Woman twitters her way through a bank heist

What would you do if a bank you were standing in were to be held up?

Would your loins twitch a little? Would your palms pour water like a fountain at the Bellagio?

Or would you whip out your BlackBerry and twitter?

I only ask because Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, Annemarie Dooling was in an HSBC bank in Manhattan when someone decided to hold it up.

Perhaps it was something to do with the fact that on her Twitter feed she describes herself as "Jet setting, Manhattan drinking, design obsessed sicko; producer for a talk show website", Dooling thought she'd make use of her BlackBerry, with which she happened to be fiddling at the time.

Yes, she thought it might be fun to twitter the whole experience.

"My bank was just held up _ with me in it. HSBC 34 and 8," she offered to her then 1,900 followers.

She added: "Also my whole trackball is GONE!!! I'm locked in the bank still."

Strangely, some people thought she should have been doing something a little more civic-minded. But in a subsequent e-mail to the AP, she explained: "Honestly, the cops were called and everyone was safe and my main concern was reaching out to my friends, fam, and co-workers, which is why I tweeted."

And her tweets continued to be informative. For example: "no i didnt hit the floor. i didnt even notice and he was two people in front of me."

They even became amusing: "cops just said 'wouldnt it be boring if they all did it the same way?' ha. just let me out, Paul Blart."

This was New York, however, so it wasn't long before the critics began tweeting daggers: "someone on Gothamist just told me to fall down a man hole. geez, get a life, buddy."

Which might just have been a witless reference to the teen girl from Staten Island who texted her way into a manhole.

Though not all of Dooling's tweets were well-received, I feel desolate in telling you that the robber got away.