Bank Robber Leaves Suspect Package

The DCist has an article about a bank robbery in Washington DC where the robber complicated things by leaving a suspicious package behind.  Whether this helped or not is unclear.

Gang get 24 years from ATM robberies

Yahoo has the story of a British gang who repeatedly robbed ATMs.

Wearing balaclavas to hide their faces, they smashed their way into supermarkets using axes and hammers before breaking into ATMs with saws normally used for cutting rail tracks.

The quartet also carried out burglaries in which high-performance cars, including a BMW M3 and Audi RS4, were targeted and used to escape the scene of their cash-point raids at speeds of up to 150mph.

 There is some information on how they were caught:

Investigators made a breakthrough when they spotted men acting suspiciously around an Audi RS4 at a lock-up in Harborne, on the outskirts of Birmingham.

The vehicle was followed to a garage where forensics experts lifted clues from its interior which identified the four men as suspects.

Simple Theft of Dali

The New York Times has the story about the very low tech theft of a Dali drawing from a New York City gallery.

The man who stole a drawing by the Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí on Tuesday wore only the most basic of disguises: that of an everyday gallery visitor, walking past the Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst works on display. And he brought only the most basic of tools for his heist: a black shopping bag.

Economics of Robbing Banks

Significance Magazine has an article (PDF warning) about the economics of robbing banks.  It turns out they aren't very good.

The average US bank robbery nets considerably less: some $43303, compared to an average of $1589 for all commercial robberies.  (There is a sector low of $769 for robberies from convenience stores.)

via FlowingData

Art Theft: Just Buy It

The Art Newspaper has an article about an interesting tactic in art theft.  Instead of stealing it, buy it at auction and then pay with a stolen credit card.

via Illicit Cultural Property

$100 Million Painting Recovered

Al Jazeera has an article about the recovery of a Cezanne painting stolen in an armed robbery in 2008.

Art experts have suggested the robbers took advantage of low security at the Swiss museum without knowing about the paintings or how difficult it can be to sell such well-known stolen art works.

Followup: ARCA has a more detailed post with many links.

via JRM

Saint's Heart Stolen From Dublin Cathedral

The BBC are reporting that thieves in Ireland have stolen the patron saint of Dublin's heart from Dublin Cathedral.  The heart of Saint Laurence O'Toole was in a wooden box inside an iron cage.