Most of the crazy bank robberies in movies are dramatic and dangerous, with guns and threats of violence. In real life, they're not always so violent, but they do sometimes rival the kind of genius robberies that the Ocean's 11 crew pulls off.
One group of bank robbers spent the entire weekend casually robbing a bank vault, drinking wine and partying as they stole millions. Another robber didn't even start his crime spree until he was 87 years old. These are some of the most interesting stories about non-violent bank robbers. Some of them got away with it, some of them got caught, but all of them tried to answer the question that most of us ask ourselves from time to time: "Could I get away with it?"
17 People Who Somehow Managed To Rob Banks Without Any Violence Whatsoever,
An Employee Of Dunbar Armored Co. Used Inside Knowledge To Mastermind A Robbery
In 1997, Allen Pace was fired from Dunbar Armored, Inc. - an armored car courier service often used by banks - for tampering with a company vehicle. The next day, the depot was robbed.
A group of men in ski masks entered the building using a key that Pace had kept after he was fired. Pace drew them a floor plan and provided them with radio headsets. He knew that employees often left the vault open during their breaks, making it an easy target for robbery. The robbers grabbed bags of cash and took the video tapes out of the surveillance cameras, then fled in a rented truck.
A piece of the the truck's tail light broke off as they drove away, and police were able to track it to the rental company and the thief who made the reservation. The other men were arrested soon after, including Pace.
Robber Pulled Off A Heist, Then Escaped Through A Window
In 1976, a team of 20 men led by Albert Spaggiari broke into the Societe Generale Bank in Nice, France. Over the course of several weeks, the team had carved out a 25-foot tunnel from the sewer system into the bank. They managed to take up to $10 million in gold, cash, jewelry, and gemstones. During their weekend in the vault, they drank wine, cooked meals, and used antique silver bowls as toilets. When the bank staff arrived on Monday, there was a message from the thieves on the wall: "Without Guns, Without Violence, Without Hate."
Spaggiari was eventually arrested but managed to escape from a magistrate's office by jumping out of a window. He was whisked away by a friend waiting on a motorcycle and never captured.
The Stopwatch Gang Robbed Banks In 2 Minutes Or Less
Stephen Reid, Patrick Mitchell, and Lionel Wright, known as The Stopwatch Gang, robbed banks in California during the 1970s and '80s.
Wearing presidential Halloween masks, the trio would rob banks in under 2 minutes. One of them wore a stopwatch around his neck to keep them on schedule. Over the course of their bank robbing spree, the men stole about $15 million in cash. They were eventually captured in the late 1980s.
Bank Robbers Vanish While Surrounded By 200 Police Officers
In 2006, a group of robbers were in a seven-hour hostage standoff while robbing a bank in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It wasn't a typical high-risk standoff, though. Hostages were allowed to talk to their families on cell phones and the robbers actually sang "Happy Birthday" to one of them. The thieves traded a few of the hostages in exchange for pizza.
All the while, the robbers were loading more than 140 safe deposit boxes through a hole in the basement. This connected to a tunnel, which led to a boat on the La Plata River.
When police finally entered the bank, they found all of the hostages safe and sound. The thieves had disappeared through the tunnel and had already made their getaway.
Thief Disguised As Police Officer Drove Off With 300 Million Yen
In December 1968, a police officer on a motorcycle pulled out in front of an armored truck and ordered the driver to stop. He warned the men in the truck that it was about to explode. When smoke started billowing up from beneath them, the men ran screaming from the truck.
Unbeknownst to them, the officer was a thief in disguise and had quickly planted a smoke bomb under the truck. When the men got out, he calmly climbed into the car and drove off with 300 million yen. He was never caught.
Thieves Pretend To Open A Restaurant Only To Break Into Bank On Second Floor
Inspired by the Bollywood film Dhoom, a group of thieves rented out a restaurant space so they could break into the bank above it. On New Year's Day 2008, the staff of the South Malabar Grameen Bank in Chelembra, India came in to discover the floor had been cracked open from below. The thieves had taken about 2.5 million rupees in cash and 75 million rupees in gold.
Police were able to locate the robbers' hideout two months later by tracking their mobile calls. Most of the stolen money and gold was recovered.
Robbers Dug A Tunnel Into The Bank And Stole $65 Million
In 2005, a group of thieves rented a house in Brazil and pretended to be employees of an artificial turf company. They dug a 656 foot tunnel from the house to the nearby Banco Central. The theft happened over the weekend and wasn't discovered until Monday morning. Neighbors of the rented house reported seeing the "workers" taking away vans full of material each day.
The men stole as much as 150 million reals, making it the largest bank robbery in Brazil's history.
A Team Of Locksmiths Steals $50 Million In Cash, Gold, And Jewels
In 1976, a group associated with Palestine Liberation Organization took advantage of the chaos in war-torn Beirut to break into the British Bank of the Middle East. They blasted through the wall of the bank and then used a team of locksmiths to crack into the bank's vault.
They got away with up to $50 million in gold, foreign currency, stocks, and jewels. It is the world's biggest bank heist.
A Detective Robbed Banks On His Lunch Break, Then Returned To Investigate
Andre Stander finished school at the top of his class and became head of the Criminal Investigation Department in Kempton, South Africa when he was 31 years old. In 1977, he decided to use his insider knowledge to become a bank robber.
He would put on a disguise and rob a bank during his lunch break, then return later in the afternoon to lead the investigation. He robbed 30 banks before he drunkenly tried to recruit an accomplice, who turned him in to the police.
While in prison, he met two other bank robbers. They made an escape and robbed twenty banks over the course of two months. During one robbery, the security guard actually held the door for them, not realizing they had just robbed the bank.
They lived a life of luxury - spending time in the US and around the world - until police caught up to them in 1984. Stander was killed during a confrontation with a police officer.
Red Rountree Robbed His First Bank At Age 87
J.L. Hunter "Red" Rountree robbed his first bank when he was 87 years old. After the loss of his beloved wife, he was left alone and aimless. Their son had died years earlier in a car accident. Rountree had a grudge against banks after a loan nearly drove him to bankruptcy in his business-owner days, so he decided he would rob one. He had nothing to lose.
He walked into a bank, asked the teller for money, and was caught on his way back to the car. He got three years probation. Less than a year later, he robbed another bank. He was arrested immediately and sentenced to three years in prison.
After he got out, he tried to live the straight and narrow life for a while. However, he couldn't resist robbing another bank at the age of 91, and he was arrested for a third time. He died in prison in 2004.