Skeptical bank teller scares off would-be robber

[September 27, 2008]  CENTEREACH, N.Y. (AP) -- Police say a bank teller in Long Island, New York, had a simple question for a would-be robber: Are you serious? The skeptical teller's question was apparently enough to spook the female suspect, who fled the Roslyn Savings Bank in Centereach late Thursday afternoon without a dime.

Police say she walked into the bank located inside a supermarket and handed the teller a note demanding cash and threatening to open fire if the teller didn't comply.

That's when the teller expressed her crime-fighting dubiousness and asked if the suspect was serious. Police say the woman left without ever showing a gun.

They say she is also a suspect in a robbery Tuesday at the Bank of Smithtown, also in Centereach, a Long Island town about 50 miles east of New York City.

[Associated Press]

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