Teller Survives Holdup Only to Lose Her Job

Bank teller Melissa Gamer believes she was lucky to get away with her life after a gun-toting robber took almost $4,000 from her window Friday at Great Western Bank in Huntington Beach.

But after finishing work Monday, the 21-year-old Cal State Fullerton student, who works part time at the bank, was called to her boss’s desk and fired.

“They told me that I had too much money in my drawer” when the robbery occurred, she said Tuesday.

Gamer was fired for breaking a rule that limits the amount of money a teller may keep in her drawer, said Lynn Taylor, director of public relations for Great Western. Clerks are supposed to put money in the safe after their till has more than a certain amount, she said.

“It’s incredible that she was ignorant of the policy,” Taylor said. “Especially since she had signed a statement confirming that she knew her limit.”

However, Gamer said Tuesday that she was unaware of the rule.

“I never knew what my limit was,” she said. “I had almost never handled cash before because I’d only been a teller for three days.”

Gamer, a 1986 graduate of Marina High School and a member of the Delta Zeta sorority at Cal State Fullerton, acknowledged that she signed a form confirming that she could have only $2,500 in her drawer. But she said she signed it three years ago when she started working at the bank as a part-time data entry clerk.

She said she worked in the data-entry job the entire time, and it wasn’t until July 31, the Monday before the robbery, that she was finally made a bank teller.

“I knew how to do a lot of operational things, but I had never . . . learned how to be a teller,” Gamer said.

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday of last week, she took deposits and withdrawals from customers. Then, at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, a short dark man with a mustache approached her window and asked her to save his place in line while he went outside and waited for a friend.

“He wanted to come back to my window because he didn’t want to wait in line,” Gamer said. “He walked outside for a minute and then, when I was done with my customer, he handed me a note. At the same time, he lifted up his shirt to show what appeared to be a gun.

“Then he said, ‘Honey, don’t make me hurt you.’ ”

Gamer then told the man to wait while she got a bag. As she bent down, she pressed the alarm button with her left hand.

“I was trying to push the button quietly, but I had thoughts of Rebecca Schaeffer being shot in the chest and dying right there,” Gamer said, referring to the young actress who was killed last month in her Los Angeles apartment.

Gamer admits that she had more than the $2,500 allowed under bank rules in her drawer but said she deserved another chance rather than be fired.

The bank, however, disagrees.

“The rule is there to limit losses in robberies and is strictly enforced,” said Great Western spokeswoman Taylor.

Taylor acknowledged that Gamer did what a teller is supposed to do when confronted by a robber. But, “a policy is a policy,” said Taylor. “We’re out $4,000. . . . We’re the one who lost.”