13

SHADOWLANDS

Red Brigade decided that the time had come to hit Washington Mutual - in his eyes, nothing more and nothing less than a purveyor of free money. The bank had actually lost its mutual status in 1983, and now its CEO had announced that he intended this venerable institution from Seattle to become the ‘Wal-Mart of banking’. Strip it down wherever you could was the boss’s philosophy. Shift those loans and don’t look too closely at the customers’ assets, liabilities and wages. Move those sub-prime mortgages, package ’em up. Invest as little as possible in staff and equipment. This was low-cost banking with all the frills cut out. Fortunately for Red Brigade and his pals, the frills included elementary security systems.

He left the Four Seasons Hotel on 57th and 5th Streets at around eleven in the morning. His head was still groggy from the previous night’s partying, but as it was vintage champagne and almost uncut cocaine, he felt fully combat-operational.

On reaching the bank, he casually strolled up to the untrained teller (’they didn’t have to pay ’em as much’) and passed over the WaMu debit card.

’How much would you like today, sir?’

’Ten thousand, please.’

’Alright!’

Tip-tap, tip-tap. Here at WaMu, Red Brigade had to hand over his card to the teller, who would then swipe it through a point-of-sale device. In any other bank this is the moment when the teller might