Wis. would-be robber arrives too late to rob bank

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) -- Maybe the bank robber needed the money to buy a watch. It would seem he needed one after arriving six minutes after the Guardian Credit Union in Waukesha closed. Police said a man wearing a ski mask entered the first set of doors at 5:36 p.m. Wednesday with a gun, apparently not realizing the bank was closed---...More

Incredible-Wis. man survives 6-story fall from bank building

Wis. man survives 6-story fall from bank building

MILWAUKEE – A window washer survived a six-story fall from a bank building with one thought in mind — when was his safety rope going to catch?

It never did.

"I kept falling," 21-year-old Alex Clay said in a phone interview Tuesday night from Luther Hospital in Eau Claire. "It all happened so fast. I kept waiting. When's it going to catch?

"There's a little roof over the entryway. I bounced off of that and then hit the pavement."

Authorities in Eau Claire, located in west-central Wisconsin about 70 miles east of Minneapolis-St. Paul, said equipment apparently helped break the man's fall from the U.S. Bank building just after 3 p.m. Tuesday.

But Clay said it didn't slow him down much.

Still, he said doctors determined his main injury was a shattered bone on the arch side of his left foot. He said he also had six staples in his leg because he cut it on something as he fell.

"I remember the entire fall all the way down," he said.

He said the problem developed when he noticed a clip on his gear for rappelling wasn't fastened.

"But I was trying not to panic because I had my safety line connected on the back of my harness," he said.

A maintenance man and his co-worker tried to pull him back up, but he was too sweaty and tired to make it, he said.

"I was hanging on for dear life at that time, even though I had the safety line on."

That's when he let go.

He said he had worked for Bob Smith Window Cleaning about four months, but he doesn't plan on working high buildings again for some time.

His mother, Susan Frederick, said she'll object if he tries.

"It's just so amazing — and then to find out that he's going to be OK is just so fantastic," she said from the hospital.

Wis. nurse called out of surgery and laid off

Not The Actual Nurse! But Damn!


MADISON, Wis. – A nurse was called out of surgery so a manager could tell her she was being laid off. Dean Health said the surgery was minor and the patient wasn't affected, but the manager who summoned the nurse from surgery violated medical protocol. Dean Health spokesman Paul Pitas said the incident happened at Dean's West Clinic in Madison on Wednesday or Thursday.

Pitas said there was a period of time in which a nurse wasn't present during the procedure. He said while there were other clinical staff present, the absence of a nurse is a violation of patient care procedures.

The Madison-based health care provider announced Wednesday that it planned to "immediately" lay off 90 employees.

Pitas declined to name the employees involved or what type of surgery the nurse was attending when she was called away.

Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.madison.com/wsj