Nathaniel Gresling is the bank manager of the Santa Barbara National Savings Bank and is one day accosted by bank robber Phillip Stubbins, who demands to be taken to a safety deposit box filled with diamonds. Gresling gives him the diamonds to prevent an escalation, but a woman who spots Stubbins' gun causes a commotion and inspires him to take everyone inside the bank hostage, including Gresling and Gus.
Gresling explains to our duo (after Shawn has himself taken hostage intentionally) that some of the blame of the bank robbery should be attributed to him, as he had skipped Stubbins over the previous week in order to deal with a VIP client while freely telling him about the valuable merchandise this client wanted to deposit. However, Shawn already knows that this story is made up thanks to Gresling's disconsonant behaviour on the video surveillance tapes, and it doesn't take him long to uncover the full truth: Gresling had agreed to sell the diamonds to criminal Morgan Phelps, and in search of a smokescreen to obfuscate their illegal transaction they decided to abduct Stubbins' wife Joanna in order to manipulate Stubbins into stealing the diamonds for them. This plan failed miserably as soon as they and everyone else inside the bank were taken hostage, and upon release neither can run very far before being arrested.
Trivia[]
- As Shawn finds out upon asking, it was Gresling who rejected the loan for his inventive zip line snack transportation system idea. Gresling's reasoning is that it wasn't his own decision and that he is only a dupe for upper management.