Customers, Bank Employees And Security Thwart Robbery With Water Pistols

A toy water gun used to rob a bank. (Source: Sumber Busan Gijang Police Station, Kolase/VOI)

JAKARTA - Customers, employees and security managed to thwart a bank robbery in Busan, South Korea, just two minutes after the action began.

A man tried to rob a bank, armed with a toy water gun wrapped in a black plastic bag to make it look like a firearm. In the picture released by the local police, the toy water gun was in the form of a dinosaur.

Gijang Police Station, Busan said on Monday it was investigating a man in his 30s on charges of robbery, quoted by The Korea Times on February 14.

According to police, the man entered a bank in Ilgwang-eup, Gijang, Busan, at 10:58 am local time on Monday. Wearing a knitted mask and hat that was pulled over his face, he entered the building where the bank was located.

The bank branch office was on the second floor, and when the man escorted the customer from the hallway into it, he shouted, "Get down!" holding a gun-shaped object wrapped in a black plastic bag.

The frightened customer screams, creating a tense situation. The man stood blocking the entrance to the branch office before trying to enter the branch manager's office.

However, the branch manager, who was inside with a customer, closed the door. He then called the police and pushed the security company's emergency button.

When the man failed to enter the manager's office, he moved to the teller table and asked the bank employee to fill the travel bag he had prepared with 50,000 won.

Behind him, three or four customers kept kneeling on the floor. At that time, a man in his 50s suddenly attacked him from behind, grabbed his arm, and started a fight.

A security officer and a bank employee joined immediately, followed by two other employees.

Together, they managed to paralyze the robber just two minutes after he entered the bank.

They then confiscated plastic bags from his hands and found a toy water gun in the form of a dinosaur inside.

A bank official said, "People may think it's awkward or even funny that there's a water gun in a plastic bag, but at the time, the situation was very serious and scary, scared employees and female customers."

The local police are investigating the details and motives behind the crime and plan to award a man in his 50s who helped arrest the suspect.