Friday, September 13, 2024

The Recovery of Ottawa's Missing Churchill Photo

 Several sites have articles about the recovery of the Karsh photo of Winston Churchill that was stolen from the Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa a few years ago.

The Ottawa Citizen has an overview which says that the photo will be back in the hotel within a month.

An article in the CBC identifies the thief and the buyer (who bought the photo at an auction and didn't know it was stolen).

The Toronto Star also has an article.

Sunday, August 18, 2024

LA: Bank Robbery Capital of the World

 CrimeReads.com has an article about a period in the 1980s and 90s when there was an average of one bank robbery every hour in Los Angeles.

Between 1985 and 1995 the approximately 3,500 retail bank branches in the region were hit 17,106 times. 1992, the worst year of all, there was an almost unimaginable 2,641 heists, one every 45 minutes of each banking day. On a particularly bad day for the FBI that year, bandits committed 28 bank licks.

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Toronto Airport Gold Heist

 The exact taken is unclear but a cargo container holding a large amount of gold was stolen from Toronto airport.  The BBC says $15 million while the CBC says $20 million.

Thursday, October 20, 2022

Thieves use mini-drone to open bank door

 DroneDJ reports that thieves in Reims, France used a DJI mini-drone to open a door to an ATM lobby that couldn't otherwise be opened from outside.

What was strange about the crime was that the police found no trace of a break-in; neither the safe nor the entrance door of the premises showed any signs of vandalism.

When the CCTV footage of the ATM was reviewed, a mini drone was immediately detected. The video showed a skillfully piloted aircraft being used to trigger a push button that would open the door of a technical room next to the ATM.

The criminals got away with 150,000 Euros.



Monday, May 9, 2022

Interview with a getaway driver

 The Drive has an interview with former jewelry store robber and driver Larry Lawton (who seems to have a YouTube channel).  Lawton explains how to choose an appropriate getaway car.

All were simply rented from a company like Hertz under somebody else's name with Lawton listed as the co-driver. They were picked up as normal and simply returned when the job was done. Lawton and his accomplices would pay for the car, case the store they planned to rob, and then use it in the actual robbery.



Thursday, May 6, 2021

Rédoine Faïd - French Escape Artist

 GQ magazine has a profile of Rédoine Faïd a French criminal and prison escapee who was inspired by crime movies.

A notorious thief—the architect of a flurry of dazzling heists and blockbuster robberies in the 1990s that targeted banks, jewelry stores, and armored cars—Faïd became more infamous still in 2013, when he blasted out of the Sequedin prison, near Lille, where he'd been serving time after a botched robbery, using smuggled explosives. 



Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Failed Texas Thieves Escape in Bayou Boat

 ABC13 reports that thieves tried to rob a museum in Royal Oaks, Texas.  After being discovered they fled in a bayou boat and then escaped into the city's storm drain system.

Followup: Illicit Cultural property also has a post on the failed heist with a few links to other articles.

via JRM