Tonight on... From warzone to Godzone. Sisters separated by anarchy ` I put my hand against the window. the story of their escape. Lots of people didn't make it out. These are the meds that I've been taking since I was 4. One, two, three... Are America's foster kids being drugged up to shut them up? A 7-year-old child, just 43 pounds, given five mind-altering psychotropic drugs. And the families bringing them back from the brink. Also, bank robberies gone wrong. He finally makes a hole and tries to climb through. The police arrive, and he's stuck! And what happens when victims fight back. GUNSHOTS Captions by TVNZ Captioning. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2012 Kia ora. I'm Sonya Wilson. Take just a second to think about your life as it is now ` your job; what you ate for dinner tonight; maybe you just put your kids to bed. Then picture that all vanishing ` no food, water or electricity. Imagine being separated from your family, driven from your home by war. What would you pack if you had just one small bag to take? For most of us, it is almost unimaginable, but it was a brutal reality for the people in our story tonight. There is a happy ending, though, and NZ plays a big part in it. Here's Erin Conroy with two families who've gone from warzones to Godzone. JET PLANE WHOOSHES We thought we would be away for a few days, so we only took a school bag each. It was just... PEOPLE CRY ...complete panic and confusion. SOMBRE MUSIC I put my hand against the window. Hana and I held our hands,... MUSIC CONTINUES ...and then you realise your life's never ever gonna be the same. EXPLOSIONS Imagine waking up and seeing scenes like this. BOOM! (SPEAKS ARABIC) TRANSLATOR: There was blood in the street; people dying in front of me. War had taken over his home country of Iraq. After Saddam Hussein's regime fell, everything changed. It's hard to imagine. I left everything in my house and my car and just took one bag. EXPLOSION MUSIC CONTINUES But imagine one day you woke up, and instead, you saw this. UPLIFTING MUSIC Your family? Your family? Yes, my family. Wissam Kouz, a trained carpenter, is starting from scratch. This bag and this bag is everything you have? Yes. Yes. So, this is your life? Yes, my life. < Your life. I drink water at half-past 11. He and his family escaped from Iraq to Syria, only to find themselves in another warzone when fighting broke out there a year ago. OK, Wissam. OK, Wissam. Yeah, it's half-past 11. It's a big change for Wissam, his brother, his brother's wife and kids, and their elderly parents. ALL SING: # If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. # ALL SING: # If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. # ALL CLAP They're spending six weeks in the refugee centre in South Auckland,... What is the danger in this kitchen? ...learning about the Kiwi way of life. Smoke alarm... (SPEAKS ARABIC) 'Beep, beep, beep'. ...before getting their own place to call home. < How would they be feeling right now? I think you definitely feel like a misfit for a long time. Different smells, different noise, um, different sounds, everything's different. Just going to the supermarket was difficult. I remember doctor's appointments, dentist appointments, getting kids to school ` all these things that you take for granted are actually hugely difficult, especially if you don't speak English. These two women would know. Before the war broke out, I was 12 and loved school, loved studying, had lots of friends. But very normal, very carefree, as with any, I would say, young person, anywhere in the world. I was a student. I was studying political science, and just going out with my friends was probably my biggest worry ` where to go that night. Just typical teenagers? Just typical teenagers? Yeah. (CHUCKLES) But then war broke out in their country, Bosnia. EXPLOSIONS In the beginning, I remember there were two jet planes flying above the city, very low level, and we were actually all excited about it. REPORTER: ...being fired at. People were beginning to stockpile supplies. None of us actually believed that there would be a war, so those early days when there was no school and no one was going to work, it was almost like being on holiday. GUNSHOT It was bizarre, because we had satellite TV, so you're watching MTV and you're hearing gunshots outside your house. Four weeks into the fighting, Hana, aged just 12, and another sister, were offered the last two seats on a bus getting people out of Sarajevo. But it would mean being separated from Atka and the rest of her family. We only had an hour notice to get ready, and so it was a bit of a shock. I remember taking Hana and Nadia up to the bus and lots of our other neighbours crying and screaming and we could also hear shooting in the background. GUNFIRE You're being taken away from your family. You don't know where you're going. The only thing really that gave me strength at that particular moment was Atka asking me to be brave, and that was, sort of` I kept going back to that in my head ` 'I have to be brave. I have to be brave.' PEOPLE SHOUT INDISTINCTLY Just looking at your little sister and the other one behind her and all you could say is, you know, 'Be brave,' and hope that` that you will actually see them one day. UPBEAT BANJO MUSIC Wissam Kouz (32) and his family have escaped two wars, first in Iraq, now Syria. They've left everything behind to start a new life in NZ, reuniting with cousins they haven't seen for years. The last time when I saw Wissam, when I left, he was too young, like my daughter age. How do you think Wissam and all of his family are feeling right now? Smoke alarm. Different language, different country, different life, different weather. Um, in the beginning, they confused a little bit. I can see, day after day, they feeling are more confident, more happy and more smiles. Yeah, happy. I am very happy. REPORTER: The Bosnian forces, mostly Muslim, have difficulty in resisting the onslaught. Hana and Atka ` two sisters who thought they'd be apart for a few days. They were separated for two years. I did cry a lot. I wrote in my diary a lot. I, sort of, made a pact with God that if I prayed and did well each day at school that he would look after them, and every time we heard from them that they were okay, that was, sort of, a confirmation that my pact was working. While Hana (12) survived as a refugee in neighbouring Croatia, Atka was stuck in the middle of a war in Sarajevo. GUNFIRE It's kind of like living in a video game. You're thinking, 'This is not real. This is gonna sto` 'Someone's gonna push a pause button and you're gonna stop.' The girls' mother was out of the country when the borders closed. As the eldest, Atka was left to care for five younger siblings. We ran out of food fairly quickly, so Grandma taught me how to make a stinging nettle pie. Stinging nettle pie? Just pick stinging nettle from our garden and mix it with a bit of flour. What did it taste like? Not bad, actually. When you're really hungry, everything tastes good. BOOM! Atka's English helped her land a job working for foreign journalists. The money helped feed the family. Her assignment ` working with Kiwi photojournalist Andrew Reid. And what kind of guy was he? He was very, um, cool, actually. Very kind. I remember the first day we started working together, I didn't have a flak jacket. All the other journalists had, you know, helmets and flak jackets, so when I started working for Andrew the first day, he took his flak jacket and his helmet off, and he said, 'Well, you haven't got one, so I'm not going to wear mine either.' So that` I thought that was pretty cool. And then what happened? And then what happened? And we fell in love. Yes. It was Andrew who got Atka out of Bosnia, and it was Andrew's parents who helped bring the rest of the family to NZ. I said to Andrew, 'Your parents are really nice, but I think they're mad. 'How are they going to bring my family to NZ ` you know, 14 of them ` and the city's under siege?' The family left in Bosnia escaped through an 800m tunnel dug under the city's airport. What was it like when you all got back together for the first time? We were very very grateful, really happy, but it was so odd being in a place with your family which isn't home, and knowing that you're actually not going back. Instead, going to their new home in NZ. On the second morning in NZ, I took my younger sister Salma for a walk around the park, and everyone was saying hello, so I said to` I rang Atka when I got back home, and I said, 'Atka, have you told the whole neighbourhood we're here?' And she said, 'No. Why?' I said, 'Well, everyone's saying hi'. She said, 'Don't worry. They're just friendly'. (CHUCKLES) So, you know, we like this place. Oh yeah. Getting to know 'this' place a bit better, the Kouz family is on a day out. WOMAN: (SPEAKS ARABIC) Goats. G-O-A-T-S. Goats. WOMAN: (SPEAKS ARABIC) Goats. G-O-A-T-S. Goats. MAN: G-O-A-T. TRANSLATOR: I see my kids growing up in this country. They will be Kiwis one day. For the first time, smiles spread across their faces. (WHISTLES) (SPEAKS ARABIC) TRANSLATOR: I'm so happy, because I'm with my family. We're all together in the same country. I've left everything else behind. For the first time, it's like they can forget. MELLOW MUSIC PEOPLE CHATTER INDISTINCTLY 20 years on, so their story isn't forgotten, the girls have written a book called 'Goodbye Sarajevo'. What is your book to you? In a sense, uh,... (EMOTIONALLY) goodbye to some of the` some members of our family. Lots of people didn't make it out ` two uncles, m` our aunt, our other grandmother, lots of friends, uh, lots of neighbours. Was writing the book an emotional experience? Oh, it was ` very. Oh, it was ` very. We drank a lot. We drank a lot of wine. I said to Hana, if we don't finish the book, we'll end up in rehab. (LAUGHS) Luckily, we finished the book. (LAUGHS) Yeah, and I think it was really good for our family. Now Atka and Andrew have two sons. You all right? This week they'll be celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary. And Hana (32) is a top lawyer in Auckland. She and her Kiwi husband are expecting her first child. And what do you want to say to NZ? Thank you for giving us another chance. Yeah, it's a great country. It's a country where, if you are focused, if you've got a goal, you can actually achieve it and do really well, so we love NZ. UPLIFTING MUSIC HORN HONKS Today, we want to show the Kouz family one opportunity NZ has to offer ` CHILD SQUEALS an opportunity to discover the beach; MUSIC CONTINUES to kick the sand; (SQUEALS) to play tag with the waves; to relax; to enjoy. (SCREAMS) How are you feeling about the future now? (SPEAKS ARABIC) TRANSLATOR: I can dream again about owning my own business; my family. I can finally dream like I did before all of this; dream about my future. Is your English getting better? Is your English getting better? It's good, not bad. Is it getting better? Is it getting better? Yes. OK. Give me an example. You say something in English. OK. Give me an example. You say something in English. Do you like my watch? It's a very nice watch. Thank you. It's a very nice watch. Thank you. You're welcome. It's a very nice watch. Thank you. You're welcome. Another example? I love NZ. Understanding the necessities for a life in NZ. At what point do you stop feeling like a refugee? You learn that home is really where your family is; um, where your loved ones are. Do you think this family will be OK? I think they will. Once they settle in NZ and find their wee network, I think they'll do really well. (SQUEALS) Gorgeous families. Welcome to NZ. You can find a link to Hana and Atka's website, 'Goodbye, Sarajevo' on our Facebook page. Next up on 20/20, though ` are foster kids being drugged up to shut them up? Take a look at a little boy called Keyante. CHILD SCREAMS Those are his screams behind the bedroom door. Like so many other foster children, Keyante had already suffered. His mother's neglect. At 4, he was left alone to take care of his little sister. When he arrived at the home of Scott and Carol Cooke, they discovered he had been given 12 different drugs in foster care. You need to know these new rules. This is rule change number two. When you're turning right from the bottom of a T-intersection with no signs or signals, you must now give way to right-turning vehicles at the top of the T. Think ` Let's see that again. Top of the T goes before me. New Herbal Essences collections. Introducing new Herbal Essences, reinvented with rich silkening ingredients for petal-soft hair with glistening shine after just one use. Someone's been doing the Herbal. New Herbal Essences collections. a Welcome back. After a year-long investigation, 20/20 has uncovered a startling reality ` many American foster children, some as young as 3, are being prescribed powerful mind-altering drugs at alarming rates ` up to 13 times higher than that of other children. Young vulnerable children taking multiple meds, but for whose benefit? My name is Brooke, and I'm 7. These are the meds that I've been taking since I was 4. One, two, three, four, five, six,... seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12,... 13. I was on Depakote, Seroquel, and some other ones I cannot name off the top of my head now. Some of them were for ADHD. I am not ADHD. I am just naughty. One was for being bipolar. I am not bipolar at all. I was 4 when I started taking meds. Seroquel, Adderall. Lexapro. This one is Setera. Respritol. The last one is Abilify. If you look at little Brooke today, it's impossible to imagine that this was Brooke before. GRUNTING A 7-year-old child just 43 pounds given five mind-altering psychotropic drugs prescribed for serious mental disorders. To deal with her eruptions of anger, her foster parents were told to take her to a mental health clinic where their solution was medication, including Seroquel, which is often used for schizophrenia. And they added Seroquel. Within a few weeks, they decided that it wasn't working and they needed to do something else. She's getting worse, not any better. And then she was given more medication and more. 10 drug changes in just four months. Frequently the clinic increased the doses. Brooke's older sister Kayla watched in anguish. I don't know how they could possibly help children if all they do is just give the children meds and it makes children feel out of place. But her foster mother felt she had no choice, worried the state would take the children if she didn't give them medication. We were told to trust in the system. That's what we did. They kept saying she needs more medications. That's how sad it is. The meds make her think tantrums are good. It gets your anger out. But, no, it doesn't. More sadness for two girls who had already been dealt a hand from hell. Taken from a mother who had a long record of drug-dealing and prostitution and uprooted again and again. As little Brooke's drug doses and wild behaviour increased, Lisa decides to record the rages. And this could have gone on year after year if Lisa hadn't decided to pay for a private outside doctor, Psychiatrist Dr Luis Quinones, who was stunned by the pills Brooke was taking. We gotta think ` is the medicine causing this? There always has to be a high index of suspicion when we're using these agents. Brooke is now being weaned off all her medication. What are you feeling right now? What are you feeling right now? Good. Do you feel it anywhere special? My heart. My tummy. And my legs. Do you have a refrigerator? Do you have a refrigerator? Uh, yes, we do. Brooke still has a lot of demons left to wrestle from the life she's lived, but she's learning to heal one day at a time. What's another choice over a tantrum? What's a good choice? What's another choice over a tantrum? What's a good choice? To hug you. What do you do? What are you doing right now? Yeah, you hug all the anger out, right? Dear God, I wanna be a vet, police... and a firefighter. When a doctor tells me that the drug is working, I would ask, 'Who's it working for? 'Is it working for the caretaker? Is it working for the system?' It only matters to me whether it's working for the kid. Michael Piraino, who runs one of the biggest advocacy organisations in the country for foster kids says too often the first reaction to any problem with the child is a drug. When we read that foster kids are medicated up to 13 times more than other kids, is it because they are a more troubled population. They are troubled. If you've been hurt the way these kids are, you or I would feel the same way. We would be angry. We would be upset. We would act out. The answer isn't always to try and change their brain chemistry. And it's known that many of these drugs have serious side effects ` tremors, irreversible ticks and weight gain leading to diabetes. Not to mention the stories the children tell us of feeling they're in a kind of chemical prison. Take a look at a little boy named Keyante. KEYANTE SCREAMS Those are his screams behind the bedroom door. Like so many other foster children, Keyante had already suffered. His mother's neglect. At 4, he was left alone to take care of his little sister. And after that, he says, he was abused, beaten. When he came to Scott and Carol Cook, they found he had been given 12 different drugs in foster care. Not only Seroquel since he was 6 years old, but the anti-depressant Lexapro and Depakote for mood stabilisation. He came straight from the hospital to us. We gave him his meds that night, and 4am in the morning, I get up and he's walking fast in a circle in his bedroom. Around and around and around. It just makes you feel wild and huge. Some of them were for ADHD. I am not ADHD. I am just naughty. This is Keyante at 10 years old trying to come off all that medication. Is it hard to watch that? Is it hard to watch that? Sorta. That once was me. I felt great pity for that one kid. He was just hurt, and he needed the right attention and to be offered the right therapy. But can the states afford to pay for the therapy? But can the states afford to pay for the therapy? Can they afford not to? Can they afford to have kids who are on all these medications? What's the future gonna be for them? These young people have a right to be safe and well cared for. That's the promise the state makes when it take them out of their homes. And that promise is too often not met. And today, life is very different for Keyante, off all the medications. In therapy. He's in some honours classes. And he now has a permanent family to help him heal. He's been adopted. Scott and Carol Cook celebrated with a party. ALL CHEER WOMAN: You're part of the family. No getting out of it. And remember little Brooke. She too has something to heal the broken places. Brooke and her sister, Kayla, have also been adopted. Here they are with Lisa, Dad, and all their new brothers. Next up ` a place of hope where foster children can learn to be themselves again and, with help, mend their broken lives. Are you me? No. Do you know what I do? No. Is your name Sarah? No. In another part of the treatment centre, another child of suffering. Sarah, now in her 19th foster care placement in just six years. I didn't know how to brush my teeth. I thought it was supposed to be for hair, so I started brushing my hair with my toothbrush, and when no one was looking, I'd, like, pick some dog food and eat it. MC HAMMER'S 'U CAN'T TOUCH THIS' RAPS: # When you gotta go, think of this rhyme. Grab your Pull-Ups, then stop ` potty time. # Pull-Ups fit you like a pro. There's sealable sides in case you go. # All because you're a big kid now. Stop ` potty time. # a Welcome back. In part two of our story 'Generation Meds', we visit the Maryhurst Centre. It's a place where the worst-treated children are taught to hope again, and with professional help, weaned of their multiple medications. # For all of the times we start. # For all other things are loved. # Can I have a hug? Welcome to a Reason to Hope. Good morning, ladies. Time to get up. The Maryhurst residential treatment centre in Kentucky, where they take children who've endured some of the worst abuse anywhere in the state and surround them with a team ` a psychiatrist, therapist, workers nearby ` to talk laugh and help. No! I don't care! Even though 75% of the kids who come to them are on psychotropic drugs, when they leave, nearly three quarters are on reduced or no medication at all. We caught up with a little dancer 7-year-old Jeremiah and his 8-year-old brother DJ. # She told me her name was Billy Jean... # Michael Jackson's Billy Jean never looked so good. They were taken away from their mother amid allegations of extreme neglect. No doctors, rarely going to school, frequently going hungry. Their stepdad had a rap sheet, including a conviction for manufacturing methamphetamine. And their mother slept through a fire, which nearly killed them. I'm blue. Can I play too? Their therapist, David Crawley, asks about that fire. The house was on fire. What was that like? It was getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and it got all over Mum's bed. She got little burns all over her. Today, Jeremiah is getting dental care for the teeth that still show the evidence of all that neglect. And his brother, DJ, says they've learned something wonderful about food, good food. What's healthy? Corn, green beans, broccoli. My favourite movie is Grease. # Go, greased lightning. You're burning up the quarter mile... # Maryhurst searches for more intuitive, creative ways to deal with the demons that haunt these children. As children like Jeremiah are weaned off drugs, they're armed with something formidable, monster spray, to back down the terrors. We have to spray where our bedroom is. If you're wondering, monster spray is water mixed with food colouring. Because this is really post-traumatic stress. It's classic, isn't it? Yeah, it's textbook PTSD. Because it would be hard for some adults to cope with those things, much less a 7 and 8-year-old. Who do you turn into at night, Jeremiah? Who do you turn into at night, Jeremiah? Spiderman. Superman. Spiderman. Spiderman? Oh, Spiderman. Excuse me. Who's stronger? Spiderman or Superman? Jesus is. Jesus is stronger than... either one of them. It's me happy in my bed. And there's an irony ` David the therapist helping wean Jeremiah off drugs... And where did you used to work? I used to work with a big pharma company, talking to doctors about medications. Wh`? How did you get here? I got here because this is, I think, where my heart is. Are you me? No. Do you know what I do? No. In another part of the treatment centre, another child of suffering, Sarah, now in her 19th foster care placement in just six years. Sarah says her mother was drug addicted, and she was 3 years old when she was abandoned. At the time I didn't know how to take a bath. I didn't know how to take care of myself. I didn't know how to brush my teeth. I thought it was for hair, so I started brushing my hair with my toothbrush. And when no one was looking, I'd pick some dog food and eat it. Sometimes Sarah cuts herself. Do you still do it? Do you self-harm? Do you still do it? Do you self-harm? The other day I did. < You did? Yeah, but it's going away. Yeah, but it's going away. What are you thinking when you do that? 'I just wanna die.' Through the years, she too has been put on powerful medication. Now only on Seroquel and with therapy getting better, beginning to heal. Though she knows at the age of 15 she has little chance of being adopted. # We'll fight. # It doesn't mean she doesn't have dreams like so many other little girls, who have big crushes on Justin Bieber. So, what is it about him? He doesn't seem like the type of guy who would hurt or beat on his girlfriend. I have a lot in common with him. His favourite candy is Sour Patch Kids, and I love Sour Patch Kids. His favourite colour's purple, and I love purple. He loves spaghetti and meatballs, and I love spaghetti and meatballs. And everywhere at Maryhurst you see transformations. One side effect of anti-psychotics can be enormous weight gain. Gabby, who left Maryhurst in 2009, off the medications now, lost nearly 100 pounds. What do you think saved your life? Being here. They showed that they cared about me a lot. Depakote. 15-year-old Crystal hopes that can happen to her too. She has been on a dozen medications and in 27 different placements over eight years. My weight is sitting at 300 right now. Most sports activities I wanna do I can't do cos I'm overweight. Step team ` I can't do that, cos I can't bend down and clap underneath my legs. My feelings get hurt easily when people make fun of me like that. May I ask some stuff about your life? May I ask some stuff about your life? Sure. Have you ever been in foster care? I have not been in foster care. And I think that you are so strong. Almost six years ago, when we did our first story on foster care... 'Tonight, we are calling all angels, and we hope...' ...a family was watching. We watched your special, and I called the next day. And guess what. Laura and John Wade started taking in foster kids. And this summer they took in a family that included... FUNKY DANCE MUSIC ...a little dancer named Jeremiah. They joined the effort to reduce his medications and decided something else ` that Jeremiah and his siblings belong with them. Jeremiah, what is today? Today is adoption day. We're going to get adopted. Did you sleep OK? Yeah. High-five. No bad dreams. I didn't either. Order in the court. What lucky families you are. Out of the whole world you found each other and you picked each other. APPLAUSE Until a little boy armed with a lot of vitality gets ready to go to bed, armed with his superheroes and his monster spray. Where do you spray your monster spray? Where do you spray your monster spray? Under my bed. That'll take care of them for sure. Wow. One, two, three, four spidermen. Boom. And something just as magical and powerful. Goodnight. Sleep well. Goodnight prayer with a forever mum. That Jeremiah won't have bad dreams. Just name my prayer. Amen. Next on 20/20 ` scary, bungled, and downright stupid. Bank robberies all caught on tape. Real crime is nothing like the movies. Take this terrifying hold-up in Maryland earlier this year. RT: I got view on the suspect. He's got one black handgun. The perp robs a bank, but by the time he gets his money, he's surrounded by police. He takes a hostage in the parking lot. Perp take a hostage. My side. My side. He's got a gun to her head. a Welcome back. Cameras, these days, are everywhere, and behind every great video, there is a great story. Tonight, 20/20 has the tales behind the tapes. We take a look at the most scary, clever, absurd and hilarious bank robbery videos, with commentary and insight from a former bank robber. This is a stick-up. The movies have seen their share of spectacular bank robberies. I'm Miss Bonnie Parker, and this here's Mr Clyde Barrow. We rob banks. The romance robbery in Bonnie and Clyde... Guns! Guns! MEN GRUNT, WOMAN SCREAMS ...the habit heist in The Town,... All right, everybody, hands up, heads down! ...the costume caper in The Dark Knight,... DRAMATIC MUSIC ...but for all the flash of film, the crimes that really blow your mind? The ones that go straight to video. Real-life crime caught by surveillance cameras. Some have been favourites on morning television,... Move over, Thelma and Louise. Meet the teen bandits caught on tape robbing a bank, armed with nothing more than designer sunglasses. The woman they are calling the Bad Hair Bandit. There's the elusive Geezer Bandit still on the lam. He is armed. ...others pushing the limits of criminal imagination. That's not Mr Clean or Kojak performing a hold-up; it's a crook known as the Handsome Guy Bandit. Sporting a Hollywood-style handsome-guy mask worth more than 800 bucks, he's hit over six banks in North Texas since May, and he's still on the loose. In the video, you see a cool customer, even interacting with others in line. He's seeing how far that's gonna play out. It'll be interesting to see what brings him down. There's no one better to break down a heist than John Nelson, a convicted bank robber. He lifted up to $60,000 in a crime spree that included five banks in 1990 before getting caught. What's it like to rob a bank? What does that feel like to rob a bank? Your heart is racing and you know you're doing something very very wrong. Which is why he finds the Handsome Guy's demeanour remarkable. He's calm. He's thinking about what he's doing. He's calculating. I think that he's got a cat-and-mouse game going with detectives and the FBI, and I think that's part of his thrill. But the costume? He should be called the Creepy Guy because that's the creepiest thing I've ever seen. John says you can't think of everything ` real crime is nothing like the movies. Take this terrifying hold-up in Maryland earlier this year. RT: He's got one black handgun. The perp robs a bank, but by the time he gets his money, he's surrounded by police. He takes a hostage in the parking lot. RT: The hostage. My side. My side. And he's got a gun to her head. As we see him, he's in full-blown panic mode. He isn't exactly thinking about what he's doing. The dye pack in the money bag goes off ` a defence mechanism banks use to mark the bills. But it's not the dye or the cops that get him, but ice. He slips, his hostage sprints to safety, and he is shot and killed. John knows he's lucky his life in crime did not end that way, though he says he never used violence and credits his four years in prison with turning his life around. He became a successful writer and now just shakes his head at crimes like this. This past February in Tianjin, China, a man walks into a bank, pulls out an axe and just starts chopping at the bulletproof glass. PEOPLE SCREAM He's got his tools, and it's hammer time. AXE CLATTERS The tellers flee, and he keeps chopping. It seems to go on forever. You want to meet this guy? You want to meet this guy? Not really. Not really. (CHUCKLES) Unless I have some yard work. He's probably a pretty determined... certainly physically capable. AXE CLANGS He finally makes a hole and tries to climb through. It's like a strange security-glass birth scene. The police arrive, and he's stuck mid-delivery. Everyone seems frozen. He finally manages to climb all the way through and slip away. A tough moment for the cops, though they did nab him 45 minutes later. But when it comes to embarrassing police moments, this takes the cake. Or you might say it was the thief who took the cake and ate it, too. An Ohio robbery suspect, John Ford, is arrested and thrown on the hood of a car. The police empty his pockets. That white piece of paper that falls out? Allegedly, the note Ford used in the bank hold-up. It could be key evidence... until Ford eats it. Now, this guy's expression and his luck are such that I couldn't resist not rooting for him. The police here let details slip right through their fingertips ` literally. He was still booked for multiple bank robberies. And that might be the key here. The most important moment in these bank-robbery videos might be the sequel ` the perp walk. Are you the Limping Latex Bandit? What's the feeling like of getting caught? What's the feeling like of getting caught? Really really bad. Really bad. You can see his shame in this picture moments after he was caught. In the perp walks I've seen, when people are holding their head down, I couldn't get mine down far enough. Next on 20/20 ` more crazy clips, and what happens when victims fight back? Watch this Chicago store manager wrestle a gun away from the robber. In the struggle, an employee gets shot. And in this YouTube clip called Good Guy ` 1; Bad Guy ` 0, the score could have been very different. A motel clerk shoots the armed robber, but look how close his bullets fly past this child in its mother's arms. a Welcome back. Internet video sites are loaded with surveillance camera scenes of armed robbers caught in the act. Some of those videos show shopkeepers and even customers fighting back against the bad guys. It's a storyline as old as cops and robbers, and everyone loves a hero. But what are the real consequences when victims attack? FUNKY MUSIC When victims attack. YouTube is full of scenes like these. RAPID GUNSHOTS Clerks and customers turning the tables on the bad guy. If you're threatened, you have every legal right to defend yourself. But robbery is frightening and serious business. Just ask Barry Fixler. DRAMATIC MUSIC It was Valentine's Day 2005. He was just opening his New York jewellery store to his first customers of the day. He shows them engagement rings. They show him a gun. OMINOUS MUSIC I looked up, and right in my face is an automatic pistol. My brain registered, 'This is the real deal, and now I have to kill him.' You said that because you knew you've got a pistol over here? You've got a gun? Absolutely. What the robbers don't know is that Fixler's a former marine and Vietnam combat vet. He slaps the loaded gun out of his face and dives for his own pistol, then comes up shooting. A bullet shatters the glass door. And some of the gunfire hit here? And some of the gunfire hit here? This is one of my bullets here. Another hits the robber in white. And I shot him right over here. And I shot him right over here. One of the guys falls at the door. And I shot him right over here. One of the guys falls at the door. Just falls right` right there. Both men are caught and convicted, but the wounded 19-year-old never served his full sentence. Paralysed by Fixler's bullet, he later died. Why did you feel you had to shoot, you had to kill? Why did you feel you had to shoot, you had to kill? < I knew my life's in danger. If somebody's violent enough to put a gun and threaten to kill me, now I have to kill that person. Do you think it's heroic for someone to challenge the robber? Do you think it's heroic for someone to challenge the robber? No, I think it's suicide. Suicide? Yes, because the odds are you're the one who's going to get injured or killed. Security expert Rosemary Erickson has spent years studying robberies and has even interviewed hundreds of captured crooks. What did they say about pulling a gun on someone? Do they expect they're gonna have to probably kill? In general, robbers do not want to hurt people; they are just there to rob. I'm not saying that makes them good people, but that's just what their particular MO is. In the 90 seconds it takes to pull off the average robbery, a lot can go wrong, she says, especially when victims fight back. Watch this Chicago store manager wrestle a gun away from the robber. In the struggle, an employee gets shot. And in this YouTube clip called Good Guy 1, Bad Guy 0, the score could've been very different. A motel clerk shoots the armed robber, but look how close his bullets fly past this child in his mother's arms. What are the chances of somebody being hurt or killed if they resist? Well, they found in` in robberies that 82% of the deaths were when people resisted. That's nearly what happened during this stick-up at a Virginia gas station last year. A robber holding a clerk at gunpoint ` that's when unsuspecting customer Ted Edmond walks in. And then all of a sudden when I looked back, I saw the gun. Instinctively, Edmond searches for a weapon ` anything ` and decides a bottle of beer will have to do. I didn't like it, but I was running out of time. I figured I didn't have any more time. He clobbers the robber, but unlike Hollywood westerns, the gunman doesn't go down. Edmond does. And there was nobody more surprised than I was when he didn't go down. What he does do is shoot the good Samaritan. You were hit in the process how many times? Four times. Four times. Four times? Yeah. Yeah. Where did you get shot? Once in my shoulder and once near my artery here, and they say I've got a bullet up here. But did people call you a hero? How did people react to you after this was over? I don't consider that is a... a hero act. I consider that as a human act. The robbers ` there were two of them ` were caught and convicted. If you're a citizen, it's your job ` it's your job to not just stand around and do nothing. Next time it might be you. It might be one of your family members. If everybody do their job, we'd get thugs off the street. Righto. If you want to see any of tonight's stories again, head to our website. You can also email us at... or go to our Facebook page and let us know your thoughts on tonight's show. Thanks for all your feedback over the past week. We're interested in your stories, of course, so keep the ideas coming in. That's our show for tonight. Thanks for joining us. See you again next week.