Thieves tunnel into Brazil bank, take $68 million


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RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Thieves tunneled into a bank in northeastern Brazil and stole $68 million, the biggest bank heist in the nation?s history, police said Monday.

?It?s something you see in the movies. ... They dug a 200-meter (650-foot) tunnel that goes underneath two (city) blocks. They?ve been digging for three months,? police investigator Francisco Queiroga told Reuters by telephone.

The thieves broke into a branch of the central bank in the northeastern state of Ceara over the weekend and removed 156 million reals ($68 million).

The theft was not discovered until Monday morning because the bank was closed.

?The tunnel was dug right underneath the vault,? Queiroga said. ?We?ve never heard of so much money being stolen from a bank in Brazil.?

Federal police in Ceara said it was the biggest known heist in Brazil and that between six and 10 people were suspected of doing the job.

The theft exceeds the amount stolen by Britain?s ?Great Train Robber? Ronnie Biggs, who fled to Brazil and lived in the country for many years.

He and 11 other gang members robbed a Glasgow-to-London mail train in 1963 and made off with 2.6 million pounds ? some 30 million pounds ($53 million) in today?s money.

                                                                              MSNBC - Source

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Man, and I thought it was only in the movies.

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Takes a well organised team to do that. They prolly have someone from the inside. They always do.
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I am brazilian, this is sad news.. but true. :(

They not only dug the tunnel.. they also had to go through a 2 meter wide concrete+steel wall that stays under the safe for protection.

And there was probably someone from the inside helping because no alarm was triggered and the cameras didn't record a thing!

The bank in case is the brazilian "Central Bank", something like the US Federal Reserve I think. Part of the money was made of old/damaged ballots that the bank was going to burn and print new ones. So they probably have the serial numbers and will put the other banks in the country on alert.

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