so I immediately ran to the back to find them. Somewhere in my crawl from my desk to the safe deposit vault, I had lost my shoes but had no recollection of them falling off. As I rounded the wall partition I saw the upended desks and trash strewn all over the floor where the robbers were looking for money. I noticed a cash drawer, which was odd, on the floor yet still did not see the tellers. As I stood there in my stockinged feet, the ATM closet door opened and all three tellers emerged, pale and shaky.

When the robbers first entered and screamed out 'This is a robbery!", all three tellers had coincidentally been behind the large wall. When they heard the yelling, one teller, Gama, quickly took his drawer out and placed it on the floor as some sort of offering. The three of them then quickly hid inside the ATM closet which locks from the inside, so when the gunmen came to the back, they saw the money drawer but no employees. I wonder sometimes if they had not had that money, would they have more fervently demanded the locked vault money?

The people in the drive thru indeed had seen the masked men and had called the police, as the hidden banker had had time to hit his desk alarm button before hiding.

Austin Police, aware of the past Wachovia tragedy in Alabama, had remained hidden to avoid a similar hostage situation and were waiting at all major street exits. They wanted to robbers to be out of the building and away from people before they swarmed in to arrest the felons.

The robbers themselves had immediately split up. One was in a stolen getaway car and was being chased by officers. He drove into an open field, set the car alight with gasoline and took off on foot. Another man had taken my purse and was running on foot with it on his shoulder. The third assailant had also fled on foot and was caught by a police K9 while hiding under a neighboring home's blue plastic baby pool.

They were all apprehended. It was later discovered that the mastermind had been near the premise and had been interviewed by the police. They had asked him to return the following day to give his statement, and for reasons I'll never understand, he went. When he arrived he was arrested immediately as his conspirators had all turned on each other during questioning and were ratting each other out.

For us at the bank, we were all shell shocked, but ok. The bank was gracious to us and provided time- off and counseling. I am still amazed sometimes that it happened, and happy it ended safely. And it sure gives me a leg-up on dinner conversation!