That’s the voiced alarm from a cash-carrier wagon yesterday, alerting passers-by near a bank on Zhong Xiao East Road in Taipei.

They dialed 119 at once.

It was shortly before 9 a.m., and fully armed police on two squad cars rushed to the scene and stopped the car, asking bank robbers to surrender.

Out came the driver and three Wei Feng security guards.

They told stunned police officers it’s just a mistake. “We aren’t robbers,” they said. “We are carrying the cash for the Cathay United Bank,” said Chiu Chi-yao,the chief.

Unbelieving, the officers brought all four back to their precinct for questioning.

Chiu explained.

After a Wei Feng wagon was robbed in January, the private security agency has installed an “I’m being robbed” alarm on each and every one of its cash carriers.

The alarm is set to broadcast the call for help, when the chief guard responsible for handling the cash or the driver is 500 meters or more away from the wagon.

“We got to the bank, and I got off to go in to get NT$2 million in cash,” Chiu told investigators. But the driver, named Hsu, found no place to park his wagon.

As Hsu drove the car more than 500 meters away from Chiu, who was in the bank, the alarm was activated and the voiced call for help began.

The wagon was back in front of the bank then to pick up Chiu and two other guards. They went on their way to make another cash pickup, when alarmed passers-by called for police help by phone.

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