Talking with a Swedish colleague, he asked me if I'd heard about their massive and audacious robbery.
I said I had not. Britain's media tends to only covers British robberies, such as the great Securitas theft or the Northern Bank robbery.
It wasn't his robbery or his banks as it turned out, but it is a Swedish heist that has already become one of the top ten robberies of all time.
Here's what happened.
In the early hours of Wednesday 23rd September, a helicopter flew over the G4S Security Yard in Stockholm and bombed open the cash boxes stealing almost $150 million in cash.
“The helicopter landed on the roof. Then they entered the building by breaking some windows. Next, several explosions were heard from within the building, and then they were seen loading things into the helicopter and lifting off,” stated Ulrika Lönngren, Chief of Police.
An officer on the scene then said that the robbers rappelled down from the helicopter as it hovered above the roof and entered the building using sledgehammers to break through the roof.
The whole thing took about 20 minutes and then, after several loud explosions, the helicopter took off again and was later found near a lake in Arninge, north of Stockholm.
Police continue to search the area for clues and have since arrested three people.
A blow by blow account of the daring robbery can be found on the English-language Swedish website, the Local and I note that Bo Harald and Dave Birch
have added some insights to this, relating the idea that firms in
Sweden will now start saying that they will not accept cash as cash
fuels robberies such as this one.
Interesting.
Meanwhile, here's the latest Time Top Ten Heists of All Time list:
- Theft of the Mona Lisa, 1911
- The Brinks Robbery, 1950
- The Great Train Robbery, 1963
- British Bank of the Middle East, 1976
- JFK Airport, 1978
- Boston's Gardner Museum, 1990
- The 1970's Stopwatch Gang
- Antwerp's Diamond Centre, 2003
- Brazil's Banco Central, 2005
- Sweden's GS4 Cash Depot, 2009
Talking of robberies, we had one recently in the local vicinity. The police released the photofit.
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Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
