Adapt and Improvise

[Penn]

Bank robber hires decoys on Craigslist, fools cops
Posted by Caroline McCarthy

In an elaborate robbery scheme that's one part The Thomas Crowne Affair and one part Pineapple Express, a crook robbed an armored truck outside a Bank of America branch in Monroe, Wash., by hiring decoys through Craigslist to deter authorities.
It gets better: He then escaped in a creek headed for the Skykomish River in an inner tube, and the cops are still looking for him. "A great amount of money" was taken, Monroe police said, but did not provide a dollar value.
It appears to have unfolded this way, according to a Seattle-based NBC affiliate: around 11:00 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, the robber, wearing a yellow vest, safety goggles, a blue shirt, and a respirator mask went over to a guard who was overseeing the unloading of cash to the bank from the truck. He sprayed the guard with pepper spray, grabbed his bag of money, and fled the scene.
But here's the hilarious twist. The robber had previously put out a Craigslist ad for road maintenance workers, promising wages of $28.50 per hour. Recruits were asked to wait near the Bank of America right around the time of the robbery--wearing yellow vests, safety goggles, a respirator mask, and preferably a blue shirt. At least a dozen of them showed up after responding to the Craigslist ad.
"I came across the ad that was for a prevailing wage job for $28.50 an hour," one of the unwitting decoys, named Mike, said to the NBC station. As it turns out, they were simply placed there to confuse cops who were looking for a guy wearing a virtually identical outfit.
Authorities eventually found the getaway inner tube (a getaway inner tube!) and suspect that accomplices may have picked up the robber in a boat. According to the NBC affiliate, police hope to track him down by figuring out who posted the Craigslist ad in the first place.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was not immediately available for comment.

[Red Flag 1]

Pretty clever! I like the getaway inner tube as well.

Wonder what, and when, his next caper will be?

We may have a new legend at work.


RF 1

[Defender968]

Originally Posted by Penn

According to the NBC affiliate, police hope to track him down by figuring out who posted the Craigslist ad in the first place.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was not immediately available for comment.

If this guy is smart enough to come up with this plan I'm going to guess he was smart enough to place the craigslist add from the public library, but hey maybe he made a stupid mistake.

You know I hate thieves with a burning passion, even more so than most criminals, but this crime has a little flair, no one got hurt, it was actually well planned, as much as I hate to admit it I'm a little impressed. Most criminals are such retards that their mere existence angers me, they mostly use brute force for crimes and hurt people in the process, but this guy at least has a brain in his head and didn’t really hurt anyone, I’m sure the pepper spray wasn’t pleasant, but hell I’ve been sprayed on the job and it sucks but it’s not really that bad.

Now don't get me wrong I still hope they catch him and put him in prison for a very long time, but if he thought this through, if he placed the add from a public library, if he left a car for himself down river with no accomplices, and if….and it’s a big if, but if he can keep his mouth shut, he may very well get away with it....but if I had to guess he's going to shoot his mouth off and that will get him caught, I don't know why but people can't seem to keep secrets today, they always start talking to people about what they did, and as I’ve always said 2 people can keep a secret only if one of them is dead.

[ZonieDiver]

DB Cooper lives! I've always thought that Cooper probably hid somewhere in the aircraft, dressed as a mechanic, and walked away after it landed - money stashed in canvas toolbag.

[Team Sergeant]

Not only would I follow the Craig’s list lead but, tell me boys and girls, how many of you have knowledge of exactly when the armored truck will be servicing the bank? It would have to be forecast a ways out if you were going to hire a dozen decoys to be there at the exact moment the armored truck showed up.....

Someone on the inside the bank or the armored truck knows who did this crime.

DB Cooper was waaay smarter than these guys.

I’m betting they are all caught in 30 days or less. And they will be in their twenties, young (stupid) criminals.

TS

[RTK]

IIRC this happened at the end of September or early October. I don't think they caught the guy.

[Red Flag 1]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Not only would I follow the Craig’s list lead but, tell me boys and girls, how many of you have knowledge of exactly when the armored truck will be servicing the bank? It would have to be forecast a ways out if you were going to hire a dozen decoys to be there at the exact moment the armored truck showed up.....

Someone on the inside the bank or the armored truck knows who did this crime.

DB Cooper was waaay smarter than these guys.

I’m betting they are all caught in 30 days or less. And they will be in their twenties, young (stupid) criminals.

TS

The guy that was pepper sprayed? The only one who had a shot at looking the perp in the eyes behind the goggles was sprayed.....hmmmmm.

Still pretty cool.


My $.02


RF 1

Honest sir, I was suprised and sprayed, couldn't see a thing!

[Defender968]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Not only would I follow the Craig’s list lead but, tell me boys and girls, how many of you have knowledge of exactly when the armored truck will be servicing the bank? It would have to be forecast a ways out if you were going to hire a dozen decoys to be there at the exact moment the armored truck showed up.....

Someone on the inside the bank or the armored truck knows who did this crime.

DB Cooper was waaay smarter than these guys.

I’m betting they are all caught in 30 days or less. And they will be in their twenties, young (stupid) criminals.

TS

I don't know off the top of my head TS, but I if I were to go watch a bank or better yet an armored car company for a couple of days I bet I could figure it out, I would guess it's a relatively normalized schedule, their clients need the cash collected on a regular basis. I could tell you exactly when to hit certain stores if you wanted to rob one in my AO, from my local LEO days. It wouldn't be hard to do the leg work to figure out what companies a particular armored car company serviced, and when the most profitable days to hit them would be. It's just more leg work than most criminals want to or are smart enough to do thankfully. If this robber were smart he would have done the research himself, not gotten it from anyone else, because if it’s an inside job the detectives will inevitably figure that out, if he simply did the leg work via surveillance without accomplices he could theoretically get away with it, again if he doesn’t tell another living soul, and he doesn’t go flashing the money around, both of which would get him caught in a hurry.

[6.8SPC_DUMP]

TS's prediction:

I’m betting they are all caught in 30 days or less. And they will be in their twenties, young (stupid) criminals.

The result of the investigation:

A month later, following a lead from a homeless man who witnessed the preparation for the Brinks job, police arrested 28-year-old Anthony Curcio fresh from a Las Vegas vacation. Curcio is now charged with "Interference with commerce by threats or violence,"

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/12/capers.html