Pa. Bomb Robbery Unlike Other Wild Heists
Sept. 5 -- A pizza deliveryman with no criminal history, strapped to a live bomb, robbing a bank. It sounds more like a farfetched summer movie plot than a real-life mystery, but wild and bizarre bank robberies have been making headlines for more than 100 years.
In recent years, bank robbers have used fake bombs, commando tactics and heavy duty weaponry, and even trained a dog to act as a weapon. And famous felons from American history — like Jesse James, Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and the legendary Willie "The Actor" Sutton — all cemented their reputations with bank capers.
Nevertheless, most bank robberies are relatively straightforward crimes — typically a single assailant who has done only a modest amount of planning for the heist. The holdup is usually quick and simple and often the robber does not even show a firearm.
"It's like a spur-of-the-moment thing — it's like gambling," explained Duane Swierczynski, a journalist who wrote This Here's a Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book of American Bank Robbery.
Banks tell employees to cooperate, making it easy for criminals to get some quick loot. A "note job" might net a couple thousand dollars at most. A more elaborate and risky "takeover heist" could bring in tens of thousands.
But it often doesn't take long for authorities to catch up with them.
"There are very few smart bank robbers," Swierczynski said. Between eyewitness accounts, surveillance footage, and exploding dye-packs which stain the stolen money, investigators have many tools to help identify a robber.
Of the 7,000 or 8,000 bank robberies in the United States each year, only a few make the headlines, and even fewer are as bizarre as the case of Brian Douglas Wells, the 46-year-old pizza deliveryman who was killed by a bomb locked around his neck outside a Pennsylvania bank on Aug. 28. Wells told police he had been forced to rob the bank.
Wells' friends said he lived a quiet life and could not have masterminded the crime. Investigators say they found a hidden gun-like weapon on Wells' body, but have not come to a conclusion about whether he was a victim or involved in the heist.
Related Stories
ABC News Live