Major Unresolved Bank Robberies
Elangovan, October 2, 2019Some bank robberies took place in the past and till date, they are still unsolved. History documents many of them. What makes robbery unsolved is that law enforcement officers are unable to trap down the perpetrators of such robberies. Unsolved Bank Robberies always capture the interest of ordinary people for obvious reason. The basic idea of a bank robbery is exciting – it reminds us of the outlaws from history and of the movie productions that glamorize them. Humans are not born equal, some are simply more strategic and possess greater intelligence and this is usually demonstrated with the way they coordinate their activities (Elliot, 2019). Let’s run through some of the major unresolved bank robberies in history:
Robbery of 300 Million Yen
The 300 million yen robbery caught the interest of international media when it took place in 1968. Taking place in Tokyo, it was the greatest bank job in the history of Japan. On December the 10th, just under 300 million yen was loaded into one of the bank’s transportation cars. It was to be delivered to a local business. But while on the journey, the car driver was pulled over by police. The police officer convinced the driver to step out of the car, warning that it may have an explosive device planted on it. The police officer then got into the car and drove it away, with the 300 million yen still inside. And as it turns out… it wasn’t a real police officer. It was just a criminal disguised as one. Let’s be honest, this is one of the most hilarious unsolved bank robberies on record. It looked so unreal and bizarre but it is a factual event of the last century (Elliot, 2019).
Robbery of Northern Bank
On Dec. 20, 2004, almost $40 million (£26.5 million) in pounds sterling, euros and dollars was stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The previous night, gunmen posing as police officers entered the homes of bank officials Christopher Ward and Kevin McMullan, took their wives hostage and asked them to report for work as usual the next day. At noon, one of the two officials placed one million pounds in a sports holdall and handed it over to one of the robbers in Queen Street and returned to work; this was to be a test run for the main robbery later in the evening. The two officials stayed back after business hours and allowed the robbers enter the bank. They loaded up the money and made their escape in several vehicles. Sometime later, presumably after the theft had been confirmed, the hostages were released and the men holding them fled. The Northern Irish police, and both the UK and Irish governments, have made statements suggesting that the Provisional IRA were responsible, but political party Sinn Fein have always maintained that the raid was not carried out or sanctioned by the Irish Republican Movement. In February 2005, about £50,000 were recovered, which the police suspected was a prank to divert attention. Several arrests were made after the robbery, including Chris Ward, one of the officials taken hostage by the gunmen, but he was acquitted in 2008. In 2012, Ted Cunningham was arrested for laundering over £3 million from the robbery proceeds; he was given a five-year suspended sentence after having pleaded guilty. He remains the only person convicted of any crime in relation to the theft (MSN, 2015). Now, with such huge crime, just a person has been held. Isn’t that an unresolved reobbery?
Baker Street Robbery
The Baker Street robbery is the stuff of legends. It was 1971, and a group of robbers spent weeks digging an underground tunnel into a bank on London’s Baker Street. On September the 11th, they broke through the bank floor by use of explosives and immediately got to work clearing the place out. During the robbery, someone informed the police that there was a bank robbery going on somewhere in London. But they were unable to learn which bank it was. So the police actually visited 750 banks to try and find the thieves. But the police failed to stop the bank robbers, who got away with an estimated 3 million pounds. As far as unsolved bank robberies go this one is the stuff of legends (Elliot, 2019). The method adopted was unbelievable and this shows that they took out time to plan and execute the robbery as legends will do.
Plymouth Mail Robbery
At the time of its occurrence on Aug. 14, 1962, the Plymouth Mail Robbery was the largest cash heist ever. Two gunmen dressed as policemen stopped a U.S. Mail truck on Route 3 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The truck was carrying $1.5 million in cash from Cape Cod to the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston. The gunmen tied up the driver and the guard, and then drove the truck themselves to an unknown location, dropping off parts of the money en route, before the truck and the tied-up occupants were finally abandoned in Randolph, Massachusetts. Frustrated at an almost complete lack of physical evidence, investigators announced a reward of $100,000 for information on the robbery, but despite feverish media and public interest in the story, no suspects were brought to trial. In 1967, with the five-year statute of limitations approaching, six suspects were finally indicted for the robbery. One of them, Thomas Richards, disappeared five days before the trial and was never seen again, though his car was spotted at an inn in January 1968; he had agreed to testify against the others. The others, including alleged mobster John Kelley, were brought to court, but were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The money has never been found (MSN, 2015).
Chicago First National Bank Job
The Chicago first national bank job was an incredible robbery in 1977. On the 7th of October, four million dollars was placed in a very secure underground vault within the bank. Which I assume seemed pretty safe, right? Well… it wasn’t. At the start of the next week the money was counted again. They bank officials were horrified to find that three quarters of the money was gone. It was just gone. With no signs of a break-in or anything else out of place – it’s as if it just disappeared. To this day no one knows what happened to it (Elliot, 2019).
References
Elliot (2019). 10 Best Unsolved Bank Robberies. Retrieved from http://eskify.com/10-best-unsolved-bank-robberies/
MSN (2015). Clean getaways: 5 of history’s most notorious unsolved thefts. Retrieved from https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/offbeat/clean-getaways-5-of-historys-most-notorious-unsolved-thefts/ar-AAfYCaP#page=3
Nelson, A (2017). 10 unsolved heists we won’t soon forget. Retrieved from https://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/unsolved-heists-history
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