Made in Hollywood!

During the afternoon one Wednesday about two weeks ago a colleague and I made our way to our bank to take care of some business. Our school had learned that our bank would be merging with another company that we felt would not be stable.
As a result, the staff was told to open a new bank account at Bank B. Opening a bank account with Bank B was pretty straight forward since their bank officials came to our school and it was already done. I didn't want to deal with 2 bank accounts so I decided to close my existing one at Bank A.

Scene 1:
At Bank A

It was approximately 3:30 pm and we wondered into a not-so busy bank asking what procedures needed to be taken to close an account. The bank official responded by requesting that we fill out a form. After filling out the form, checking I.D., and using my name chop, we waited for the gentleman to do his work on the computer. I had requested that all my account funds be transferred to my new account at Bank B.

After awhile, the time was around 3:45 pm and the man began to bring out a WAD LOAD of cash! In my mind, I was thinking, "what is this guy doing???". Truthfully, I was a little dismayed that he was busting out such a great deal of money that I somehow my lips were glued together to say anything! As he was counting the money, he must have wrapped them with a tiny paper strip indicating the amount and putting a name chop mark on it as well. At this point I was feeling like a serious robber in the middle of a hold-up! A picture began formulating in my head at this point: this is a stick-up, be quiet, give my all the money you have, and no one will get hurt!!!" I've been watching too many bank heists (e.g., "Inside Man")..ha ha...The cash was amounting to a few piles by now. Finally, he told my friend and I that it was too late to transfer the money to the new account and that we should take the CASH & go directly to Bank B and deposit the money ourselves since they close at 4:00 pm!! There was still sometime the man reassured us. WHAT!!???!! The guy just gave me my account savings in cash & expected me to take it out onto the streets & transport it to another bank to make a deposit myself????? Did I hear right? He didn't even offer to give me any bank cash envelopes??? I quickly stuffed the wad loads of cash into my knapsack and felt rather vulnerable to have so much money on my person. I made sure I put the cash inside my backpack and mad a beeline exit out of the bank with my colleague.

Scene 2:
I made a semi mad dash to our parked scooters and literally jumped on & jetted at 30-40 km/h to Bank B...which thankfully was only a short distance away. I don't recall ever riding a scooter so fast in my life!
RED ALERT: 2 Asian women fleeing the bank via scooters with stolen money!

Scene 3:
Bank B
We quickly entered the bank and headed to a special deposit window due to the amount of money I wanted to deposit. As soon as I brought out the piles of cash, it was like a symphony of heads and eyeballs turned to stare. Btw, these were bank officials. The sad thing is I didn't think they even knew they were staring. They just did it automatically. I was just thinking to myself in my stream of consiousness: "YEAH, STARE ALL YOU WANT, I JUST STOLE THAT MONEY FROM ANOTHER BANK AND I'M PUTTING IT IN YOUR BANK! YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!" Ha! Ha!

After I completed my deposit form & an official counted the money with a counting machine, a piece of paper was transferred to 2 different people for signing & authorization before my bank account book was updated & returned to me.

Final Scene:
Sheer relief! As I left Bank B, I felt relieved to have that money safely stored away & not on my person. Seriously, the 40 mins. of time in those 2 banks were really a short film right out of Hollywood! It was really scary because someone could have just robbed me! People at Bank A were so unprofessional and had no reason to ask me to do such an unsafe thing! I guess because I closed my account with them which means I ended any kind of business with them that they could care less if I get robbed once I step foot out of the bank! They couldn't wait until the next business day to complete the transfer & they wanted to deal with less paperwork so they gave a poor woman a load of cash to carry...to go out into the open & deposit herself! Uncalled for..unprofessional...dangerous, and downright wrong! Perhaps I was so dumbfounded & in many ways awestruck by the moment that I seemed to have lost any sense of protesting skills!

Directed by:
Sophia Yee

Cast:
In order of appearance
Petrified girl: Sophia Yee
Scared girl: Star Chang
Bank A "Not-so-competent employee: Mr. Wang Wong
Bank B officials: Staring was natural & not acted!

On location from:
Taiwan