BANK & ARMORED CAR ROBBERY

The famous bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked why he robbed banks.
His answer: "Because that's where the money is".
Banks are the most likely place for a criminal to find a large amount of cash, all in one place. Terrorists,
revolutionaries, and criminal syndicates have all used bank robbery as a means of financing their
operations.
However, bank robbery is an inherently risky operation. In the US, the FBI investigates all major bank
robberies and they're very good at catching the robbers. In 1996 there was 7,562 bank robberies, 75% of
bank robbers were caught, and of those, 99% were convicted and sent to a federal prison for what
amounts to a life sentence. Also, you have to deal with off-duty cops, gun packing citizens, man-traps,
pop-up bulletproof walls, and all the other high technology shit that the banks use to protect themselves.
As dangerous as the FBI is, a bank robbers worst enemy is himself. As a one time thing you have a very
good chance of getting away with it since very few robbers are caught at the scene of their first robbery.
It's when you make a habit of it that you're on the countdown to being captured. The thrill of it becomes
addictive and the patterns and style of robbing lead to capture.
This quote from a book written by a thirty-year veteran FBI bank robbery investigator sums it up nicely:
"Think we'll get him?" I asked. (Referring to a bank robber)
"Sure," he said. "If not this time, then the next time, or the time after that."
Next time? How do you know there'll be a next time?
"Hey, kid, nobody robs just one bank. You do it once and you're gonna keep robbing
banks until you're caught or killed. Even if we catch you the first time, when you get out
of the joint you're gonna rob another one sooner or later. It's like an addiction, see? Look,
you spend forty-five seconds in a bank and what do you get? A thousand, two thousand,
maybe even fifty thousand if you've got the stones and you know what you're doing. It's
more money than any of these shitheels has ever seen at one time in his whole miserable
fucking life. And when he pisses that money away, what's he gonna do then? Get a job?
Bust his ass to pull down ninety fucking cents an hour, before taxes? Shit no. He's gonna
rob another fucking bank is what he's gonna do. Nobody robs just one."
Oh. Right.
But, by learning from the mistakes of previous robbers who've been caught, you'll be learning how to
avoid a similar fate yourself. The key to successfully robbing a bank and getting away with it is to only
do it ONCE. Any more than once and you begin to establish a pattern and patterns are lethal to criminal
success.
The other main way a robber gets caught is by stupidly handling all the cash he gets, flaunting and
spending it wildly. This is probably a natural thing to do when suddenly having an excess of money,
something most people have never experienced. But you must restrain yourself to avoid drawing
attention.
For this article, I'm assuming that you're not interested in the chump change that a note at a teller
window is going to get you. If you're going to do this, it's going to be for the BIG money. It's also
assumed that you're a white male, mid 20's to 40's, with a previous criminal record. This is the profile for
bank robbers that the FBI uses.
If you're female, you don't fit the profile since only 4% of known bank robbers in 1996 were female so
you've got a better chance. If you're not white, don't even bother because the vast majority of bank
robbers in prison are non-white. Whether because of some innate mud race stupidity or just because non-
whites are constantly coming in contact with police, I don't know, but the odds are stacked against you.
G The Cash
G The Bank
G The Armored Car
G Pre-Robbery Surveillance
G The Robbery
G The "Cowboy" Factor
G Snatch and Run
G Takeover
G Depository Trap
G The Getaway
G The Police
G Handling the Loot
G Splitting the Loot
G Hiding the Loot
G Spending the Loot
G An Alternative to Banks
G The "Rip Van Winkle" Heist (AKA robbing an empty bank)
THE CASH
(Assuming US currency)
This is what it's all about, cash. You use it everyday, but how much do you know about it? Probably not
as much as you should if you're going to be getting sacks of it. Technically, coins are considered cash,
but any idiot stupid enough to try running off with a sack of coins (it's happened!) deserves to be busted.
Only bills are worth stealing.
The US bill, regardless of denomination, consists of a specially made paper manufactured by the Crane
Paper Company of Massachusetts consisting of 75% cotton and 25% linen, the linen coming from old
shredded blue jeans which gives the paper it's blue fibers, the red fibers being added.
As an aside, I ran across US Patent #5,409,839 while looking up about taggants. In this patent, while
being useful for detection of explosives, also mentions the use of "Tagging all or significant parts of the
Federal currency to prevent the export of large quantities of cash which are often associated with major
drug transactions.". The patent mentions how tests using microencapsulated tracers showed they'd last
at least 18 months, the average life span of a US dollar bill.
Have you checked your money for perfluorocarbons lately?
When money comes to a bank it's in hundred bill bundles that are then wrapped in a standardized color
coded paper band and ten of these bundles are then rubber banded together into bricks.
Denomination $1 $5 $10 $20 $50 $100
Bundle Value $100 $500 $1,000 $2,000 $5,000 $10,000
Brick Value $1,000 $5,000 $10,000 $20,000 $50,000 $100,000
Wrapper Color Blue Red ? Purple Orange Gold
Every bill weighs 1 gram, thus a pound of bills contains 454 bills, thus a brick of $100 bills would weigh
2.2 pounds (1 kilo) and have a value of $100,000.
In this picture, you see employees of an armored car
company sorting and stacking the money prior to delivery.
The big stack in the back would be worth $15,000 ($1,
note the blue bands) and weigh 15 kilos (33 pounds).
A similar stack of $20 bills, like the purple banded one
been wrapped by the women in white, would be worth
$300,000 for the same weight and bulk.
Return to Index
THE BANK
Man Traps
A recent development in bank security is the installation of walk through metal detectors, similar to the
ones at airports, inside of mantraps made of bullet-resistant glass.
A customer opens the exterior door and enters the mantrap. The door closes behind them. They then
have to go through a metal detector before the inner door will be buzzed opened by an employee.
This system allows the bank to prevent robbers from entering, by either refusing them entrance in the
first place (no masked bandits), or by detecting the presence of hidden guns and knives.
It also serves quite handily to capture anyone dumb enough to try a "note passing" type robbery, since
they'll be captured inside the mantrap. Even if they had a gun, they wouldn't be able to force their way
out because of the bullet-resistant glass. People have tried to...and failed.
There's several ways to defeat the mantrap system for a ruthless robber.
The use of explosives/incendiaries/toxic chemicals is a possibility. These are non-metallic, and thus can
be brought into the bank without setting off the metal detector.
The use of hostages or suitable terror tactics to force them to release you are other means.
Some examples:
G Plastic flasks filled with exploding napalm gel, and with fuses burning, are left behind in the bank
as you leave. They ignite, spraying burning napalm everywhere inside the bank.
The only way out for the employees is through the very mantrap that you're safely enclosed in.
They either release the mantrap (and you) to save themselves, or burn to death. This presumes
that you've blocked all other possible exits so they have no other escape route except the mantrap.
G Same as above, only using a toxic gas to force them to flee. This might be better than fire since it
won't set off any fire alarms or sprinklers, which may suppress the fire.
G Grenades made from PVC pipe are used to force the tellers out from behind their partitions to be
used as hostages.
G Best of all would be to wait till you see someone with a kid go into the bank you're going to rob.
Then snatch the brat and use it as a hostage to get out. Either the bankers let you go with the
money, or you start snipping off the brats fingers.
The bank will lose millions in the lawsuit by the parents if you're forced to mutilate the kid
because they wouldn't let you go with the money. So they'll let you go with the thousands you got
since it'll be a lot cheaper to replace than the millions.
However, don't let the absence of a metal detector lull you into thinking that there is no man-trap. Not all
of them use metal detectors, but they're still capable of locking you in, when required. Assume that any
bank entrance with a double door foyer is a mantrap and plan accordingly.
THE ARMORED CAR
Armored_Car.jpg - 13336 Bytes
An armored car is basically an oversized delivery van with some steel and laminated glass thrown on it.
It is sufficient to protect against common gun calibers, pipe bombs, and even toxic gas (through air
filtering). It will NOT resist attack by high explosives, shaped charges, Explosively Formed Penetrators,
injected toxic gas, or large caliber rifles like .50 BMG.
In any attack against an armored car, there are three stages; immobilization (so they can't run away),
neutralization (of the guards so they can't shoot you), and extraction (of the loot).
Immobilization
US Patent #5,848,650 describes how Halon gas, like that used for fire extinguishers, can be used to
immobilize a vehicle by stopping the combustion of fuel in the motor. This is a very handy thing to
know since it's basically impossible to rob an armored car while it's moving.
Trifluoroidomethane is the preferred Halon mentioned in the patent, but any of the Halons used for fire
fighting will work. The Halon is introduced into the engine by spraying it in through either the external
air intake, or through the front grill. A 5 pound extinguisher is specifically mentioned, but the RTPB
says it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Because of this, you'd want the
biggest extinguisher you can easily carry.
An extinguisher with a 17 pound Halon filling costs about $300. This has an ABC rating of 3A:80BC
which means it really kicks ass at putting out a gasoline or diesel fire, which an engine just so happens to
need to work.
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Wheel chocks are another possible way. These
simple devices can hold a 747 still on the tarmac
with the engines at full throttle. These are placed
underneath the wheels and prevent the vehicle
from getting enough momentum to be able to
move. Good steel chocks will cost about $30 to
$50 dollars each and you need at least 2 pairs to
get either both front or rear tires chocked.
Coat the face of the chocks that will be in contact with the tires with a thick layer of grease to increase
their effectiveness. This prevents the tire from getting a grip on the chock and possibily throwing it
clear.
You'll have to get the chokes under the tires without the driver noticing. Distraction is the key here.
Perhaps an attractive women bending over with her ass towards the driver will distract him. Or a staged
fight. Or you and your crimey could just walk up from behind the truck, in the drivers blind spot and,
approaching from both sides, toss the chocks underneath before the driver can react. However you do it,
you've got to be quick about it.
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Knowing the structure of the armored cars undercarriage would go
a long ways to helping you know its vulnerabilities. Things such as
fuel and brake lines, axles, gear boxes, driveshafts, etc, all are
vulnerable points that could be targeted.
An R/C vehicle with a wireless transmitter and upward aimed
B&W camera (with IR illumination) would give you this kind of
view. After making several laps under an armored car with the R/C
scout, recording the view on a VCR, you'd capture the frames on a
computer and composite them in photoshop to make this kind of
view of the underside.
Having determined the weak spot on the underside, you would next use an explosive device to destroy
that weak spot, using the R/C vehicle with the camera/transmitter to deliver it. If targeting the fuel line,
or a target near the fuel tank, you'd want to use a water charge to do the attack, otherwise you risk
igniting the fuel tank, which would incinerate the money (bad) or you (worse).
Anti-mobility chemicals can also immobilize the armored car, but you would have to choose the proper
location for using them, as using them in the wrong place could nullify their effectiveness or even
hamper your own escape.
Neutralization
You don't want to kill the crew inside the vehicle, nor render them unconcious, since that would
necessitate you having to force entry. Best to force them to flee the vehicle, either through display of
overwhelming firepower, or by injecting an irritating (but less-lethal) chemical into the crew
compartment to force them out.
A small shaped charge would be placed high up on the side of the vehicle, so as to put the penetrating jet
above the heads of the crew inside, and detonated. Then a small projector would be used to inject a
saturated ammonia solution into the crew compartment. A "supersoaker" would be adequate to spray the
ammonia solution through the hole. Breaking a glass capsule filled with anhydrous ammonia gas inside
of the vehicle will accomplish the same thing.
The reason for using ammonia, instead of regular tear gas, is that gas masks don't filter out ammonia
without using specialized filters, which they're highly unlikely to have in their masks, thus making any
use of protective masks by the crew a moot point. Also, gaseous ammonia will burn any exposed moist
skin (think crotch and armpits), compelling them to leave, even if they somehow had a SCBA set.
Since the guard collecting the cash must get in and out the vehicle to do his job, it means that they'll
have to open the door, which is another opportunity for you to attack.
Depending on how close you are when you ambush them, you may be able to spray chloroform into the
vehicle through the open door to incapacitate the guards, using a modified fire extinguisher. If you're
feeling less generous, you could just as easily spray hyrdogen cyanide into the vehicle, instantly killing
everyone in it. This is the safest thing to do, as regards your personal safety, but would greatly increase
the pressure on the pigs to capture you, so it'd be counterproductive.
A small, non-pyrotechnic smoke charge, such as titanium tetrachloride absorbed into talcum powder,
would also be useful, as the driver wouldn't be able to see thus unable to drive any significant distance
away, and anyone else inside wouldn't be able to see out to shoot at you. And since they'll suffocate if
they stay inside, they'll have to exit the vehicle to breath, thus opening the door for you again if they
closed it the first time.
However, smoke would also impair you when you got into the vehicle to get the loot, so you'll have to
be prepared to vent it out. A gas-powered leaf blower would be more than adequate for the task of
blowing all the smoke out, or at least clearing it enough to see what you need.
Extraction
You must RTPB "Plan for Failure" and have a means of opening up the armored car if the guards, for
whatever reason, do not open it up for you. Whether they are killed during the attack, paralyzed into a
catatonic state with fear, or lock it behind them as they flee, any of these could make all your work
pointless if you have to leave empty handed because you couldn't get into it.
In the movie "Heat", the hero's (the crims, of course!) got into the armored car by using linear shaped
charges to cut out the door lock, allowing them to get at the goodies within. This would certainly be
possible if you knew the location of the locking mechanism and used a powerful enough LSC to ensure
complete severance of the lock.
But, unlike the movie where the guards just had mild concussions, use of such explosive devices would
likely prove fatal to the crew from spall fragmentation or blast overpressure in the confines of the
vehicle. However, if you must do that to get the loot, then they'll just have to die.
Depending on the amount of loot, and the type (cash, precious metals), you may have several tons of it
to deal with. Being able to rapidly move it from the armored car and into your vehicle is a priority skill.
If you take too long trying to move it, you'll end up caught at the scene, which is not good.
For smaller amounts, those up to several hundred pounds, collapsible carts like those described in the
bank robbery section below, would be admirably suited. For larger amounts of up 1,000 pounds, an
industrial roller track would be better suited, as you could simply pull up your vehicle to the the armored
car, pull the track up to the door, and start tossing loot onto the track where it'd slide down into your
vehicle for collection.
This scene from the movie "Heist" perfectly illustrates the utility of using a roller track for rapidly
moving heavy loot, in this case gold.
Return to Index
Pre-Robbery Surveillance
Prior to any sort of robbery, you'll want to conduct a thorough surveillance of your intended target, in
accordance with the RTPB.
Things you'll wish to learn prior to the robbery, depending on target type:
Armored Car
G Vehicle type, gross weight (empty), acceleration, armor level, and vulnerabilites
G Number of crew
G Weapons carried
G Route and scheduled stops (if possible)
G
Bank
G Vault location
G Number of staff, and guards, present
G Security devices present
G
G
Jake "Left-Handed" Smith was one of the best stick-up robbers in US history, having taken about $10
million over a 15 year career, but was killed by a single .38 bullet in the back that was fired by a bank
guard he had overlooked during his last robbery. RTPB "You always get hit on the way out".
The importance of this lesson should not be lost on the reader. Not only does it demonstrate the need to
adhere to the RTPB of always wearing a bullet-resistant vest, but also the need to do proper surveillance
of the target prior to the job. He knew about the guard, but hadn't accounted for his presence (or
absence) while rounding up the employees.
First thing you need to do is learn how many employees there are, what they look like, what cars they
drive, and what there schedules are. This is done by surveillance of the parking lot to see what cars are
there, day after day, and linking the cars with the owners (employees). By repeating this for several
weeks you can build up a schedule of who is there and when.
Then, when the robbery goes down, you know exactly how many employees there are and who they are,
because you've checked the parking lot earlier that same day to get that information ready. If you can
access DMV records and find out where they live, that information may be handy to blackmail an
employee or to coerce their co-operation by threatening their family at home.
You'll want, prior to the robbery, to have spent several days observing the exterior of the building to see
what any potential witnesses may be able to see. At what time of day does glare off the windows make it
impossible to see the interior? Where would you stand, or have prisoners kneeling, to keep out of the
line of sight of someone walking past a window, or up to a locked door and looking in? Time your
action accordingly, and stand and move in the blindspots.
Return to Index
THE ROBBERY
FORGET EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER SEEN IN A MOVIE!
It's all bullshit that will get you caught. A real robbery is simple, not some grandiose plan requiring split
second timing among 5 people. Examples of bad robbery movies are "Heat", "Doberman Gang", "Set It
Off", and "Dead Presidents". These are all bad because in every one of these movies, the robbers get
caught or killed. This subconscious programming is unacceptable. You need to find movies where the
robbers get away with the loot and the cops are clueless, that's the kind of psychological programming
you need to have in your head.
"City of industry" and "Heist" are the only movies I've seen where the robber got away with it in the
end, although most of the robbers involved were killed, but that was at each others hands, not the cops.
For a perfect real life example of what NOT to do, just watch a video of the L.A. bank robbers shooting
it out with the police. That alone is more educational than all the movies you'll ever see. To break it
down to the simplest facts: They took too long, got too greedy, got separated, and didn't have an escape
planned. And thinking you can take on the entire LAPD isn't too smart either.
You have to decide which type of robbery you're going to do. Is it going to be snatch and run, or
takeover? Each has it's own advantages and risks.
Regardless of which type you choose I'd recommend, in order to allow you to carry the most cash
possible, while still being able to rapidly move and not take up both of your hands, that you use one of
those collapsible folding baskets with wheels like you see old ladies using for their groceries. You could
also use luggage carts, but they don't have sides so there's a risk of bags falling off that you don't need to
chance.
Get a really durable one that can take a lot of weight (at least 50 pounds) and be sure to test it out first
using bundles of newspapers and phone books to be sure it won't fail under the weight. Last thing you'd
want would be for the wheels to break off as you're about to run out the door with a fortune. Wouldn't
that be embarrassing?
Fortunately, this problem has already been solved by hunters, in the form of carts for hauling their
trophies out of the woods. To quote a hunter supply catalog:

"This lightweight aluminum Deer Hauler folds
to a compact 24"x38"x4". For easy storage,
wheels can be removed to put unit behind
vehicle seat. Wheels out up to 300-lb load with
ease. Includes 2 cam-lock buckle straps to
secure game to carrier. Weighs 11 lbs. and has
10" ground clearance. This allows the unit to
straddle small stumps, logs and rougher terrain.
Includes two 12" diameter puncture-roof tires."
For only $120 you can haul out 300 pounds of loot over curbs and other impediments without breaking a
sweat.
This cart folds up to just 30"x19"x2", weighs 8
pounds, and can carry 175 pounds. Only $130,

it's small enough to fit on your back, underneath
a coat, so you can carry it into the bank without
drawing attention.
With either of these carts you'd want to use a very large duffel bag, like a sailors duffel, to toss the loot
in before hauling it out with the cart, so none of it falls off the sides.
Typically, when fresh cash is being delivered to a bank from a central depository, it'll be in shrink-
wrapped bundles sealed within tamper-evident bags so the armored car guards can't "dip" into any of it,
as well as making it easier to handle.
Once the cash in the bank it is immediately broken down into smaller increments and locked up in the
bank vaults "Burgher Boxes", to increase the time it would take a robber to get it all, thus decreasing
potential losses.
Generally, banks keep most of their cash in denominations of $20 and less, which is used for most
transactions with customers. Larger denominations are much less used. Therefore, you must assume that
your hit will be small denominations, and thus bulky. That's what you brought the cart for.
If you've snatched the cash before it's been broken down, then there's not likely to be any dye bombs in
it, though there may be a tracker. Once the money is in the vault, it's entirely possible that there will be
dye bombs sitting on the shelf, ready to be taken by a robber (you), so you must be prepared to deal with
them with...I shit you not...the Diaper Genie!
Yes, the nasty diapers that ankle biters fill with shit have created the need for a device of use to the
clever bank robber. The Diaper Genie is a contraption that holds a ring-shaped roll of pre-twisted plastic
tubing. The soiled nappy is dropped into the Diaper Genie, which causes the tubing to wrap around it,
forming a linked sausage (of sorts) of individually wrapped diapers.
How this is of use to the robber, you ask? Simple. By stuffing the loot through the Diaper Genie you are
encapsulating the loot into small, plastic wrapped bundles, that are impervious to the dye bomb. If the
loot is divided up into 33 segments, each segment worth $10,000, and there's three dye bombs, then the
most you'll lose to the dye bombs would be $30K, leaving $300K untouched because they were safely
wrapped in plastic. :) This also has the benefit of limiting the dye spread, keeping you clean too.
The reason I specifically used $330K in the above example is because that was the amount of money
taken by the L.A. Bank Robbers in their last (fatal) robbery. Unfortunately for them, even if they had
gotten away from the scene, the loot had been ruined because there was three dye bombs in their loot,
which stained most of it.
Typical Robbery Statistics
G The typical bank robber is likely to be a young, repeat offender male, who is unemployed, and
statically, non-white as opposed to white.
G A representative number of them may be addicted to some type of controlled substance and/or
under the influence at the time of the robbery itself.
G The majority do not case the bank prior to the attack, wear any kind of disguise to hide their
identity, or have a post-attack plan in place prior to the attack. (How many RTPB violations do
YOU see? I see quite a few myself. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to spot them.)
G One study identified that a weapon was threatened in 95% of the robberies reviewed. A weapon
was actually observed in 64% of these cases. In 76% of these cases it was a handgun.
G Nearly half of the robberies studied occurred on a Friday, and over 80% targeted branch locations
which had teller stations which were not fitted with bullet-resistant barriers.
Regardless of what type of robbery you pull, you need to be appropriately dressed for the job.
This is how to dress for a robbery.
Aside from the fact that he's white, you can't tell his age, real weight (might be
padding), or any identifying marks.
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If he had black camo paint on his face, or was wearing googles, you couldn't
even tell that he was white.
This guy is still on the loose though, if you notice his hands, he's leaving with
only a handful of cash...PETTY cash...thus he's sure to get caught because he'll
have to continuously repeat this till caught.
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This is a good example of how NOT to dress.
Age, weight, race, identifying marks...all plainly visible.
Which is why this dumb-ass got caught.
The Cowboy Factor
There's two types of cowboys; The "Hero" cowboy, and the "Robber" cowboy.
A "Hero Cowboy" is an idiot who, while trying to play hero by stopping the robber (you) from doing his
thing, will proceed to FUBAR your heist by getting himself, you, or the bystanders killed. The cowboy
may be some macho redneck hick, a gun nut, rent-a-cop, or maybe even an off duty pig. Regardless of
what he his, he'll do something stupid, and you'll have to deal with it.
He might start talking shit, acting very macho, in an attempt to look tough. He might try getting close to
you, under some pretext, to try and disarm you. He may have a knife, or gun, and try using it to kill you.
Regardless, if you get a cowboy, you'll have to deal with him immediately, because otherwise you'll lose
the initiative and be swarmed by the rest of the sheeple who'll suddenly get courage once cowboy makes
his move.
The first step to dealing with cowboys is to think of everyone as a potential cowboy. Man, woman,
child, old guy in a wheelchair...doesn't matter. ANYONE could suddenly get courage and cause you
problems.
ANYONE starts shit talking to you...take him out! He'll be talking shit to both work up his courage, try
to intimidate you, and show the crowd that you are not to be feared. Prove him wrong, showing that you
ARE to be feared, by shooting him in the leg. Once the cowboy has been dealt with, proceed with the
heist.
Some cowboys will attempt disarming you, without preliminary shit talking. This is prevented by
keeping your distance from everyone except the one person who matters...the person with the vault key.
First thing you do once you're through the door is order everyone to put their hands up in the air and to
move to the teller counter where they're to lay down with their hands behind their heads. You keep bank
furniture and building fixtures like tables, couches, pillars, etc between you and any potential cowboys.
If they want to try tackling you, they're going to have to run across the lobby and dodge the obstacles to
do so, something they're not likely to succeed in while you're shooting at them.
The same principle applies when dealing with armed cowboys. If you're behind effective cover, like a
large concrete planter or pillar, they're not in a position to start a gunfight since you're effectively
protected against their bullets, while they'd be in a highly exposed position in the middle of the lobby
with no cover. While most cowboys have no concern for their own safety, they're highly concerned
about the safety of their audience, because getting a bystander killed negates any "heroism" they may
garner by taking you on.
A "Robber Cowboy" is what YOU could turn into if you're not careful. These are the arrogant bastards
who come to believe that they're invincible, all cops are idiots, and no one can stop their rampage of
robbery. These are also the idiots who get blasted in a firefight with the cops. Examples of robber
cowboys would be Bonnie & Clyde, Platt & Mattock, and the LA Bank Robbers. They all got cocky,
didn't give a fuck about covering their asses, and died for their mistakes.
Robber cowboys prefer to shoot it out with the pigs, rather than avoiding them, as much as possible.
They crave publicity, with dramatic escapes, car chases, shootouts, and contacting the media to give
"their side" of the story. They tend to leave "calling cards" or have some kind of signature style to mark
a crime as theirs.
And even though you may not be a cowboy yourself, there's always the possibility that your partner (if
you have one) may turn out to be a cowboy. This will get you killed just as surely as if you were a
cowboy yourself.
Snatch and Run
This type is where you run into the bank a minute or two after the armored car drops off the cash bags to
the bank and leaves, and snatch it out of the merchant teller stall where they drop it off to be counted.
This is the quickest and safest type of robbery since the money is straight from businesses and so hasn't
been tagged with tracers or dye packs. It's also untraceable cash since there's no records of the serial
numbers of the bills and it's all used bills. It also has the advantage that one person can (and should) do it
alone, without an accomplice, which means no one to rat you out, and no one else you have to split the
money with.
The disadvantages are that you have no warning in case a cop shows up, or backup if someone inside
tries to play hero and stop you. You're also limited to how much you can carry, you can't keep an eye on
everyone inside and still be able to deal with the money, and you have to drive yourself.
To actually commit a snatch and run you need to observe the bank to see when the armored car delivers
the money. You'll want to pick a bank near a large commercial sector like a mall so the armored car will
be carrying large amounts of cash from all the businesses. If you pick the wrong bank, they'll either have
hardly any cash, or they'll be dealing with checks and other worthless paper. So picking the right bank is
the important thing.
What time of the month you commit the robbery is also important. Usually, Friday is the best day for the
robbery because the businesses will be depositing their cash before the bank closes for the weekend.
Also, the first Friday of the month (after the 3rd) is best because that's usually when people get their
paychecks and will be doing all their shopping so the shops will be flush with cash. The end of the
month would be a bad time to try because almost everyone is short of cash and using their credit cards to
tide over till payday and so the businesses would have hardly any cash.
The best time of the year would be during Christmas for the obvious reason of that's when people do the
most spending. I've read that certain businesses like Sears and Wal-Mart earn almost a quarter of their
years entire revenue during the month of December. Which also means the banks will be flooded with
cash! The robber who walked out with a quarter million (mentioned later) did it the week before
Christmas and that was the most he ever got at one time.
After picking an appropriate bank, you must observe both the outside and inside. A good thing to start
with would be photographs of the entire outside of the bank. Do the same for the inside, being sure to
get the entrances, teller windows, all doors and windows, surveillance cameras, vault door, and most
importantly the Merchant Teller door. The Merchant Teller is where the money from the local
businesses that the armored car delivers goes to be counted and sorted. You can usually tell the
Merchant Teller apart from the regular teller windows by the fact that there's a door that has to be
buzzed open and it's usually at the end of the teller counter.
Don't take these pictures with a film camera and have them developed, the developer may call the cops
when he sees a roll of film of nothing but a bank. Use either a video or digital camera and take the
pictures discreetly so the bank people don't know they're being photographed. They DO call the police
on people taking pictures inside, I know this because it's happened to me once when I was a kid. It's not
illegal, but the cops will hassle you about why you're taking pictures and do a warrant search on you and
who knows what records they keep about these sorts of things.
When you see the money bags, kick them before you grab them. Leave behind anything that clinks
because it's coins. You don't want to lug off a sack weighing 50 pounds only to discover it's a thousand
dollars worth of quarters. Now toss the bag into your cart. When it's full, pull the cover down over the
cart so when you leave the bank people outside don't see a man leaving the bank with a cart full of
money sacks.
Takeover
A takeover robbery is where at least 2 guys with guns go into a bank, wave around their guns, and say
"This is a stickup! Everyone hit the floor!". At least one guy watches the customers, the other gets the
money. This is the style the LA Bank Robbers used. For a demonstration of how this style works, just
watch the movie "Heat" (Robert DeNiro and Val Kilmer are the "bad" guys).
You'll also be interested in knowing that the LA Bank Robbers watched this movie many times as part
of their "training". As we all know, unlike in the movie where the bad guys get away after a huge
shootout in the streets with the LAPD, in real life that just gets you killed. Perfect example of why
mimicking movies is unhealthy. For a video clip showing the shootout, click here.
The moment you step foot inside the bank, you'll want to lock the doors behind you, so that no one can
sneak out while your occupied, nor can anyone come in and possibly interupt your robbery by running
back out screaming for the cops. Do this with the usual door lock (if possible) and back that up with the
chain and combo lock detailed in the getaway section.
Use RTPB "Smoke and Mirrors" to prevent suspicion in anyone who may come to the bank doors by
posting up a sign saying something like "Due to computer difficulties, we are unable to handle any
transactions until the problem is resolved. We regret any difficulties this may cause. [name of bank]".
Make it look professional, using the banks logo and style, and no one will suspect that the bank is being
robbed, because everyone knows how unreliable computers are and that nothing can run without them.
While your crimey is handling the door, you'll want to control the employees since they're the ones
who'll sound the alarm. If you time it right, using previously emplaced videocameras that are monitoring
the interior, you'll know both when the bank is empty of customers, as well as the employees being away
from their stations. This would be the optimum time to strike, since there'd be no "cowboy factor" to
deal with, nor would the tellers be within quick reach of an alarm button.
If your timing is good, and your attack swift, you'll have control of the bank with no one outside of the
bank knowing this. You can then proceed to loot the vault in relative leisure
The vault, while the main door is may be open, will still be locked by a door called the "day door".
Someone in the bank, usually the manager or designated teller, will have the keys for the day door. If
you've done your homework, you'll know who this person is, and "pursuade" them to open it for you.
Once you're in the vault, put the bank employee face down in a corner. Don't let them "help" you with
loading the cash, since they'll toss in bait money, trackers, dye bombs, and other unwanted crap along
with the loot. Get them out of the way and start scooping.
Return to Index
Depository Trap
This is a much more "low key" way of stealing from a bank and will draw much less attention to you
than a standard robbery would since, often, the bank won't publicize the theft, lest the other customers
realize just how weak bank security is.
In addition, successful depository trap thefts are exceedingly rare, with only a dozen or two every year
(only 16 such thefts in 1997), compared to the thousands of standard style robberies. This is the pinnacle
of the robbers art, to steal the money before it ever gets to the bank, and without anyone even knowing
they've been robbed!
A depository is where people go to at the bank to drop off money without going inside, usually at night
or when the bank is closed.
A bank customer uses a key to unlock the depository chute, into which they place their money bag.
When they close the chute, the money drops into a safe inside the bank.
Here's a picture showing how a depository drop leads
to a safe.
The shiny box on the side is the depository chute.
The chute is designed to resist forced entry to the same degree as the safe itself. And if someone left the
chute unlocked, you wouldn't be able to retrieve the money by "fishing" for it because the chute has two
intermeshed drums (like gears) that'd cut any line.
There is one occassion of this crime that has received widespread publicity in the past.
In Japan, during the 80's, someone make an exact duplicate of a banks depository, and placed it over the
original. Apparently people were too stupid to realize that the depository was now a good foot further
than it was before, but that's neither here nor there. Point is, people put their money in the duplicate,
which was emptied out afterwards by the criminal in readiness for the next victim.
The thief scored more than $300,000 in one night and was never caught. He also never repeated the
crime, thus there was no pattern for the police to try to catch him with.
There's a way, for those of us without model making skills, to trap the money in the depository chute by
jamming it so that neither the bank, nor the victim, get the money out.
For obvious reasons, I'm not going to go into exact details so every idiot can do it but, if you're clever,
the following clues will get you inspired.
A very small device is constructed from a piece of spring steel and a ball bearing. The device is so small,
in fact, that's it's virtually invisible to all but the closest inspection. The device uses the safe makers
obsession with "swiss-watch" tolerances against them.
It is attached to the depository chute in such a location that it will engage a small, shallow, hole that
you've drilled into the exterior of the chute.
The hole has been drilled at a place on the chute that the chute is closed enough that the victim can't
retrieve their money when the chute doesn't close all the way, but not enough that the money falls into
the depository safe.
You will have to determine where this point is by prior observation and experimentation on the chute
when it's (inevitably) left unlocked by some lazy customer.
Or, you could simply join the bank as a business customer who needs depository service. This gives you
a key to the chute, and all the access you'd need to get the details needed.
This simple device, while not as elegant as a perfect duplicate depository chute model, serves the
purpose of forcing the victim to either abandon the money in the chute while looking for help with it, or
to stand guard over it for an indeterminate amount of time till someone from the bank comes.
This is an (obvious) major problem for the victim if he's dropping of money in the middle of the night.
In either case, you can either retrieve the money when the victim leaves for help (using a "key" to unjam
the chute), or drive the victim away so you can retrieve the money.
In one scenario I've seen and had in mind for the device, would be for when a store manager leaves for
the day, and goes to drop off the days cash.
He goes to the depository chute and puts in the money, but the chute "jams". The bank is still open, so
after a minute of struggling with it, he goes inside to get an employee.
While he's inside, you simply walk up to the chute and use your key to unjam it and retrieve the money
and the device. You proceed to calmly walk away.
The victim comes back out with a bank employee who finds the chute unlocked, but otherwise operable.
By the time anyone checks to see if the money is in the safe, you're long gone.
Another possibility would be to insert some tacky adhesive into the chute, while it's unlocked, that
would hold the money bag in place, rather than falling into the safe.
However, the chute may be designed to prevent such an attack. As you can imagine, exact details about
bank devices is very scarce outside of the trade, so only experimentation would determine if such an
attack would work.
THE GETAWAY
The getaway is the most critical part of the robbery because this is when you're most likely to have
violent confrontation with pursuing police. Planning your getaway is even more important than planning
the robbery itself because anything can go wrong during the robbery so being able to get away from the
problem (and capture) is top priority. After all, you can always try again later, but only if you're not in
jail.
Planning the getaway starts with getting familiar with the immediate surroundings of the bank. Knowing
the exit driveways and areas you could drive your car over or through if the exits are blocked is your
main concern.
The getaway starts the moment you are ready to leave the bank with all the money you're going to take.
When you're leaving the bank, you must take steps to ensure that no do-gooder or off-duty cop can
follow you outside to get your license plate number or interfere with your getaway. To ensure this
doesn't happen you need to keep the doors closed behind you when you leave.
This can be done with large zip ties. You close the doors
(preferably the innermost ones if there is a double doorway),
pass the zip tie through the handles, and pull it tight as you can.
Make sure you use a strong one so even several people pulling
can't break it. And since strong ones are thick and made of
tough plastic, this makes it almost impossible to cut with
scissors and still difficult even with a knife.
You can combine the strength of chain, with the speed of a zip tie, by
using a metal snap link to connect the chain links together through the
door handles.
You may wish to use a gated link that would screw shut, rather than a
simple snap link, the screw link being much stronger and resistant to
opening.
Ideally, you would use a padlock with chain, as this allows you to not only keep the people in, but keeps
any responding police out for at least a couple of minutes, while they either find some boltcutters, or
work up the nerve to break a window.
Since you must RTPB "Plan for Failure", you can't use a keyed lock, nor one that requires you to turn a
combination dial, since you may either break the key off in the lock, or forget the combination under
stress.
This combination lock only requires you to remember a simple 4
digit number to unlock it. DO NOT use any numbers that are
connected to you, like part of your phone number, SSN, or
anything else like that.
Write the number on a piece of surgical tape with an permanent ink
marker and stick it to the back of your hand, underneath your
glove, so you can open the lock in case you forget the number
under stress.
Be SURE to destroy the tape because it'll have both your DNA,
and the same number as the lock left behind at the crime scene,
making it a slam dunk conviction if found.
5 seconds with a zip tie or chain will prevent anyone coming out of the bank for at least a couple of
minutes, by which time you'll already be switching to your main car.
Remember the RTPB "You always get hit on the way out". Before you set foot outside of the bank, look
out through the windows to see what's up with the passing traffic. If there is NO vehicular or pedistrian
traffic then that means you're fucked because the cops are blocking civilians from passing through a
potential warzone and are waiting for you to step outside so they can blast you.
If you see no traffic outside, assume the cops are waiting to ambush you, and use the chaotic event
distraction you've pre-emplaced to give you sufficient cover to escape. Tear gas and smoke generators
upwind, blowing a nearby 5,000 gallon propane tank, claymores, whatever. As long as it's sufficiently
terrifying or distracting to get the pigs attention off of you for a few moments, that's all you need.
If you do have to do this, don't worry about the money, leave it behind to lighten your load as speed is
essential in any getaway. As long as you are free, you can always get more money, and you don't need it
slowing you down with piggies nipping at your heels.
Once you've stepped out of the bank, WALK! DO NOT RUN! Running automatically draws peoples
attention. Especially people running from a bank. Walk to your car, which you've parked nearby, where
it can't be seen by anyone inside of the bank. This is important, because it's SOP for bank employees to
attempt to get the description of a robbers getaway vehicle, if they can do so. If anyone inside does get a
description of your getaway vehicle, it greatly increases your chance of capture because the cops may be
able to spot you before you make the switch to your own car.
DON'T leave it running parked in front of the bank, that's too suspicious, especially to any passing cop
cars. I'd think that one of those remote car starters would be a good idea so you could start it before you
exit the bank, saving some precious time. These require a car with electronic ignitions and automatic
transmissions so be sure to steal the right kind of car.
Your going to have to steal the getaway car so there's no risk of it being traced back to you through
licenses or such. The getaway car should be an older, full sized car with an automatic transmission and
strictly mechanical, no computer or electronic ignition shit to fail, but you'd need electronic ignition to
use a remote starter. Perhaps you could set the car to start on a timer instead.
An excellent place to steal a car so that no one will report it as stolen, nor be looking for it, is to get it
from a cemetery. Yes, the cemetery. There are cemeteries that are open 24/7 so that people can visit their
dead anytime they want to. This means that, at 3AM, there's someone with a vehicle, in an isolated spot,
with no living witnesses around to see the jack move go down.
If you're feeling generous, you can simply restrain them, and they'll be found in the morning. If you're
feeling pissed, you can kill them, and drop the body into a predug hole over an existing old grave. Either
way, it'll be hours, at least, maybe even days, before anyone notices they're missing, by which time
you've already done your heist.
The car is going to be left behind when you transfer to your own car so you'll have to make sure that you
don't leave any physical evidence behind when you leave it. To this end, you remove all carpeting from
the car, cover the seat and headrests with plastic, and the floor with removable mats, all of which will be
removed when you switch cars.
A possible means to avoid having to switch cars immediately would be to disguise your cars true
appearance. Water soluble paint, vinyl panels, removable flame decals, fins and spoilers, removable
body panels, etc can rapidly change a cars appearance. For instance, you drive away from a bank in a
black car with flames and a spoiler fin on the back, that's what the cops will be looking for. But, after
you peel off the black vinyl coating with the flames and remove the spoiler fin, you drive away in your
plain white car. RTPB "Decoys and deception...".
After having switched to your main car, you should move a mile or
so away, park somewhere safe, and scan all the money bags with a
handheld metal detector (like the one shown) very thoroughly. The
Metal Detector.jpg - 7480 Bytes
purpose for this is to detect any tracking devices (think LOJACK)
that may have been placed in with the money. This isn't likely to be
the case, but better safe than sorry, right? If you DO discover a
tracker, don't destroy it, throw it in the back of a pickup truck or
such, headed in the opposite direction, to mislead the police.
Return to Index
THE POLICE
If you're unlucky, or take too long, cops will be waiting for you outside the bank. You must RTPB "Plan
for Failure" and assume that there will be cops outside the bank when you're leaving.
If there's a breeze, placing smoke pots upwind of the bank and setting them off by remote control would
serve well to allow you to escape. If you threw in a few tear gas grenades as well then you'd have a huge
advantage as the pork wouldn't be expecting this, being totally unprepared for it. But you must always
have lethal weapons ready to use in case the non-lethals are inadequate.
If, after setting off the smoke and tear gas, you find that you still can't get out of the bank without
catching incoming fire, then you must use the RTPB of "Victory Through Superior Firepower". Such
superior firepower would be pre-emplaced Claymores, an off-site hedgehog to saturate the parking lot
with grenades, lethal CW's, or other un-typical weapons.
If you evade capture at the scene, the bank and/or cops may offer a reward for your capture, with the
amount increasing as the severity of the loss or the numbers of bodies increase.
Rewards work in direct proportion to how talkative the criminal is, and how many "friends" he has. The
purpose of a reward is to make greed overcome friendship, and inspire a friend or relative to call the
cops. But if it's just you, and possibly one other person who's equally deep in the shit, then rewards are
pointless.
Return to Index
HANDLING THE LOOT
First thing you need to do once you get back to your place is to remove all the money from the bank
bags, remove all the paper bill wrappers, plastic bags, rubber bands, and whatever else ISN'T cash and
burn it all to ashes, stirring the ashes with water, and dumping the slop down a distant sewer. Anything
that doesn't burn or dissolve needs to be scattered to the four winds. It's too common that a robber gets
clean away, only for someone (months later) to find a bank sack in his car, or see him with a fistful of
hundreds still in the wrappers, and calling the cops. Don't make this mistake yourself.
After having destroyed all of the bank paraphernalia, sort out and count the money. It'll take you hours
to do this manually, but a mechanical bill counter can do it in less than an hour. You can find these at
auctions for less than. $100, or brand new for at least $400. However you count it, do it on a bare floor
covered with newspaper taped to the floor. This prevents traces of cash paper fibers from being left
behind. You can't see them with the naked eye, but the FBI's forensics people will find them if you leave
them there to be found. Large amounts of money leaves a lot of fibers behind.
When you're done counting, burn the newspaper and vacuum the floor, burning the vacuum. I'd do the
counting naked and take a shower afterwards so there's no fibers on my clothes either. And who hasn't
fantasized about rolling around naked on a pile of money? ;) (Don't! DNA, remember?)
The majority of your bills are going to be between $5-$20. You'll be keeping the tens and twenties for
spending. All the large bills (fifties and hundreds) are going to be buried. The small bills (ones and
fives) are going to be "concentrated" down to hundreds. Any $500 or $1,000 bills you may find (highly
unlikely) must be burned immediately! They're so unusual that people, just by having seen it, will
remember you since nobody outside of a bank or casino ever sees one. And the last thing you want to be
is memorable.
One way to "concentrate" the $1 and $5 bills is to take them to the change machines at laundromats,
arcades, coin washes, etc. There you convert them into quarters. You can get up to several thousand
dollars worth of quarters from most machines. But you'll only be getting several hundred out at any one
place and time to avoid drawing attention to yourself by standing in front of a machine for an hour
getting change.
You now take these quarters to one of the coin counting machines found in most major supermarkets.
One such company is Coinstar (1-800-928-2274), just call them and the recording will tell you where to
go. Dump them in and the machine will count it out (minus like 7% for counting fees) and give you a
receipt you can either use as credit for buying food, or turn into cash. Do less than $200 to avoid
drawing attention to yourself. Assuming you live in a large metropolitan city like New York or Los
Angeles, you could easily convert several thousand dollars in small bills into hundreds in an afternoon of
driving.
HIDING THE LOOT
The large bills ($50 and $100) are going to be buried for awhile because you want to remove the
temptation to blow it all shopping. Plus it's nice to have a cash reserve somewhere the piggies can't find
if you get busted. Divide it up into $10,000 -$50,000 batches.
To prepare your money for burial, you compress it into bricks, using cardboard treated with pesticide
and zipties to keep them compressed. The bricks are then sealed inside ziplock bags with all the air
squeezed out. The next step is to fill a non-metallic burial container like a large PVC pipe, plastic ammo
box, or 5 gallon plastic bucket with melted paraffin wax. The bricks are completely immersed in the wax
till it cools and hardens. Or you can use quick setting concrete if you're worried about rodents. You now
have a bugproof, waterproof, undetectable cache.
Now that it's ready for burial, you'll need a place to bury it. Take with you the following: shovel, tarp,
GPS unit, camera, compass, and 100' tape measure. Find some government owned (no developers) God
forsaken middle of nowhere like a desert, forest, or mountain. Look for high ground with a permanent
landmark like a rock outcropping or such that won't die or be buried in a flood.
Take a GPS reading and photos of the landmark, then measure out the distance and compass heading to
the burial site. Carefully cut the top layer of soil into sections and remove them intact, placing them on
the tarp. Dig the hole for your burial cache. Put it in and tamp the dirt down around it as firm as possible
to prevent a depression when the ground settles. Now carefully replace the top soil layer and tidy things
up. Take the excess dirt with you for disposal elsewhere.
Now for the really important detail, making sure you can find your stash 10 years or more down the
road. For this, you place the latitude in 5 places, the longitude in another 5 places. Both have the heading
and distance since without both the lat and long it's impossible for anyone to find your cache. The
reasons for the 5 places is so that you'll likely remember at least one of each so you can find your cache
later.
Places to put the numbers are spray painted inside of sewer tunnels, engraved into aluminum plates that
are epoxied or bolted to buildings, scratched in the back of tombstones of someone you'll remember (not
related), and other obscure, hidden places unlikely to be seen.
The pictures are kept with you, suitably hidden, and copies are buried away from your home. Make sure
that the pictures show ONLY the landmark, not the sky, background, or any of the landscape.
Technology makes it possible to determine the location a picture was taken from sun angle, or topology
of the surroundings.
One place you DO NOT want to stash your money is a public storage facility. Unfortunately these
places all require ID, which in turn generates a paper trail. That's how the FBI recovered the vast
majority of the seventeen million dollars from the armored car robbery. They found a rental receipt for
the storage place in a dumpster with the robbers name on it. DUH!
They'll also call around to all the local storage places asking if anyone has rented a unit matching the
general description and if they can have a cash sniffing dog come by to give a sniff. Yes, they DO have
dogs trained to sniff for cash. More precisely, the traces of drugs found on all but the newest of bills.
Problem With Caching Loot and a Solution
In the United States, starting in 2003, the currency will go through an almost annual change in the color
of the currency. US dollars have been green for decades, but will soon be multi-hued, like european
money, and the color scheme will change every other year. While the government says this is to prevent
counterfeiting, it's actually the prelude to a currency recall.
This would be similar to the previous recall of gold and silver certificates that took place in the 30's and
50's. They also say that all previous types of bills will still be spendable, but that's obviously bullshit,
'cause when's the last time you saw (or spent) a gold certificate?
So, let's say you've pulled off a major score, and got hundreds of thousands of dollars buried. But you
discover to your horror that, while you were locked up for some unrelated bullshit, that the government
has recalled all bills of that type, and that all your loot is now worthless confetti. Wouldn't that just
suck?
Well, don't fret, because there's a way around this, and it's not going to be affected by any kind of
currency recall that may happen within your lifetime.
What you're going to do is convert your bills into coin. Yes, the very thing you passed up when you stole
the money in the first place, is the thing that'll be saving your stash from becoming obsolete play money.
The reason for using coinage is because it changes maybe once in a lifetime. A dime of today is the
same as a dime of the '50s, same for a penny, nickel, and quarter. The reason the coinage doesn't change
is because of the huge number of existing machines that use coins. And changing the coinage would
require that EVERY machine that uses coins be changed to accept the new coinage. This would be a
HUGE expense to industry of every kind, compared to changing bills, which is comparatively easy.
The best place to get bills changed is at a casino. Simply feed a bill into a slot machine, pull the handle
once, then hit the "pay out" button to get it all back as quarters. Continue doing this at a different
machine each time.
Once you've got as many quarters as you can carry, take them out to your car, dump them in the trunk,
then go on to another casino, or wait a couple hours before repeating. You don't want to go to the cage
and ask them for the quarters directly since nobody does that, so you'd stick out like a sore thumb doing
so.
The most convenient place to get the quarters already shrink wrapped in plastic tubing is at the bank.
More likely than not they'd require you to be a business before they'd part with $500 boxes of quarters
so it's not a good place to do so. That, and all the "know your customer" crap that the feds have them do,
would likely get you reported for "suspicious" activity.
Again, the change machines at laundromats, car washes, etc., would be good places to change bills
anonymously, but it'd be a slow and tedious process, so get someone else to do it for a cut.
Obviously you're not going to convert a million dollars into quarters. Rather, you'd be converting a
percentage of your take into change and caching it in wax-filled cache tubes in various places so that, in
the event you have to flee, or are otherwise indisposed from the main loot stash, that you have a ready
source of non-volatile money to tide you over and resupply with.
These caches will be immune to any currency recalls for many decades to come, are impervious to rot or
vermin, and are too small to consitute a major loss if accidentially found while still being a significant
financial aid to a fleeing felon.
A thousand dollars in quarters will fit in a shoebox and weighs 50 pounds. How many places could you
hide a shoebox in/under/behind/above/between? Return to Index
SPENDING THE LOOT
Before you even THINK about robbing a bank, you'd better have a plan on how to deal with the money.
Very few people have any idea of just how much space $100,000 in fives and tens takes up or weighs,
let alone MILLIONS. As an example, one armored car robber took $17,000,000. It weighed 2,700
pounds ! There was SO MUCH money he had to leave millions behind (sacrilege!) because it wouldn't
fit in his van.
Another robber I knew told me the most he ever got at once was about $250,000. That was in 6 bank
sacks and weighed so much he could barely drag it out the door. He didn't get caught (that time) but
when it comes to this kind of crime, speed equals survival. Slowing yourself down with more cash than
you can carry is stupid. You can always get more cash, but you can't get more time to escape. And how
are you going to spend a million dollars? Think it's easy? It's not.
"I'll go to Las Vegas or Atlantic City and live it up like a high roller for a week!" But guess what? The
IRS and DEA have resident agents at all the major casinos. Their sole job is to seize large amounts of
cash from people that come to the casinos because if you're a major player, you don't come in with cash,
you have a credit line extended to you by the casino after a check to see if you're legit. If you come in
with a duffel bag full of cash , you're going to be busted ASAP.
"OK, I'll buy a big house and fancy car." Sounds good, but how many people drop a hundred grand
CASH for a house? Unless you live in Colombia, ZERO. It's all done with bank loans and financing
through a mortgage. Cars are the same except for private sellers. Same thing for basically every type of
vehicle and housing, with the exceptions of ghetto type cars and houses, which are always cash because
ghetto people can never get a loan or mortgage. So unless you intend to move into a ghetto, you're not
moving on up.
"All right already, I'll travel around the country in style." Oops, DEA again. They've got deals with all
the major airline, train, and bus companies , as well as hotel chains in every major city, that in exchange
for access to the records to find people who've paid in cash (and thus likely to be carrying cash), the
companies get 10% of whatever is seized.
"Fuck it! I'll just leave the country!" BZZZZ! Wrong. Firstly, it's illegal to leave the country with more
than $10,000 cash. Not that we care about the legality of it, but they do check your luggage with both X-
Rays and dogs before it gets loaded on the plane. Large amounts of cash would be detected by the X-
Ray machine if you carry with you on board, and drug sniffing dogs would alert on the drug traces that
are omnipresent on money in the quantities you'd be carrying. International airports like LAX and JFK
are also now using body scanning backscatter X-Ray machines that can see under your clothes to detect
if you're hiding anything under them. So that's out too.
"Too hell with it then! Why even bother if you can't do anything with the money?" As evil Yoda would
say "You must have patience young Jedi thug, yesssss. Only by patience can you spend the dark side of
the loot.". You'll have plenty of opportunities to spend your ill gotten gains, but you have to do it slowly,
avoiding drawing attention to yourself, and not letting your desire to live like Scarface get you into
trouble.
Live modestly, within what others would think of as your means, and have a good cover story about how
you got money to spend, but don't have a job to get it. Things like an inheritance, trust fund, insurance
settlement, sold a kidney, and others will work if you can be convincing about it. Return to Index
AN ALTERNATIVE TO BANKS
The check cashing places that seem to have popped up everywhere are a ready supply of money to the
Natural Born Killer. While they have the appearance of being more protected than some banks, they are,
in fact, more vulnerable. This vulnerability stems from the law.
Banks, being FDIC insured, get their robberies investigated by the FBI. Check cashing places, on the
other hand, are just regular businesses, classified the same as pawn shops and home loan companies.
Thus, if you rob a bank, you'll have the FBI on your ass for 8 years. Rob a check cashing store, you only
have to deal with the state or local police, a much less capable adversary.
Just be sure you don't use explosives or other destructive devices in the robbery because then the ATF
will become involved, and through them, possibly the FBI. Also, don't kill anyone if possible, because
then there's no statute of limitation. Pepper gas and stun guns are more than adequate since the
employees are likely unarmed seeing how "safe" they are in such places. However, always have lethal
weapons at the ready in case of armed resistance or police interference, as you must ALWAYS assume
the victim is armed and willing to fight and RPTB "Plan for Failure".
The really great thing about these places is that they only deal with cash. No bullshit credit transfers,
business accounts, or other non-spendable "money". The really good time to hit these places is early
morning on the 1st and 3rd of the months since that's when the majority of people who patronize these
type of places go there to cash their welfare and social security checks. You want to go early in the
morning before the people start showing up with their checks. The store will already have the money
ready in drawers for the lunch hour rush.
Because of this, they will typically have almost a hundred thousand dollars in cash on hand to cash all of
them at the larger places. Unfortunately, they don't keep it all out in the open, even behind their bullet-
resistant windows, it's kept in time delayed safes. They will, however, have several tens of thousands
ready in cash drawers.
The robbery begins by forcing entry into the protected zone of the store. Trying to do so through the
front is silly since that's where all the protection is...bullet-resistant glass, mantraps, and all that shit.
What you always want to try and find is the weak spots, and one such weak spot is the back door.
In every check store I've been in where I could see the back door, it was just a regular metal commercial
door with a peep hole viewer and a cross bar to keep it closed against "normal" forced entry attempts.
But, of course, NBKs don't do anything "normal". In this case, a simple battering ram made from a rail
road tie and a steel plate, attached to the frame of a LARGE truck, will make short work out of anything
short of a bank vault.
If you can't get a straight shot at the door to ram it in, then you'll just have to use chains and hooks to
yank it out. A harpoon like attachment to a manual battering ram would penetrate the door and deploy a
crossbrace that would prevent it from being pulled out of the door when the chain snatches the door out
of the frame.
Another means would be to flush them out with tear gas. Either sprayed in underneath the bullet-
resistant windows, through the ventilation ducts, or through a hole you drilled in the roof during the
night when they're closed.
However you get the gas in, you'll want it to appear directly over their heads at the front of the store
where the money is. You want to drive them away from the money so they don't have any time to lock it
up or hit their panic buttons. Do it while they're in the back. You've already wedged shut the front
mantrap they use to get in and out so they can't get out that way. The only way out for them is the rear
exit, which is where you're waiting for them to exit.
You have a Keep Open on the rear exit so you can get in as they leave. You rush in wearing your gas
mask, clear out the cash drawers, and split.
If you're the more daring type, you could break in through the roof during the night, and wait for the
staff to come in the morning, and jack them then. If you do this, you don't actually enter the premises to
await them as there is likely alarms such as motion detectors that would get you caught. Rather, you
have the hole prepared but wait till the victim disables the alarm and actually enters the premise before
dropping down through the roof hole to surprise them.
The following story will illustrate the ways you can fail:
In early April, a number of stores at a local strip mall were hit. Mr. Coffin, the sole
proprietor of a check-cashing center in Salisbury, was located next door to one of the
stores that had been burglarized. He thought his store would be the next target.
"I figured that the thieves may have missed their intended target," says Coffin. "Why
would anyone risk getting caught for nothing more than what can be found in a Rent-Rite
store, when there is a check cashing center located right next door?"
Paul's hunch proved to be true. In the early morning of April 7, the thieves returned.
However, when the store was being built, they installed a security system that included a
cellular alarm backup, the cellular alarm backup that saved the day for Coffin's check
cashing center.
The thieves began their attempted robbery by cutting the phone lines to the strip mall
where Coffin's store is located. This caused the cellular network signal to take over
communication.
After breaking through the walls, the thieves crawled inside. At that point (around 2:30 a.
m.) they unknowingly tripped the back room dual-technology motion detector and
subsequently the Uplink digital cellular backup device that leads directly to the check
cashing center. This took over communication, since the phone lines were out, and routed
the signal to the alarm company.
The motion detector also set off a siren. The thieves smashed the siren and the keypad to
stop the noise, which automatically locked the front door. Once inside and unaware of the
situation they had created for themselves they located a large safe and dragged it to the
rear of the store to cut it open with a large, diamond blade saw. Little did they know it was
a decoy, intentionally left in view of customers, while all cash was kept in a safe hidden
out of sight.
They also neglected to access the time-lapse VCR that was recording their activity from
four CCTV cameras. Satisfied with their situation, the thieves moved ahead with their
plan and proceeded to try and open the safe.
Back at the alarm monitoring station, the operator on duty attempted to verify the alarm
by calling the store and, receiving no answer, immediately dispatched the police. Burglary
signals are normally verified by a call to the premises prior to dispatching police; allowing
an authorized individual to cancel a false alarm. Police quickly arrived on the scene (about
five minutes after being dispatched), surprising the robbers.
How many RTPB's did these thieves break? They established a pattern by burglarizing a series of stores,
all in the same stripmall. How many times can you burglarize
Hell, even the store owner followed an RTPB by using a decoy safe.