Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Bizzarre Bank Robbery

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 08-31-2003, 10:00 PM:

There was a bank robbery in my town a couple days ago. It's probably the most bizzarre case I have ever heard.

Erie Times News

AP News Wire

Philly.com

To sum it up, the story goes like this:
Some guy goes in to rob a bank and hands the teller a note that says he has a bomb. He lifts up his shirt and shows a "device" strapped to his chest. He takes the cash and flees the scene but gets caught less than a mile away from the bank. When the cops grab him he tells them that he was called to make a pizza delivery but two guys kidnapped him and strapped a bomb to his chest. He was supposedly instructed to carry out the robbery or else the bomb would explode.

Well, the cops grabbed him, cut open his shirt and there was indeed a bomb on him! They cuffed him, sat him down in the middle of a parking lot and called the bomb squad. Before the sappers could arrive... KABLOOEY!! Dead crook!

That's all the news they are releasing but let me tell you, I think this is VERY fishy! I have a definate opinion on this case but what do you all think?

Posted by Richard C. Wolfe (Member # 431) on 08-31-2003, 10:46 PM:

So where's the money? I didn't read anything that mentioned the money being recovered.

If someone did indeed plant the bomb on him and force him to do the robbery, they should have known that he would have been picked up rather quickly, and therefore would have required him to make a drop of the money almost immediately. If there was no money when the police stopped him, it might indicate that such a drop had been made and that he was telling the truth.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-31-2003, 10:58 PM:

quote:
The exact manner in which Wells died remains "in question," Timon said Friday night.

Uhhh... could it be, possibly, that it was because a bomb went off in his lap?

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 08-31-2003, 11:18 PM:

According to Fox News, the bomb was strapped to his neck. Kind of like in Running Man.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 09-01-2003, 02:40 AM:

I believe the "crook" was actually a giant lead-acid battery & the bomb was a trickle charger. Someone smoking nearby probably ignited the lethal battery-jumping fumes that every jumper cable box warns about. Another reason to damn the smokers!

Posted by Mike Williams (Member # 1140) on 09-01-2003, 07:22 AM:

quote:
I believe the "crook" was actually a giant lead-acid battery & the bomb was a trickle charger. Someone smoking nearby probably ignited the lethal battery-jumping fumes that every jumper cable box warns about. Another reason to damn the smokers!

That is not really funny.

You guys are right.. nobody mentions if the money was recovered.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 09-01-2003, 11:16 AM:

quote:
According to Fox News, the bomb was strapped to his neck.

Yes, I know. I was being facetious, he was sitting.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 09-01-2003, 02:25 PM:

I think the pizza man is guilty in one way or another.

Think about it... a 40+ year old pizza man?! This guy was a loser!

To top it off, one of his buddies (another 40+ year old pizza man who lived with his parents) turned up dead yesterday!

Fox News

Erie Times

This is fishy! I think the two of them were in it together. The plan went bad. The "victim" ended up dead and his buddy couldn't take the heat so he killed himself.

I think the FBI & the police know exactly what happened here but there's a gag order on the case.[

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 09-01-2003, 02:28 PM:

He must have been suicidal or something but I can't figure out why he would put a real working bomb on his neck instead of a dud.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 09-01-2003, 02:43 PM:

There's a phenomenon called "Suicide by police". Basically one goes into a public place, waves a gun around and waits for the cops. When they get there he points the weapon at the first cops he sees who, naturally, shoots in self-defense.

I think that this is a similar case, except he tried to use a bomb. However, things went terribly wrong and the bomb went off unexpectedly.

Or else... the guy thought he could use the bomb to keep the cops at bay if he was caught. The catch is that the cops caught him and cuffed him. The cops, thinking the bomb was fake, just let him sit there. Since he was cuffed the guy had no way to deactivate the bomb before it went off.

Either way, I think the guy got what he deserved.

The latest reports say the police took bomb-sniffing dogs to the second man's house and removed some things. It's my guess that HE was involved in making the device. I think he killed himself to beat the heat.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 09-01-2003, 03:22 PM:

Yes I've heard of suicide by cop, that would make sense in this case. That would be pretty freaky if in fact the guy was innocent but we'll have to wait to see when the evidence comes to light.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 09-01-2003, 03:54 PM:

Randy, I think you're right on several counts. Makes sense. If the bomb was, as he said, operating on a timer... what was preventing him from taking it off himself? It couldn't have been booby trapped with a motion sensor, he was walking around with it.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 09-01-2003, 04:16 PM:

Maybe it was armed with something that prevented it from being taken off, like the thing they used to control the prisoners in Running Man?

Posted by Travis Hubrig (Member # 1745) on 09-01-2003, 05:33 PM:

Maybe it was nothing like "Running Man"

I don't remember anything like a bank robbery in that movie...

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 09-01-2003, 09:58 PM:

Occam's Razor: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. (Entities shall not be multiplied without necessity.)

The least complicated explanation is most likely to be the correct explanation.

The idea that somebody who is supposedly experienced at his job would go to a remote area behind a TV antenna tower to make a delivery, sight unseen is preposterous. Further, the idea that a delivery man, in this day and age of terrorism, wouldn't just drop the pizzas (Two small sausage and pepperoni pizzas, by the way) and run like hell is even more preposterous.

For the sake of argument, assume the guy was captured by some unknown crooks. Why would they go through the trouble of making a sophisticated bomb like in the movies? (Like Running Man, as you said.) How expensive would it be to make a bomb like that? How much money could such a "remote control bank robber" ever hope to steal? Certainly not enough to cover the expense of such a bomb. Top that off with the uncertainty of putting such an expensive device around the neck of some loser pizza driver who may or may not complete the mission. It's friggin' ludicrous!

And, another thing... How many "On-the-scene alibis" have EVER been truthful? Charles Stewart? Pam Smart? No! None that I can ever remember.

Do you remember how the entire Boston Police force was looking for some vaguely described black gunman? Turns out Chuck Stewart was the culprit! How about that black man that carjacked the carload of kids and drowned them in a lake? No, turns out the MOTHER did it!

I'm thinking this is the same thing: An on-scene lie.
(How much do you want to bet that he accused two black men of being his kidnappers! [Big Grin]

)

Oh, yeah! How about a booby trapped bomb? Pure movie fantasy! Maybe there could have been some kind of "trip wire" around his neck but that's the limit, as far as I'm concerned. Anything more than a timer and a blasting cap is way too sophisticated for this kind of scenario, in my mind. (Goes back to the cost thing.)

I think the FBI has their sights on one or two more people and they are gagging the case until they can get the accomplice(s) in an airtight case. I'm thinking, maybe, the pizza shop owner. They could also be planning to do forensics on the various locations involved and they don't want to tip off any possible souvineer hunters or other people who would try to "cover tracks". Or... they could be lying in wait to see if anybody "returns to the scene of the crime". (I'm just imagining on that one.)

No matter what the specifics turn out to be I'm still betting on the simplest explanation: A down and out loser and his buddy "hatch a plan" to rob a bank but the plan goes terribly wrong and they both end up dead.

Posted by George Roher (Member # 91) on 09-01-2003, 11:50 PM:

So I guess all we know for sure about this case is that Richard Dawson was hosting a game show in which people were hunted down and....uh....nevermind. Skip that. [Smile]

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 11-07-2003, 08:24 PM:

Has there been any updates to this story? It seems to have dropped off the radar for news worthiness.