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Lights are on but nobody's home as bank leaves its doors wide open
WITH their time-delayed safes and movement sensors, banks might fancy themselves as high street versions of Fort Knox, the USA's gold depository.
But bank customer Dave Naughton uncovered a flaw in the system when he literally stumbled into his empty branch after hours – having found the front doors unlocked.
The bewildered 51-year-old ended up inside Dewsbury's NatWest town centre branch when the heavy wooden doors swung open as he tried to post a cheque through the letterbox.
Believing the cleaners had left them open by mistake, he climbed up the steps leading into the building – and the automatic glass doors inside parted to let him in.
Only as he stepped inside did the alarm go off, but even then nobody showed up to check on the security breach.
Mr Naughton was rooted to the spot waiting for the imminent arrival of police but, despite shouting out and waving his envelope at the CCTV camera, no one arrived.
After five minutes the alarm stopped and a relieved Mr Naughton thought he was about to be "rescued".
But as he moved, the alarm triggered and started up again.
Not wanting to be a suspect on TV's Crimewatch, he calmly waited another five minutes expecting police to turn up any second.
Eventually – after watching passers-by casually strolling past and unconcerned at the blaring alarm – he decided to shut the doors and go to Dewsbury Police Station in person.
He reported the incident to a policewoman on the helpdesk and then officers were sent to the scene.
Mr Naughton, a father of two from Batley, West Yorkshire, said he was stunned at the sequence of events.
"It's just comical," he said.
"All I did was try to push a cheque and a postal order through the letterbox and it ended with me standing in the deserted bank with the alarm going off.
"I waited and waited because I thought someone would come but they never did.
"Then I was sure the police would be on their way but the longer it went on the more I thought they had called for a Swat team with machine guns and I was going to be surrounded. It's farcical."
He recalled the moment the big front doors swung open – almost an hour after the branch closed.
"The letterbox seemed a bit stiff so I pushed a bit harder and felt the doors give," he said.
"There was a chink of light underneath so I thought there was someone inside.
"The automatic doors opened and I just strolled straight through. It wasn't real. I kept expecting the cavalry to come but nothing happened.
"I couldn't just walk out because they would have at least five minutes of incriminating video of this fat, bald bloke chuntering to himself and I didn't want to be a star of Crimewatch.
"Eventually I felt I had to take my chances so I moved towards the door.
"The automatic doors opened for me and I carefully pushed the oak doors back together behind me. None of the passers-by gave me a second glance as I exited the bank with the alarm going off.
"Maybe the banks aren't bothered any more. All their money has disappeared in the banking crisis and maybe they have decided there is nothing left to steal."
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said police knew nothing about the alarm until Mr Naughton turned up at the front desk and officers were sent out at 6.08pm.
"Officers arrived on the scene within eight minutes and once there liaised with bank representatives to ensure everything was in order," the spokesman said.
NatWest said in a statement: "The bank takes matters of security extremely seriously and has very strict procedures in place which we constantly review.
"Any breach of these procedures is totally unacceptable and is investigated as a matter of urgency."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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