Woman threatens with AIDS: What do you do?

[paaiyan]

Elderly woman uses AIDS threat to rob Colorado bank: police - Yahoo! News

Satur said a woman, who was wearing a train conductor's cap and a gray sweat shirt, walked into a Wells Fargo bank inside a Safeway grocery store on Thursday night and handed a note to a teller.

"She indicated she had AIDS and would give it to a teller if she didn't cooperate," Satur said.

The woman coughed frequently into a blue bandana during the robbery, and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, Satur said.

Well? What do you guys think? Does she get a lead injection, do you let her go or do you try to subdue her with less-than-lethal force?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[INccwchris]

lol really?

[SAR in FL]

If she hands the teller a note and produces no weapon, how do I know she's even robbing the bank?

Can't go around shooting old ladies who are just passing notes to the teller now...

[paaiyan]

lol really?

Yes, really. This is at least the third time I've heard of something similar, although the last one I remember the guy was actually holding a syringe.

If she hands the teller a note and produces no weapon, how do I know she's even robbing the bank?

Can't go around shooting old ladies who are just passing notes to the teller now...

I was more thinking if you're in the place of the teller, whether actually as the teller or just imagining yourself cornered somewhere by someone threatening to give you AIDS, without them showing a weapon.

[azchevy]

Run, lock yourself in an office and call PD??

[gunthorp]

A woman once told me that she would say "I've got AIDS" to a rapist. Maybe the clerk should have. Oh no, the bank would have fired her for making a terroristic threat, or something. Management just wants you to give up the money and be a bullet sponge.

[claude clay]

the 3 -- S's are how I'm thinking

realistically though, AIDS is survivable. yet it is life threating and life changing in its having.
think knife wound that requires a colostomy bag for life. but worse cause the meds that keep you alive
s kill you in other ways.

telling me you have AIDS and THREATING to infect me will result in my acting to prevent that
individual from carrying out their threat. using only the force necessary to achieve that goal;
based on the tools i have on hand.

[Geronimo45]

Isn't biological warfare a felony?

[Guantes]

I believe criminals when they say they are going to injure me via one means or another and act accordingly to prevent such injury.

[JOHNSMITH]

Assuming I was another customer, I probably would not know the exact situation since everything is done via note. If I was the teller and armed, I'd probably shoot.

Remember, a note saying you have a gun/bomb whatever and want money is still considered to be armed robbery in many jurisdictions. I don't see why this is any different, after thinking about it a bit.

A woman once told me that she would say "I've got AIDS" to a rapist.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't do much good when the rapist says "oh that's nice, so do I!"

[highvoltage]

Isn't biological warfare a felony?

So is bank robbery.

[gottabkiddin]

I'd give her an Ernest "T" Bass court'n rock upside the head and call it a day.

[BigBaddaBoom]

Don't even think of using lethal force. There have been too many cases involving hookers with AIDS/HIV who knowingly have had unprotected sex and have gotten off in court (granted there are also some cases where they were convicted). With today's political correctness it is never the poor AIDS sufferer (see how they're described?) that are to be blamed. No, unless you have deep pockets for a team of attorneys, I wouldn't draw down on somebody like that in a situation being described.

Let's not forget it could be argued that you, by shooting said harbinger of disease, have threatened the life of those around you even if they weren't in the line of fire. Ever actually see someone get shot? There's always the inconvenience of blood being splattered or getting all over everything and it would be your luck the teller who you were trying to save gets some blood in her hair and now wants to bring a suit against you.

Now if you happen to be a LEO (and protected from those burdensome lawsuits) then all bets are off....plink away and get the teller's phone number afterwards.

[Harryball]

And she got away with the money......I think I would have sneezed and said " Now you have it worse Bi!ch and laughed"

[AZ Hawk]

the 3 -- S's are how I'm thinking

realistically though, AIDS is survivable. yet it is life threating and life changing in its having.
think knife wound that requires a colostomy bag for life. but worse cause the meds that keep you alive
s kill you in other ways.

telling me you have AIDS and THREATING to infect me will result in my acting to prevent that
individual from carrying out their threat. using only the force necessary to achieve that goal;
based on the tools i have on hand.

HIV, the virus which leads to/causes AIDS, is survivable.

However, if HIV turns into AIDS, there is no chance of survival. 100% of people diagnosed with AIDS will die from it.

(Technically, AIDS weakens the immune system to the point that one can be killed by the common cold, and it's usually some subsequent infection that kills, rather than AIDS itself).