In a daring, Hollywood-style bank heist, a crack team of thieves occupied offices above their target, covered its windows to make it look like they were working on renovations, cut through a concrete floor to gain access to a secure area, bypassed an alarm system, and used hockey bags to exfiltrate $293,000 from the vault within. Then they were arrested in a field. [Reuters]

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OK42M52VJS2OAKNLPPQJ2YRJLU Tweedle

    Brilliant? This is the plot of “Rififi,” which has been copied hundreds of times over the last 40 years. Of course, bank security has changed a bit over that time frame.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OK42M52VJS2OAKNLPPQJ2YRJLU Tweedle

    Scratch that — this has been copied for over 55 years.

    And if you haven’t seen “Rififi,” go watch it now! Still a great film that most heist movies can only aspire to!!

  • soylent_plaid

    See kids, this is why having a getaway car idling nearby as you’re finishing the job is important.

  • welcomeabored

    Does anyone else here in reading this story, get the feeling that the bank robbers got caught red-handed with two large bags of stolen property, because none of the five of them was willing to trust their confederates?  Hollywood-style, my ass!  The robbers in the movies are usually smarter than those bozos.

    • Brainspore

      “Not trusting your confederates” is probably the smartest way to go when you’re talking about a band of criminals.

      • welcomeabored

        Agreed, so I concluded that greed and suspicion vied with self-preservation (five robbers scattering in five different directions increases odds of a getaway) and greed and suspicion won.  Thus were five robbers all found together in a field hiding where they could keep their eyes on each other and the loot.

  • Nadreck

    Typical behaviour from my old home town.  There was a Mad Bomber at one point too.

    • Brainspore

      Why can’t it ever be a “Polite and Reasonable” Bomber?

    • http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood

      What Bombs At Midnight?

  • KevinRaposo

    haha, this sounds like its straight out of a movie!

  • Chuck Steel

    From my reading they also made the mistake of exiting through the bank’s doors, rather than going back up through the upper floor. It sounds like they set off the alarm as they were leaving.

  • http://echofox3.blogspot.com efergus3

    “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids.”

  • PathogenAntifreeze

    That much planning and effort… idiots could have made that money legitimately doing actual renovations.

  • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

    Somebody has been reading The Stainless Steel Rat.

  • http://twitter.com/WikiTruths Wiki-Truths

    I’d like to know just how many bank robberies are successful. You don’t hear about those for a reason – Don’t want to give the public ideas. :)