SPORTO Posted August 9, 2005 Share Posted August 9, 2005 Hole-in-the-floor gang tunnel their way to $65m in used notes ANDREW DOWNIE IN RECIFE AN AUDACIOUS gang of robbers tunnelled their way into the vault of a branch of Brazil's Central Bank and escaped with more than £37 million in cash. Police have launched a nationwide manhunt for the robbers who committed what is thought to be the biggest heist in Brazilian history. The sheer volume of notes taken weighed 3.5 tons and the gang of between six and ten men are believed to have spent the best part of the weekend moving the cash out of the bank's massive safe and into getaway lorries, according to experts quoted in the Brazilian press. "It's like something out of a film," said João Batista Paiva Santana, a local federal police chief. Bank officials in the northern city of Fortaleza discovered the robbery early on Monday morning when they returned to their offices after the weekend break. The bank closed at 6pm on Friday night and reopened at 8am on Monday when officials making their routine checks were stunned to find huge holes in the floor and wall and the cash gone. News reports suggest the criminals began planning the heist three months ago when they rented a property close to the bank and opened a false business selling and fitting natural and artificial grass. From there, they burrowed four metres into the ground and then dug a 80-metre long tunnel that took them directly under the bank's strongroom. Then they dug upwards and somehow used drills and cutting equipment to fashion a hole in the two-metre thick walls of concrete and reinforced steel. Once inside the safe they found a huge stack of banknotes that had been delivered for safekeeping and which were to be reviewed by tellers to see if they were still usable. The bank routinely checks the notes, pale-brown coloured 50 reais, to see which are in good enough condition to be put back into circulation through banks, cash machines and businesses, and which are too tattered and frayed and must be burned. Because the revision process had not yet started the serial numbers of the stolen currency are unknown and there is believed to be little chance of identifying the notes. Police said the robbery was highly sophisticated and had been carried out by experienced professionals who had planned far in advance. The tunnel, for example, was reinforced with wooden beams and sandbags, illuminated by powerful lights and cooled by fans. Even the false choice of business was carefully made to allow them to shift large quantities of grass and earth out of the building without causing suspicion. The robbers appeared to know the strongroom's 500 square metre floorplan well enough to tunnel up behind the room's five containers, something that gave them a modicum of protection. However, police admitted movement censors and closed- circuit television cameras inside the strongroom failed to function, raising suspicions it was an inside job. Police are refusing to answer questions about the case and Central Bank officials seemed at a loss to explain how they could have been so roundly deceived. Officials at the bank's headquarters in the capital, Brasilia, could not even confirm the amount of money stolen. more links http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5080900773.html http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2...tent_467715.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRAMP Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 this shit is jumpin like frogs in a barrel full of dynamite. good stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPORTO Posted August 10, 2005 Author Share Posted August 10, 2005 ,,,,, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElectricitySucks Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 where's blanka when you need him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dumy Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 damn, that shit was crunk.. I thought I was hard for painting clean trains that one time.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimes Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 brilliant! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrasivesaint Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 "brilliant!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumboclot. Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 briliantly gangsta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defyoner Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by ElectricitySucks@Aug 10 2005, 12:28 AM where's blanka when you need him? Quoted post good call. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iloveboxcars Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbo17livesinhell Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 break bread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azert Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Anyone ever see the new version of Ladykillers? I enjoyed it, but at the theater there was a group of black people behind me who, when everytime Tom Hanks said something would say anything along the lines of, "What did that mother fucker say?" or "This is fuckin' stupid" and that got annoying really fast. God damn it, he's speaking english you dumbasses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawood Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Originally posted by SPORTO@Aug 9 2005, 11:59 PM Because the revision process had not yet started the serial numbers of the stolen currency are unknown and there is believed to be little chance of identifying the notes. Quoted post DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that's gangsta..... I bet thay are just saying that about the serial #'s so them dudes get all spend happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteOx Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 You'd expect that to fail for so many reasons. I read in an article that it was 3.5 tonnes of cash.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomadawhat Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 WOW, just wow. so i wonder how many of the guys involved in this are dead now? you just know some of them had to get knocked off afterwards...by some of the others. that much money and a bunch of straight balls of steel gangsta's.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
test pattern Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 that's fucking ill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HESHIANDET Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 this nmakes me happy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deterrent Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 You know you're a third world country when niggas keep getting away by digging tunnels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAustin Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 ha-ha...just awesome. when's the movie come out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FunTimePartyTeam Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 Good for these guys. I find it disheartening that most bank robberies are impossible these days. So mad props. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrasivesaint Posted August 10, 2005 Share Posted August 10, 2005 "when's the movie come out?" hahaha. would probably be a decent movie, i'd enjoy it. def. much respect to those dudes, i wish i could get away with some shit like that. but dont we all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duh-rye-won Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 brazilliant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElectricitySucks Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Originally posted by iquit@Aug 11 2005, 01:51 AM brazilliant. Quoted post BA-DOM-PPPSSSHHHH!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrChupacabra Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Originally posted by SPORTO@Aug 9 2005, 05:59 PM The sheer volume of notes taken weighed 3.5 tons two-metre thick walls of concrete and reinforced steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest imported_El Mamerro Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 If I were king of the world, which I sort of am in some sense, I'd set up a rule that if you manage to pull off a crazy elaborate heist like this one, you get to keep the money. You get fucked if you fail though. But man, dudes fuckin EARNED that money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CACashRefund Posted August 13, 2005 Share Posted August 13, 2005 I think the statue of limitations should be like one year, they dont gte caught within a year they get to keep the money. Pulling it off is the easy part, not getting caught is the hard part. Oh and the planning the planning is hard too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteOx Posted August 13, 2005 Share Posted August 13, 2005 i smell an inside job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CACashRefund Posted August 13, 2005 Share Posted August 13, 2005 It had to be they said the alarms didnt go off. Which thy had to have had some inside knowlegd to either bypass or just outright disable them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ModelCitizen Posted August 13, 2005 Share Posted August 13, 2005 The natural/artificial grass business was genius. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CIPHER_one Posted August 13, 2005 Share Posted August 13, 2005 Yeah...the business idea was smart...but I kinda doubt anyone woulda noticed them shipping out large quantities of soil even if they didn't have such a cover up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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