On the morning of March 19 at approximately 9 a.m., six to eight San Jose Police Department patrol cars, one detective car and one sergeant car surrounded the US Bank on Lincoln Avenue near Willow Street. To those driving by during their morning commute it looked like a major bank robbery was in progress. But instead of the police apprehending a robber, it turns out that a US Bank employee had locked her keys inside the bank when she was closing up on March 18, said San Jose Police Department spokeswoman Catherine Unger. The employee climbed through the ventilation system to avoid setting off the alarm as she attempted to retrieve her keys, Unger said. The woman removed ceiling panels to lower herself into her office and fell through but was not hurt. She picked up her keys, turned off the alarm so that she could leave through the front door, and reset the alarm on her way out.

She tried to notify the other employees about the office being in a disarrayed state, with the ceiling panels open, but was not able to reach anyone, Unger said. When the other employees entered the bank the following day, the scene appeared to be the work of burglars, so they contacted the police. The US Bank branch manager did not wish to comment, but agreed that it was the strangest thing that had ever happened at that location.