Wachovia Hands $100,000 To Fake Armored Car Driver
It took officials at a Washington Wachovia branch 11 hours to realize they'd been robbed after a guy dressed as a Brinks security employee fooled the bank into giving him $100,000 in cash, says WBAL.
Lt. William Farr, the head of the D.C. police bank robbery unit, told the Washington Post that investigators are playing catchup.WBAL says that the fake driver showed up about an hour before the real one did. When the actual Brinks guy showed up, he was told that another driver had already picked up the sack of cash. Rather than immediately report this suspicious activity to his company, he waited until he was back at the office."We're now behind. We're trying to catch up with everybody, all the employees," Farr told the newspaper. "If we can get good pictures from the surveillance cameras . . . I think we'll get him."
Authorities don't have a detailed description of the robber and don't know whether he left the bank in a vehicle or on foot.
By the time the bank called the police, 11 hours had gone by.
After 11 Hours, Bank Realizes It Was Robbed [WBAL]
(Photo:epicharmus)
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Comments:
I've got $50 on "inside job."
I wonder where I can buy a Brinks uniform. Sounds like a good investment! ;-)
Definitely +1 intelligence on the robber. I want to see more scams like this where intelligence (not the lack of it) plays a factor. You can't do anything legitimate anymore without being a zombie so hey, let's root for the bad guys instead. :D
PWNED!
An 11 hour head start is a LOT of time in the robbery game.
He was probably 3 or 4 states removed before they alerted the authorities.
LOL this reminds me of the book "American Gods"
It was probably some Brinks Home Security installer uniform. That was pretty clever.
Social engineering crimes are the best ones. Like living through a madcap, '60s movie!
Err, except for the stealing and stuff.
Wachovi uh... where's our money?
If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of people closing their Wachovia accounts from here. And the real driver waiting until he got back to the office to say something; wow, just wow.
@Half-Beast: 3 or 4 states nothing. By 11 hours, he could be lounging on a private island somewhere.
@homerjay: Since Brinks Home Security installers wear blue T-shirts and Dickies shorts, those would have to be some damn dumb bank employees for an attic rat to have pulled that off.
That's chump change to a bank. Anyway, they just charge more fees and make the depositors pay for it.
ROFL !!! But for security, shouldn't a driver show some ID. And for security, pick ups should be done by 2 security guards at one.
@chouchou: If he can fake an outfit, I'm sure he can fake an ID. Also, as easily as he pulled it off, I'm sure it wouldn't have been a big deal to bring a friend along.
LOL! God I LOVE stories like this! I have always had this fantasy of taking an ATM , armored car & the like & making off with sh*tload of money!
@homerjay: Point taken.
I just have a hard time imagining how they fell for this. When I was a teller at SunTrust, we had photos of the authorized Brinks employees behind the teller line. If they weren't in the line-up, they weren't getting past the BR glass, let alone getting our cash consignment. Wasn't it a *little* odd to the Wachovia employees that the "armored car guy" didn't bring any money into the branch?
@goodkitty: For your amusement, back in the late '90's a guy who was an armoured car guard stole two million (yes, $2,000,000). He was locked in the back of the truck while the other guys stopped for takeout breakfast at a McDonalds on the Turner Turnpike.
Less than five minutes pass the other guards come out, and the back of the truck is open, the guy is gone, and the note reads "Is Paris nice this time of year? Oui." To the best of my knowledge they never caught the guy, and could have made it to Tulsa to head to Paris.
@megnificent:
Indeed! When I worked at a gas station we had the same procedure. It's hard to believe that they didn't suspect something.
The robber is more than likely thinking, "Goodbye student loan payments!"
Serves the bank right, they should be more careful!
There's something missing from this story. I think Megnificent makes a good point... plus wouldn't the fake Brinks guy have to have some kind of paperwork, forms, or keys to make this believable?
Yeah, the idiocy is unbelievable... I wonder if the guy set off a stupid bomb in the lobby and everyone involved breathed some of the fumes.
(Adding WBAL TV to the stupid list for marginal journalism... the brilliance just goes all around)...
Note that this bank is across the street from FBI headquarters.
/my money's on inside job, too. No one just hands over money accidentally.
@Mr. Gunn:
You would think that but a while back there was a lady going to diffrent grocery stores and while buying something like a milk she would say casually "Oh I have never seen the new 50's" and several times the tellers would hand her the bill so she can "take a look". If you can guess what happened she would run off.
She did this at a customer service desk where they handed her a stack of bills and she ran off with those as well.
People are stupid.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA........A-HA HA HAHA HAHAHA!!!!
That is so funny!
What seems to be left out of this story is a security measure Brinks provides. Brinks provides a sheet with pictures of all of the possible drivers coming into your location. If someone other than one of those drivers comes in, you are not to hand over any cash. I always check the sheet with a new driver when I have to hand over deposits... seems pretty basic to me
Well, he could have looked like one of the people in the picture.
@IphtashuFitz: Goodwill and other thrift stores actually. I remember a couple of coworkers who would pick up random uniforms from those stores and wear them to work, often with props (such as a large super-soaker when wearing a USPS uniform)
D.B. Cooper award for 2008! Great work.
Run, run, run ;)
@timmus: This is Washington DC. If they had "Mayor for Life" Marion Barry, this is par for the course.
This HAD to be the work of an inside job.. Still hilarious though.
hahahahahahahahahaha.
Reminds me of the when the gold truck came to Mayberry on the Andy Griffith Show.
I'd like to note that as a resident of Washingotn STATE, i found the opening line a little annoying. I know we're pretty easy to forget way up here in this corner, but show a little consideration please? No one likes to be ignored.
That 100k is gone. Period.
Wow... I'm amazed they didn't check for the HUGE Brinks truck outside. I know those guys wouldn't hesitate for a second to park their truck on top of a dog to make sure they were parked close and visible to the bank.
@futaihikage: Yeah,you beat me to what I was thinking too. The beat up Ford Escort parked out front should have been a red flag that the pick up was a sham...
That's pretty good. Heh.
Also, I wonder what crime, if any, was actually committed.... impersonating a Brinks employee probably isn't a crime, they're not cops. The bank gave him the money voluntarily, of their own accord; there's nothing criminal about someone giving you money of their own free will.
I've seen security uniforms at Thrift stores before. A company I was a manager for actually had a policy that, should we encounter a uniform for sale, to buy it and be reimbursed.
I could see this working at a branch that had several different Security Officers coming in daily. Just walk up to the newest cashier, with hair dyed to match one of the regular officers. The regular officer not thinking it was unusual for someone else to make his scheduled pickup seems to indicate this.
This is completely the banks fault. They should have a signature list of all Brink's Employee's that they can compare to the guards ID. Granted the real employee should have questioned the situation when "somebody else" already had pick it up the deposit.
LMAO!