​‘The Day I Discovered My Dad Was A Bank Robber'

After years of mysterious behaviour, writer Molly Brodak finally learned the truth about her father’s secret life when he was arrested. Here she shares her story…

I was 13 when I saw Dad’s face hovering over the TV newscaster’s shoulder, as she said his name in the same breath as the words ‘bank robbery’. I didn’t cry. I felt relieved, like I was truly seeing my father for the first time. His deception, manipulations and lies – it made total sense now that this puzzle piece had been snapped into place.

It was summer, and Mom and I had come home from a camping trip to find the answering machine full of desperate messages from my older sister, who’d been living with my dad at the time. The FBI had kicked in their door and were tearing their flat apart. Looking for money and evidence, they ripped open her mattress, emptied her drawers of clothes and even smashed her piggy bank. She was 15 and in complete shock. Officers questioned her and showed her grainy surveillance photos from a bank Dad had robbed. She wasn’t sure it was him at first – he’d been wearing a false moustache, glasses and a hat. But then she said, ‘That’s him. He’s wearing my hat.’

My dad had worked at a General Motors manufacturing plant for decades and had no criminal record. His story was reported as that of a mild-mannered man who had suddenly snapped and robbed ten banks over the course of one summer, perhaps influenced by untreated PTSD from the Vietnam War, or from having lost his job after he kept a company car without permission. The truth was more complex.