A bank robbery in the small town of Alpha, Illinois, nearly turned deadly in June 1930 when two bandits escaped with thousands of dollars and left three people trapped inside the bank’s vault.
The robbery took place at the Alpha State Bank, where cashier J. E. Ammerman, clerk Pearl Anderson, and customer Grant Willets found themselves forced into the vault and locked inside. The bandits then fled with approximately $4,000, leaving their victims behind with no easy means of escape.
For the robbers, locking witnesses inside the vault may have seemed like an effective way to gain additional time before an alarm could be raised. For the three people trapped inside, however, the situation quickly became far more dangerous than the robbery itself.
Customers entering the bank after the bandits had gone heard pounding coming from behind the heavy vault walls. Realizing that people were trapped inside, they urgently sought someone capable of opening the locked door.
A local blacksmith was summoned to the bank and set to work on the vault lock. Rather than attempting the slow process of opening it normally, he smashed the locking mechanism and managed to free Ammerman, Anderson, and Willets.
The rescue came only just in time. According to the newspaper account, all three were nearing unconsciousness because of the dwindling air inside the enclosed vault.
Bandits Lock 3 in Safe
ALPHA, Illinois. — Two men and a woman, locked in the vault of the Alpha State Bank today by two bandits, were rescued by a blacksmith in the nick of time.
Customers who entered the bank after the bandits had escaped with $4,000, heard J.E. Ammerman, cashier, Pearl Anderson, clerk, and Grant Willets, customer, pounding on the walls of the vault.
A blacksmith, hurriedly summoned, smashed the lock and released the prisoners as they were on the verge of unconsciousness from lack of air.
Source: The Washington Daily News. Washington, D.C. June 13, 1930.
