Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Brazilian gang take $40 million in armed robbery

The Washington Post has an article about a very violent, large team robbery of $40 million from a transportation company in Paraguay.
Dozens of gunmen blocked highways, burned trucks and cars, sealing off the perimeter of their target for hundreds of yards. The assailants, who were wearing flak jackets and driving in armored vehicles, used explosives and .50 caliber guns to blow the facade off a transportation company office in Ciudad del Este, a town in Paraguay near the smugglers' haven in the border region with Brazil and Argentina. They killed a policeman, broke open the vault and then escaped -- apparently fleeing by motorboats up the ParanĂ¡ River -- with millions of dollars.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Rare Book Heist

The Guardian has an article about a robbery of GBP3 million worth of rare books that were stolen by thieves who cut a hole in a warehouse roof and rappelled down to avoid sensors.

The gang are reported to have climbed on to the building’s roof and bored holes through the reinforced glass-fibre skylights before rappelling down 40ft of rope while avoiding motion-sensor alarms.
Scotland Yard confirmed that “a number of valuable books”, many from the 15th and 16th centuries, were stolen during the burglary in Feltham between 29 and 30 January.

Followup: Smithsonian.com has a post which links to  several other articles about the theft.  They also explain why the books were there:
The books were being temporarily stored in the warehouse on their way to the California Book Fair.

Friday, January 20, 2017

Wired on the future of interrogation

Wired has an article on the science, and possibly the future, of interrogation.