Official News page 9

REAL LIFE NEWS: GETAWAYS GO WRONG

by hazed

There's a Bill Murray film called Quick Change in which he pulls off a brilliant crime, robbing a bank and getting out with the loot without anyone identifying him. That's at the start of the film. The rest of the film concerns him trying to get out of New York, and failing as everything that can go wrong, does. It's very funny.

It seems that in real life, too, the getaway is often the hardest part. Here are two stories of criminals who screwed up their getaways.

First, we have a robber who deliberately set fire to what could have been his getaway vehicle. He parked his Ford Scorpio next to a Securicor van as it made a delivery to a building society in Bournemouth, England, and snatched the cash box after holding up the driver with a gun. But in a bizarre move, he torched the car - in a hairbrained attempt to destroy any forensic evidence. He then ran off, attempting to make his escape on foot. He was caught by police a few minutes later after witnesses pointed him out to police. Meanwhile, officers managed to put out the fire and towed the car away for forensic examination.

The other story concerns a robbery at a bank in Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut. Police were called and told there was a robbery in progress so they rushed to the scene. The gunman got away with $9,359, but in the process of making his getaway, he had a little accident - he fell down a 45-foot embankment behind the bank. In the process, he lost his gun, most of the money... and broke his leg. Whoops! He managed to crawl to a waiting getaway car and fled, but was arrested later when he sought medical help for his leg.

So whether crime pays or not, it certainly pays to be more thorough when planning your getaway.

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