October 21, 200817 yr link Bank robber hires decoys on Craigslist, fools cops Posted by Caroline McCarthy In an elaborate robbery scheme that's one part The Thomas Crowne Affair and one part Pineapple Express, a crook robbed an armored truck outside a Bank of America branch in Monroe, Wash., by hiring decoys through Craigslist to deter authorities. It gets better: He then escaped in a creek headed for the Skykomish River in an inner tube, and the cops are still looking for him. "A great amount of money" was taken, Monroe police said, but did not provide a dollar value. It appears to have unfolded this way, according to a Seattle-based NBC affiliate: around 11:00 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, the robber, wearing a yellow vest, safety goggles, a blue shirt, and a respirator mask went over to a guard who was overseeing the unloading of cash to the bank from the truck. He sprayed the guard with pepper spray, grabbed his bag of money, and fled the scene. But here's the hilarious twist. The robber had previously put out a Craigslist ad for road maintenance workers, promising wages of $28.50 per hour. Recruits were asked to wait near the Bank of America right around the time of the robbery--wearing yellow vests, safety goggles, a respirator mask, and preferably a blue shirt. At least a dozen of them showed up after responding to the Craigslist ad. "I came across the ad that was for a prevailing wage job for $28.50 an hour," one of the unwitting decoys, named Mike, said to the NBC station. As it turns out, they were simply placed there to confuse cops who were looking for a guy wearing a virtually identical outfit. Authorities eventually found the getaway inner tube (a getaway inner tube!) and suspect that accomplices may have picked up the robber in a boat. According to the NBC affiliate, police hope to track him down by figuring out who posted the Craigslist ad in the first place. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was not immediately available for comment.
October 21, 200817 yr I heard this on WGN about a week ago. My first thought was "damn, that's creative. He kinda deserves the money for creativity." Obviously I dont condone bank robbery, but that's creative. Edited October 21, 200817 yr by Athomeboy_2000
October 21, 200817 yr QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 21, 2008 -> 02:22 PM) My first thought was "damn, that's creative. He kinda deserves the money for creativity."
October 21, 200817 yr I wonder how much cash he got. That is pretty funny. Not for the bank that got robbed though.
October 21, 200817 yr I heard this on WGN about a week ago. My first thought was "damn, that's creative. He kinda deserves the money for creativity." Obviously I dont condone bank robbery, but that's creative. He clearly ripped off the Joker and the school buses, and yes as the story says at the top, this happened at the beginning of last month.
October 21, 200817 yr I have to admit it, I love this kind of thing. It's like the fine art thiefs, you almost like rooting for them just for the smarts that goes into it and how they pull this stuff off without anybody being physically hurt.
October 22, 200817 yr QUOTE (Kid Gleason @ Oct 21, 2008 -> 05:43 PM) I have to admit it, I love this kind of thing. It's like the fine art thiefs, you almost like rooting for them just for the smarts that goes into it and how they pull this stuff off without anybody being physically hurt. We too. I hope the cops cracked up when they saw all those guys around. Hell, add the few thousand he stole to the $700,000,000,000.00 we're coughing up to the banks, at least this guy was amusing.
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