Senior Doesn't Commit Bank Robbery

Walden Dillaway '65-4 walked into Cambridge Trust Company yesterday make a withdrawal from his account, and a few minutes later found himself charged with bank robbery.

Dillaway had filled out his withdrawal slip and presented it to the woman teller at the savings window. She began to tremble--and for good reason. On the back of the slip an unknown prankster had written, "I have a gun. Give me all your paper money."

The girl then handed the Harvard senior $100 instead of the $90 he had asked for on the withdrawal slip. Dillaway, not comprehending the reason for her sudden nervousness, handed her back the extra ten-dollar bill and proceeded to the next window to deposit $70 in his checking account.

By this time all the tellers in the bank knew what seemed to be going on.

The lady at the checking account window, however was baffled. She nervously handed Dillaway his receipt and looked away.

Dillaway pocketed the receipt and started to leave. Before he got two steps, two bank guards had cut him off and ordered, "Stay right here; don't move." Dillaway complied dazedly.

The guards led Dillaway to the back office where the bank manager enlightened him as to his situation.

After ten minutes of questioning the suspect, the manager called in two detectives from the Cambridge police.

They grilled Dillaway for 20 minutes and threatened to throw the book at him. Dillaway of course was denying everything except his identity.

Meanwhile an unidentified grad student had entered the bank and over-heard what had occurred earlier.

He rushed to the back where Dillaway was about to be hauled away and told the bank officials that the same misfortune had happened to him in the Harvard Trust Company a short time before.

The detectives, however, weren't going to believe his story easily. In fact, they were about to arrest the grad student as an accomplice.

The grad student then asked the detectives to accompany him back to the Harvard Trust Company to search for the note which had been thrown in a wastebasket. The detectives reluctantly agreed. They entered the other bank and sought the wastebasket in question. The crushed note was there, and the detectives freed a grateful Dillaway.