I spoke with a relative yesterday and he said that some of the banks in the Ft. Lauderdale area have installed protective glass walls at the teller windows. Has anyone else seen this?

-- Clyde (clydeblalock@hotmail.com), May 20, 1999

Answers

That's been going on for YEARS, but only in "certain neighborhoods." You might want to take your business to a safer place. That protective glass is a strong indication that it's a high-crime area, even if it looks nice. (Most of Florida is high-crime, from what I've heard.)

-- not directly (related@to.y2k), May 20, 1999.

Clyde What banks install is plexiglass, not 'safety glass". It is basicly worthless for stopping bullets; tried shooting thru some in the eighties that a store supplying banks gave me. When I asked the guy selling same, what caliber bullets does it stop, he saids he had no idea !! I'm sure it will deflect a bullets path (1 inch thick) that is fired at an angle other that 90 degrees, but it has almost NO stopping power. Why do banks pay $12-15/ square foot for this ?? The tellers HAVE NO IDEA IT DOESN'T WORK !! Eagle

-- Hal Walker (e999eagle@freewwweb.com), May 20, 1999.

not directly,

Yeah, I know. But this is just recently and in an area where they have never done this before. I lived there a couple of years ago, and although South Florida has some areas that are pretty rough, this isn't one of them.

-- Clyde (clydeblalock@hotmail.com), May 20, 1999.

I confirmed the above with a friend in Hollywood, FL. The neighborhood my friend's bank is in has some homeless, but isn't necessarily a 'high crime zone.' And WE KNOW what a 'high crime zone' is. :-)

I am going to check around Miami and see if others are doing it. It should be interesting since my bank just completed a merge a few months back and the nearby branches have been remodeled already. [Without the glass and NOT in 'high crime zones']

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), May 21, 1999.