One last bank job turns sour! Believable?

Norma Jean · Mar 10, 2008

Let's say a man and a wife are married, and his wife gets terminal Cancer one day, and she ends up in the hospital almost close to death. The doctors tell the husband that in order for them to save his wife, the wife will need surgery--surgey that will cost fifty thousand dollars---something the husband doesn't have. The husband and the wife don't have medicare (he has a LOW Minimum wage job) and neither he nor his wife is eliglible for FREE medicare. The husband tries contacting churches, organizations for help---ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING HE CAN THINK OF, but it always comes to a dead end and it comes to no avail. So basically he and his wife are stuck with this problem, and unless the husband can get money for the surgery, the wife will die. So the husband gets the idea to rob banks to get the money for her surgery. But after robbing banks, he finds he still doens't have enough money yet for the surgery--he needs to rob one more bank to get the exact amount of the surgery but then when he tries one last time to rob a bank, he gets caught......can an event like that take place in REAL LIFE? I mean does it sound even a bit realistic??

dpaterso · Mar 10, 2008

Depends what you mean by "rob banks" -- you mean electronically, or by running inside with a gun and ordering the tellers to fill a bag with money?

The former I might believe -- though it doesn't sound as if your guy is a computer whiz -- the latter is hard to accept in this day and age, what with smart security systems, bulletproof shutters that close teller positions instantly, automatically locking doors, alarms connected to police stations, CCTV, etc.

If you have something else in mind, or if the story takes place in the 1960s when things weren't so sophisticted, do tell.

-Derek

IceCreamEmpress · Mar 10, 2008

Norma Jean said:
can an event like that take place in REAL LIFE? I mean does it sound even a bit realistic??

No, not if this is in the US.

Hospitals negotiate payment plans all the time. They don't ask for cash on the barrelhead in any case.

In a life-or-death instance, the hospital would find a way to make it work. Heck, if the man quit his job, the woman would be officially indigent as of that point and the hospital could fast-track her into Medicaid.

Uninsured people get life-or-death surgery ALL THE TIME in the US. The only time this is difficult is for something like a transplant (which costs millions of dollars, anyway).

Where uninsured people get a completely raw deal is in other medical care, especially preventative care or care for chronic conditions. Life-or-death cancer surgery, on the other hand, is something the hospital and social service agencies move heaven and earth to make happen.

Also, the "one last score" trope is pretty played-out at this point. You'd need to find an innovative twist.

MichaelDeVere · Mar 10, 2008

Several years ago, I remember reading (sorry can't remember where) that the average take on an armed robbery of a bank was $7000. Banks simply don't keep that much cash on hand anymore.

At $7K a pop, your man has to do 7-8 jobs to pay for the operation.

Incidently, the same article that I read stated that the average take for online fraud was $300K. This was a few years ago when phishing was really big with fake bank sites designed to snake online banking user ids and passwords out of unwitting spam email recipients.

IceCreamEmpress · Mar 10, 2008

MichaelDeVere said:
Several years ago, I remember reading (sorry can't remember where) that the average take on an armed robbery of a bank was $7000. Banks simply don't keep that much cash on hand anymore.

Yep.

There have been quite a few bank robberies in the Boston area in the last few months, and the takes have been much lower than that, even--in the $1,000-$3,000 range, if I recall correctly.

Donald Westlake's Dortmunder and company stopped bothering with banks twenty years ago.

MichaelDeVere · Mar 10, 2008

Now for a good caper, I'd hit the concessions management office in a stadium right after a major sporting event.

That would be almost as lucrative as an Ocean's plot.

Shadow_Ferret · Mar 10, 2008

Train robbing. Now that's the ticket.

Pup · Mar 10, 2008

IceCreamEmpress said:
No, not if this is in the US.

Hospitals negotiate payment plans all the time. They don't ask for cash on the barrelhead in any case.

Yep, that seemed the weak point to me: the scene where the doctor says, in effect, "I need $xxx,xxx to do the operation or your wife will die." The man says, "But I don't have $xxx,xxx," and the doctor says, "Too bad."

I'd suspend disbelief over a wacky bank robbery scheme that builds bizarrely step-by-step, but if the initial premise is unrealistic, the motivation for the whole thing falls apart. I'm just not buying that a doctor or hospital in the modern world would behave that way, or if they did, that the main character couldn't find another more normal one or someone to advise him how to deal with Medicaid and charities and bankruptcy and other ways to handle the situation.

Marian Perera · Mar 10, 2008

There's a book called Where the Money is, written by a FBI agent who investigated bank thefts and brought a lot of the perps to justice. Wonderful book (says QoS the Extremely Critical). Covers all kinds of bank thefts - insider jobs, bank invasions, tunneling into the vault, you name it.

My family actually was in the position described in the OP - my mom had terminal cancer and there was some drug which may or may not have helped and we couldn't afford it. We were in the Middle East, though, so there was no Medicaid or welfare. It was kind of a moot point anyway, since her health was such that she couldn't have taken any more medication.

The bottom line is, write whatever you like, but there are people out there who'll be able to spot inconsistencies or unrealistic details, so do the research beforehand.

Bufty · Mar 10, 2008

I'm sure I've come across this situation before. Can't remember if it was a film or a book but the main character's motivation for his actions was cash for treatment of a sick member of the family.

One last bank job that turns sour is okay by me - the reason for the bank job isn't.

IceCreamEmpress · Mar 10, 2008

Bufty said:
I'm sure I've come across this situation before. Can't remember if it was a film or a book but the main character's motivation for his actions was cash for treatment of a sick member of the family.

Dog Day Afternoon, the 1975 movie starring Al Pacino, was about a bank robber who wanted funds for his partner's gender-reassignment surgery.

It was based on the true story of a 1972 bank robbery.

megan_d · Mar 10, 2008

Bufty said:
I'm sure I've come across this situation before. Can't remember if it was a film or a book but the main character's motivation for his actions was cash for treatment of a sick member of the family.

One last bank job that turns sour is okay by me - the reason for the bank job isn't.

Maybe you're thinking of the Denzel Washington film 'John Q.' His son needs a heart transplant, so he takes the ER hostage.

Pestilence · Mar 10, 2008

There's also Brian Keene's excellent "Terminal", in which the protagonist discovers he has a very short time to live due to terminal Cancer -- and decides to do a bank job to ensure his family are looked after when he's gone. I'd recommend reading this as a very good example of keeping the "bank job" genre fresh and exciting.

L.R. Currell · Mar 13, 2008

Armoured cars would be the way to go, they have more money but you'd need an inside man. Maybe, the wife has a brother who is a guard on a truck and is willing to help out. Just a thought.

rainboy · Mar 15, 2008

IceCreamEmpress said:
No, not if this is in the US.

Hospitals negotiate payment plans all the time. They don't ask for cash on the barrelhead in any case.

In a life-or-death instance, the hospital would find a way to make it work. Heck, if the man quit his job, the woman would be officially indigent as of that point and the hospital could fast-track her into Medicaid.

Pup said:
Yep, that seemed the weak point to me: the scene where the doctor says, in effect, "I need $xxx,xxx to do the operation or your wife will die." The man says, "But I don't have $xxx,xxx," and the doctor says, "Too bad."

But wasn't that the conclusion of Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko"? That hundreds of people die in the U.S. each year because they don't have the medical insurance to afford the treatment of life-threatening conditions? And now you're telling me this couldn't possibly happen? Not in the U.S.?

The Scip · Mar 15, 2008

I think if the book was set in the 1950's or 60's it might be a bit more believable. Although I'm not sure if the cost for surgeries would be the same.

IceCreamEmpress · Mar 15, 2008

rainboy said:
But wasn't that the conclusion of Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko"? That hundreds of people die in the U.S. each year because they don't have the medical insurance to afford the treatment of life-threatening conditions? And now you're telling me this couldn't possibly happen? Not in the U.S.?

As I said in the post, US hospitals are very good about working with uninsured and underinsured patients to find ways to pay for common emergency surgeries; it's when you need chronic continuing care, or more complicated/rarer surgery, that the uninsured patient gets screwed.

A cancer surgery that cost only $50,000 would be something that a hospital would be able to make happen--any surgery that costs that little in the US would be something quite routine. And cancer hospitals are the best-funded hospitals in the US; if the local hospital couldn't make it happen, they could refer the patient to a large teaching hospital with a big charity endowment.

Now, if the wife needed a heart transplant, and had no insurance, she'd be out of luck. But the husband would need to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars, minimum, to pay for that.

Marian Perera · Mar 15, 2008

That happened to a friend of mine, actually. Cystic fibrosis affecting both lungs. Needed transplant. $400,000. Medicaid wouldn't cover.

We tried to raise money. We'd raised $6000 by the time he died. He was twenty.

IceCreamEmpress · Mar 15, 2008

Queen of Swords said:
That happened to a friend of mine, actually. Cystic fibrosis affecting both lungs. Needed transplant. $400,000. Medicaid wouldn't cover.

We tried to raise money. We'd raised $6000 by the time he died. He was twenty.

Yes. A transplant would be a completely believable scenario, but you'd have to pull off a HUGE heist to pay for it, and come up with a really good cover story about where you got the money.

But I can see this as, say, a Coen brothers movie.

Sorry about your friend, Queen of Swords. CF is a tragic disease.

Daehota · Mar 16, 2008

IceCreamEmpress said:
Dog Day Afternoon, the 1975 movie starring Al Pacino, was about a bank robber who wanted funds for his partner's gender-reassignment surgery.

It was based on the true story of a 1972 bank robbery.

That one didn't turn out too well. I cried.

ICE brings up a good idea, though. What if it was some sort of elective surgery that the wife "couldn't live without?"

Okay, now I'm rewriting your story for you. The point remains, I think, that a bank job gone sour is fine, but the reason for it needs to be tweaked.

Jenan Mac · Mar 16, 2008

rainboy said:
But wasn't that the conclusion of Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko"? That hundreds of people die in the U.S. each year because they don't have the medical insurance to afford the treatment of life-threatening conditions? And now you're telling me this couldn't possibly happen? Not in the U.S.?

"Life or death" isn't always a one-shot surgical deal. For example, my husband has hypertension. Without his assorted monitoring and meds, he'll eventually stroke out and die. Same for a diabetic, or asthmatic, or someone with HIV, any other chronic disease-- it's all about costly maintenance, not a one-shot cure-all. You can't cure a diabetic, but you sure can kill him slowly, which is what the American healthcare system, at its worst, excels at.

L.R. Currell · Mar 17, 2008

I was amazed when I first went to the states about the status of the healthcare system over there. I got injured working security at a gig pretty bad, (severed two tendons in my hand when a nutjob smashed a pain of glass onto my head and I blocked it) in Brisbane, Australia and stupid me didn't think it was that bad. My mate ended up throwing me in the car and taking me to the hospital which was good because I lost a fair bit of blood. I didn't notice it at the time because I kept strapping my hand up, anyway, I was in hospital, got surgery, didn't cost me a cent. Infact the nurse said, you have physio on monday you may as well stay till then, to which I replied, no worries take your time, didn't have to cook, cable tv, I didn't mind it.

giusti · Mar 19, 2008

For someone living in the US of A, that seems dreamlike. But it's going to stay that way, as that will never happen here. For the near future at least, Americans are just going to have to be manly and stick it out.

"It's only a flesh-wound!"

-giusti

StephanieFox · Mar 19, 2008

Cancer surgery and follow up would cost a lot more than $50k, unless it was caught stage zero and needed little treatment. If it were life and death, as you are telling us, that would me many times that amount.

(The system sucks, eh?)

girlyswot · Mar 22, 2008

Norma Jean said:
Let's say a man and a wife are married, and his wife gets terminal Cancer one day, and she ends up in the hospital almost close to death. The doctors tell the husband that in order for them to save his wife, the wife will need surgery--surgey that will cost fifty thousand dollars---something the husband doesn't have. The husband and the wife don't have medicare (he has a LOW Minimum wage job) and neither he nor his wife is eliglible for FREE medicare. The husband tries contacting churches, organizations for help---ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING HE CAN THINK OF, but it always comes to a dead end and it comes to no avail. So basically he and his wife are stuck with this problem, and unless the husband can get money for the surgery, the wife will die. So the husband gets the idea to rob banks to get the money for her surgery. But after robbing banks, he finds he still doens't have enough money yet for the surgery--he needs to rob one more bank to get the exact amount of the surgery but then when he tries one last time to rob a bank, he gets caught......can an event like that take place in REAL LIFE? I mean does it sound even a bit realistic??

Why do you want it to take place in real life? (I'm assuming you're not posting because you're planning a career in crime

)

The point is it doesn't need to be real, it needs to be plausible. You have to write it well enough to persuade your readers that in the world you've created this is how it happened. Make them suspend whatever disbelief they might have. The plot isn't the issue, it's the storytelling.

One last bank job turns sour! Believable?

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