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[UPDATE] Bandana-Wearing Bandit Steals $500K From Armored Car In Brooklyn
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Aug 23, 2013
Modified Aug 23, 2013
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Aug 23, 2013
Modified Aug 23, 2013
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[UPDATES BELOW] A lone man masked with a black bandana pulled off quite the heist yesterday, allegedly jacking an armored car in Canarsie and making off with as much as $500,000.
Officials say the robbery went down at around 11:20 a.m. on Thursday morning; the car, operated by the Rapid Armored Car company, was parked outside a Pay-O-Matic check-cashing store at the Seaview Plaza. The unidentified robber, whose face was partially obscured by a black bandana, reportedly approached the car, knocked on the back door and was let in by the driver; he then "stuck a hard object in the back of (the driver’s) head and told him to drive,” a police source told the Daily News.
The driver told cops he was instructed to drive about two miles down Rockaway Parkway, before the man had him pull over at Linden Ave. He then grabbed a white bag containing the cash and fled; the driver said he wasn't sure if the thief was armed at the time.
Post-heist, cops questioned the driver, and they're still considering the possibility of an inside job; the driver reportedly told officers he opened the door for the bandit believing it to be his partner returning from a cash pick-up. The hunt is still on for the thief. "That’s crazy. To steal $500,000 like that, he must be real smooth,” Richard Chase, an employee at a barbershop next door to the Pay-O-Matic store, told the Daily News. The driver described the thief as a black man in his 20s, dressed in all black.
Update, 1:44 p.m.: The driver and the armored car's courier are being further investigated after allegedly failing a polygraph test. The test, which was administered by the FBI, featured questions like "Did you steal the money?" "Did you plan to steal the money?" and "Did you know the money was going to be stolen?", all of which the two guards reportedly failed. "The only question they got right was, ‘What's your name?’” a law enforcement source told the Post. Both guards took the test voluntarily.
Tagged
brooklyn
canarsie
Pay-O-Matic
thief
Rebecca Fishbein
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