The money totals are illustrative. What matters is the sequence: a clear route home, one optional detour and the choice to stop making a difficult exit harder.
Our runner has $14K in the bag and a car outside the vault. A rival is working across the room. The next job hasn't been called yet. There is enough time for a deposit, and the runner knows the route.
The first decision is the quiet one
On the way out, the runner notices one more available box. It doesn't look far away. The thought is simple: finish this, then bank everything together.
That thought prices only the extra crack. It doesn't include reaching the car afterward, holding the deposit or recovering if somebody interferes. The runner is about to trade a known route for a longer sequence with more things that can go wrong.
A clean choice here would be to bank the $14K and reconsider. That doesn't end the night. It moves already-earned money into Take and makes the next risk smaller. Instead, our runner turns toward the box.
Someone else changes the room
While the crack is underway, the rival finishes nearby and moves toward the exit. The district meter has risen. Then the board calls the next job.
None of this means the original choice was irrational when made. It does mean the choice needs updating. An important part of judgment is being willing to stop a plan that once looked reasonable.
The runner cancels the crack. That costs the time already spent, but continuing would not refund it. The remaining task is to get out with the cash already in hand.
The shove is an opening
At the doorway, the rival is close enough to interfere. The runner uses a shove to make space. A bundle hits the ground.
Here comes the second temptation. The cash is nearby, and collecting it would make the disruption feel worthwhile. But the purpose of the shove was to clear the exit. Turning back toward the bundle would give away the very opening the runner just created.
The runner leaves it. This is the decisive moment in the scenario. The escape doesn't become good because the shove looked dramatic; it becomes possible because the runner stops adding errands.
The return is still part of the job
The escape rules in Hunt's manual illustrate why carrying the prize isn't the same as completing the objective. BLACKOUT makes that distinction visible in Bag and Take. The runner still has to reach a usable car and finish the held banking action.
In our example, the runner gets the deposit done before the job moves and clears the old district. The $14K reaches Take. That protects it from being scattered by a later arrest, although crowbar trunk sabotage remains a separate risk.
What made this a narrow escape?
It wasn't simply the rival at the doorway. The trouble began when a direct deposit became another crack, followed by an exit under time pressure. The rival made a fragile plan worse.
If the runner had been arrested, it would be tempting to remember only that interruption. The more useful review goes back to the first optional detour. Had it been skipped, the same rival might have arrived after the deposit rather than during the escape.
The run continues, because banking isn't extraction. Staying uncuffed still matters at dawn: survivors place ahead of arrested runners. The runner's next sensible objective is therefore to finish with the secured haul, not celebrate as though the night has already ended.
Take one habit into the next night
When you are already returning to the car, treat a new box as a new decision. Don't let it enter the plan just because it appeared along the way. Recheck the clock, route and amount exposed.
That habit is less cinematic than a last-second shove. It also gives you more chances to reach the car without needing one.