I'm pretty sure that this guy deserves an award and probably a promotion if this had happened in Nigeria. Please read on and air your views.

(CNN) -- Jim Nicholson could've just handed over the cash. Instead, he gave the would-be robber a run for his money -- and paid for it.

The 30-year-old bank teller said the suspect, dressed in black and wearing sunglasses, walked up to his counter at the Key Bank branch in suburban Seattle, Washington, demanding he fill the man's bag with cash.

"So I grab the bag ,  I threw it on the floor," Nicholson told CNN Radio. He said he demanded the robber show him a weapon. When he realized there was none, Nicholson said, he lunged at the robber, chased him down the street, pinned him down and waited for the police.

That was Tuesday of last week. He lost his job Thursday.

Why?

"Policy violation," Nicholson said. "Basically, we are supposed to comply with any robber that would come in. We're supposed to just give him the money and let him go -- and obviously I did not do that."

Key Bank spokeswoman Anne Foster declined to comment on the incident, saying it's under investigation, and Nicholson's termination, saying it's a personnel matter.

"What I can say is Key's highest priority is to protect the safety of our employees and our clients," she said. "Our policies and procedures are in the best interest of public safety and they're consistent with industry standards."

"Money, after all, is insurable and it's replaceable," she added. "Lives are not."

Nicholson said he knew about the company's robbery policy before the incident, but said he acted on instinct. He found his dismissal a bit harsh, but said he doesn't plan to challenge it.

"I think that they probably wanted to set an example," he said. "I don't think they want other tellers to do the same thing."

SOURCE: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/05/bank.teller.stops.robber/index.html

Who told that woman that lives are not insurable? She should be sacked.

na wa o

She said lives  are not replaceable

wanna be hero putting everyone in danger!

what if he had accomplice outside with a real gun

The guy is definitely a brave soul, but if he agrees that the sack was in line with policy, then I am with him on that. I mean WHAT IF the robber had been armed?

If this had happened in Ngr, to start with the boss who fired him would have been taken to the cleaners because it would have been alleged that the robber was in league with him. But chances are that it is true.

foolish boy. this definately happened in the 80s in naija and the boy was promoted t=straight from clerk to supervisor. uba

He was sacked just because he violated the rules of the bank.

but i think he'd get a new place as some other employers like the bold approach to this kind of intimidation.
i wish him the best in his new endeavours. he's young, has good instincts & reflexes. can possibly get a new appointment in some security/ intelligence outfit with adequate trainings & exposures!

Please let us stop comparing US and Naija.

In nigeria, if a robber is let go and the police is told that no gun was used during the operation, all the bank staff would be sent to the police station and their poor family told to come and bail them (may be N5m per head) and told to report to the office every day.

Any day the DPO runs short of Money, he would send his boys to come and pick them up and process start all over again.

Na wa o. This is very strange and an application of the law to the letter.
Hmmmmnnnn, It is obvious that the guy broke the laws, but i think he shoudl have been pardoned or given lesser punishment. We canot call the bank's action injustice but i think they should have been more lenient.

Waoo dat sound incredible but believe me such cannever happen in niger at all. That is wy an employee have to get his or her own copy of agreement of service in other to abide by the rules and regulation in carrying out ur duty well if he like let him challenge it ok

I quite agree with u Jarius.
The bank's management should have put on a human face and probably give him a suspension, pay cut for the month or something along those lines. After all he saved their money for them. However, i will strongly appeal to people who accidentally fall in his position to think twice and obey company polices.

The bank should have given him a query or something, not sacked. The guy acted at the spur of the moment and whatever training or policy he had might not even be remembered.

But what happened to the robber after all?

blackchief:

Please let us stop comparing US and Naija.

In nigeria, if a robber is let go and the police is told that no gun was used during the operation, all the bank staff would be sent to the police station and their poor family told to come and bail them (may be N5m per head) and told to report to the office every day.

Any day the DPO runs short of Money, he would send his boys to come and pick them up and process start all over again.

anybody wey no want to drop na Awaiting Trail, and eventually forggoten

I have a feeling that the robber will sue the bank and claim that his rights were violated

As Nigerians as we are, should we blame the Bank-Teller for taking the law into his own hands, even though what he did was right, or blame the Bank management for sacking the man?

Abi ooo@ Safariman lol

you know whats going to happen. he would walk into the bank and demand his extra large trash bag be filled as well. unarmed by the way.

I do not think that was a smart move from the bank teller>]. I would never try anything that dumb!!!!

His action was not commendable at all, he could have gotten busted thereby making the bank lose more money.

Very [b]DUMB [/b]of him to have pursued the robber. While money is insured through FDIC, tellers lives are not insured in which case she was correct.  The teller's life cannot be replaced, and firing him was the best thing because he endangered the lives of other employees and customers within the bank premises and more so the risk is even more higher. This time when this robber is coming back, definitely he will reinforce himself and who knows what happens next. Does he know how much fines he has imposed on this bank for outrightly flouting both bank policies and state banking regulations for such stupid act. He was lucky that the robber had not retaliated and had causalities, otherwise he would be standing on the defense stand. He should be lucky that the robber is not suing him for harassment, and violiating his rights because he was not caught in the act. Anyway we have not heard the last of this story.

What's that saying again about acting like the Romans while you are in Rome
The guy should have avoided the adventure,hope he's learnt

I know one Jim Nicholson who runs an escrow management financial services firm in New York. I hope he's not the one.

leave superhero stunts for tv.

Most of the responses here are dumb! You make it look as easy as if it was a case of the Bank instructing its tellers not to swear at a customer regardless of provocation. This brave man was caught up in an armed robbery. It is not you everyday case of dealing with a loud and irate customer. When someone walks up to your window and tells you he has a gun, no amount of training can prepare you for such a situation. At that point in time it is a case of fight or flight, it is human nature. The man acted on Impulse. How can you fire a person for being a human being.

I rememeber a case in the UK where a child drowned in a lake because 2 police community officers who could swim refused to jump in to rescue the child because they werent trained to rescue drowning people. Basically saying it is not in my job description

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7006412.stm

What the company did was right. What if the guy had been killed in the attempt. When somebody has a gun YOU DO AS HE SAYS. Leave the hero stuff to Jackie Chan.

Now having said that i would have suspended him and not fired him.

if na naija the guy 4 don get double promotion