Credit Union Robbed Quietly

CORRECTION APPENDED

The Harvard University Employee Credit Union was closed briefly midday yesterday after a man demanded cash in a letter he handed to a teller at 11:15 a.m.

According to Kevin Galvin, a Harvard spokesman, the man then fled with an envelope containing an undisclosed amount of cash. He appeared to be unarmed, and no injuries were reported.

Liz C. Bloom ’12, the assistant financial manager for the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, entered the bank just after the man left. She was the only customer in the lobby when she entered the bank, and she was depositing a large sum of money at the counter when she noticed the teller who was counting her money drastically slowing down. Bloom said she saw that her teller was distracted by another teller’s facial expression.

Both tellers, Bloom said, then ducked under the counter and started whispering, leaving Bloom with the piles of cash on the counter.

“I didn’t see anything,” she said. “It wasn’t a holdup. It was quietly done.”

Bloom said she did not know a robbery took place until she finally asked her teller if everything was okay.

Moments later HUPD entered and closed the doors to the bank, not allowing the few customers who had just trickled in to leave, and not admitting new customers. While the police took down names, the bank continued to complete transactions.

Bloom said the atmosphere in the bank during the entire incident was rather quiet—aside from the flustered teller, no other parties seemed emotionally disturbed or concerned.

The bank reopened before 2 p.m.

CORRECTION

The Dec. 3 news article "Credit Union Robbed Quietly" incorrectly stated that the person who allegedly robbed the Harvard University Employees Credit was arrested after his bus was pulled over by the police. In fact, though a suspect was taken from a bus nearby, according to a witness who requested to remain anonymous, the person who allegedly robbed the bank is still at large, according to Harvard Police Sergeant Wilmon Chipman.