Hilarious account of a legal bank-robbery

Eminent neuroscientist Moran Cerf got his start as an Israeli military hacker and then as a private security/penetration tester, robbing banks at their own behest over the net. In this hilarious anaecdote, he describes what happened when he and his pals decided to rob a bank in person.

Moths - Heart

• [Brian C.]

  I can’t stand listening to this guy.

  • [eldritch]

    Would you have prefered him use Received Pronunciation?

    If so, you might enjoy the musical stylings of Mr. B, the Gentleman Rhymer.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t28COxEp2k

    Although I’m much more of a Professor Elemental admirer myself.

  • [Zhiva]

    And how many languages do _you_ speak?

  • [dainel]

    The problem is he’s too soft. I’ve the volume on my notebook here turned up to max. And the only way I could make out what he’s saying is by holding the computer right up to my face, with the speaker 10cm from my ear. Somebody should have run the audio through the Levelator before posting the video. But it’s a really good story.

• [Guest]

  I’m going to be a little less critical and comment that I thought this story was so funny.

• [eldritch]

  So we’ve learned a valuable lesson here, folks, to wit:

  “Physical bank robbery almost always goes wrong, while digital bank robbery is comparitively easy.”

  Or at least it was 10 years ago.

• [Finnagain]

  Drowned hopes?

• [ChibiR]

  Hilarious indeed, and I enjoyed his personal take on things in the end. :)

  To be fair, I just love such “Simple (yet slightly stupid) plan gets terribly derailed by people and circumstances” stories, so this was exactly my thing. It helps that the guy hits all of my sympathy buttons somehow.

• [webmonkees]

  Supposed To Be Doing This is a powerful thing.

  My job fixing techie things gets me in all sorts of places Banks, the DMV..

  One field call involved the Mysterious Sealed Suitcase with laptop designed to open a microbiology safe/fridge. I expected Morpheus to give me directions out of the office.

  Gave em a call, (not Morpheus, alas)

  Hooked it up, opened the safe in diagnostic mode, did the config, finished,
   put the suitcase back in its box and shipped it back.  All legal and heck did they pay.

  Good thing humans naturally get nervous when they are Not Supposed To Be Doing That.

• [cain78]

  He is a known exaggerator/liar…  I’d take his story with a grain of salt. 

  • [semiotix]

    Yikes. Seems like if you actually believed that, you’d have at added a few token details, lest you inadvertently make him seem sympathetic, and yourself seem like the guy in my hometown who religiously posts “CORPORATI$T LIE$” as the first comment to the online version of our weekly newspaper gardening column.

• [eldritch]

  “He is a known exaggerator/liar… ” [citation needed]

• [TacoChuck]

  I thought the MC at the end was the funniest part of the clip.

  “Michael Jordan, George Clooney and that guy.”

• [Petzl]

  He certainly has the type of credentials (brain doctor, bank robber, rock climber) that a compulsive prevaricator would reach for.  Unfortunately for the doubters, it seems like he’s the real thing.

  • [Andrew Krause]

    He was my T.A. in a few neuroscience classes, and his Ph.D. advisor is an avid rock climber and likes to take his students along with him, so those two credentials are definitely legit.

• [kittnkat]

  that was awesome, can I have another story please? BB is all about stealing things today…

• [ackpht]

  That story would make a great short film.

  • [Seraphim_72]

    Starring George Clooney!

• [Pedantic Douchebag]

  Like “Texts from Bennett” the veracity means nothing if the story is great or funny. This is both.