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It's January 13, 2006, a beautiful summer day in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when a call
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went out to local police at 12:38 PM that Banco Rio was being robbed.
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Located in a serene, rich neighborhood in Argentina's capital, the prestigious bank
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contained a fortune in its vaults.
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Police officers arrived at the scene to discover that four thieves and twenty three hostages
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were inside.
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They secured the perimeter, guarding the only two possible exits from the bank.
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After communicating and negotiating with the robbers throughout most of the afternoon,
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the thieves suddenly went silent.
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At 7 PM, police officers broke into Banco Rio and found a confounding scene: the hostages
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were alive and well, almost one hundred and fifty safety deposit boxes were forced open
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and emptied of their contents, and the robbers...were gone.
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No sign of the thieves could be found, no windows were broken, and the exits had been
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watched by police the whole time.
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How did these thieves get away with what has become known as “the robbery of the century”?
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How did they disappear under the careful watch of more than one hundred police officers?
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We dug deep into this infamous Argentinean bank heist to find out.
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Banco Rio, now known as Banco Santander Rio, was one of Argentina's leading financial
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institutions, with branches throughout the country.
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One of its branches was nestled in the calm, wealthy neighborhood of San Isidro, in Buenos
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Aires' northern suburbs.
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How well off was San Isidro?
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Well, the neighborhood now has two golf courses, a sailing club, and a jockey club.
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You can almost see the residents clutching their pearls.
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In 2006, Argentina was already no stranger to infamous bank robberies.
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In fact, a heist that had happened a few years earlier had left the nation reeling, and as
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it turns out, inspired the heist of Banco Rio.
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In 1999, thieves had broken into a bank in Ramallo, Argentina, and taken hostages in
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order to negotiate their freedom from police.
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The robbers tried to leave the bank using the hostages as shields and police opened
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fire, killing one of the robbers, but also two innocent hostages.
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As though the tragic event wasn't enough of a PR nightmare for the police, the whole
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bank heist had been shown on live TV via the many news cameras at the scene.
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Most Argentinians had seen both the robbery and the killings go down in real time.
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The nation was in shock.
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As a result of the Ramallo case, police in the 2006 Banco Rio heist were more reluctant
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to take drastic action when they arrived at the scene of a bank robbery in progress.
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That warm January day, with even more news cameras trained on the hostage situation at
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Banco Rio, police were trying to move as carefully as possible.
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Then again, they weren't in a rush, because they thought they had the thieves trapped
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and surrounded.
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Over 100 officers had shown up at the scene, and every vantage point to the bank that wasn't
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occupied by a news photographer was occupied by a sniper.
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The two bank exits were covered.
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Where could the thieves go?
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One of the robbers inside, who bypassed several cool Argentinian names to codename himself
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Walter instead, was negotiating the release of hostages with police.
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The thieves let the bank's security guard walk out the door unharmed, then a young man,
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then a young woman as well.
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It seemed like things were going well and the robbers were playing along with the cops.
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Walter, who had been given the nickname of “The Man in the Gray Suit”, seemed to
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be in a strangely happy mood given the gravity of his situation.
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He and the other thieves were treating the hostages well.
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At one point, they sang “Happy Birthday” to one of the bank employees after discovering
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it was the man's birthday, which is more than you remembered to do for most of your
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friends last year without Facebook reminding you.
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Later on, around 3:30 PM, Walter called police to complain that the 23 remaining hostages
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were hungry and they'd like some pizza.
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After this call, the line went silent.
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What was happening inside Banco Rio?
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For three hours, with Walter having ghosted them, the police had no idea what to do.
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Do they barge in, putting hostages in danger and risking another Ramallo-like situation?
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Like a needy ex, they kept trying to contact Walter even after several missed calls.
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Finally, special forces lined up and forced their way in to discover a truly unbelievable
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situation.
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Twenty three hostages were being held or had been locked into three separate floors: the
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lobby, the mezzanine, and the basement conference room.
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The thieves were nowhere to be found.
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Police even double checked to see if they were hiding among the hostages, but could
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not find them.
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When they entered the basement, they realized what the thieves had really been after.
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Out of the 400 reinforced-steel safe deposit boxes in the basement, 143 had been cracked
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open.
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Why didn't the thieves steal cash from the bank instead?
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Well, most Argentinians at the time were pretty distrustful of the country's banking system.
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During the 2001 economic crisis in Argentina, the banking system had collapsed, wiping out
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the fortunes of those who had most of their money in bank accounts.
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Viewing money held in bank accounts as suspiciously as most people view bitcoin today, Argentinians
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instead decided they would only use banks for their safe deposit boxes, which couldn't
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be wiped out in the event of a crisis.
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In these safeguarded boxes, Argentinians piled in their cash, jewelry, and other valuable
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items that they could always reclaim in the event of an emergency.
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Given that San Isidro was an exceptionally rich neighborhood, the safe deposit boxes
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of this particular branch of Banco Rio contained an immense amount of wealth.
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After officers found so many of the boxes forced open, they also found the only few
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pieces of evidence the thieves had left behind: a battery pack, a tool that police assumed
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had been used to crack open the boxes, and a row of toy guns.
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That's right; the robbers had conducted this epic bank heist without even using real
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weapons.
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The last item police found was perhaps the most perplexing and obnoxious piece of evidence.
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The robbers, trying to make some sort of poetic statement, left behind a note that read, “In
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a neighborhood of rich people, without weapons or grudges, it's just money, not love.”
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Argentinians throughout the country, lacking Netflix at the time, had been watching the
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whole robbery unfold for hours from their televisions, and now saw that the thieves
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had pulled off an impossible escape as well.
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Public opinions and rumors in Argentina almost immediately depicted the robbers as Robin
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Hood-like folk heroes.
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After all, they had stolen from the rich, hadn't harmed anyone, and given the money
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to…(pause)...well, it seemed they'd given it to themselves.
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But still; their heist was somewhat ingenious.
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So who was at the center of it all?
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And how had they executed and gotten away with such a perfect heist?
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Well, the mastermind behind the robbery of the century turned out to be a man named Fernando
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Araujo.
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You see, the Ramallo bank heist had made an impression on Araujo, who thought the robbers
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had almost pulled off the perfect heist, but botched it all up when they tried to leave.
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One day, when Araujo was a few bong hits deep and talking to a dear friend, he thought of
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the obvious: what if the robbers never had to leave?
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What if, instead, they disappeared through a hole?
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Araujo's friend, Sebastian Garcia Bolster, agreed that this sounded like a crazy, yet
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perfect plan.
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However, he didn't pay his friend's theory much attention, as Bolster was neither a criminal
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or in any dire financial straits.
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Also, most people don't take grand stoned plans seriously.
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Araujo and Bolster had grown up together in an upper middle class neighborhood, also located
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in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires, and while Araujo sometimes dabbled in hobbies
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on the wrong side of the law, Bolster enjoyed a completely legal lifestyle.
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Bolster had a wife and child and was mechanically inclined, repairing mostly small engines for
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money and tinkering around with inventions.
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Araujo, on the other hand, had a very impulsive and somewhat eccentric lifestyle, teaching
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martial arts occasionally to pay the bills while also cultivating marijuana for money.
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He was a free-spirited artist who was dealing with a recent break up as many free-spirited
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artists do: melodramatically.
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He decided he needed to remove the world from his personal space, so he blacked out the
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windows of his loft.
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According to others, Araujo ate relatively little and slept whenever the mood hit him.
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Frequently high on weed, permanently underfed, and presumably lacking a whole lot of Vitamin
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D, Araujo was drawn towards stranger and stranger ideas.
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His biggest obsession?
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Bank robberies.
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Apparently, Araujo voraciously consumed any and all media involving bank robbers, from
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movies and shows to documentaries of real-life heists.
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His goal was to observe the mistakes other fictional and real robbers made, and use these
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observations to plan out the perfect heist.
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In 2004, Araujo finally realized he had not only figured out a plan, but also needed his
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friend Bolster's mechanical and technical knowledge to help him.
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Bolster wasn't too happy about the idea, and he knew banks were harder to break into
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than most people thought as he had worked part-time in a bank for a while.
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However, he was also furious that his father and grandfather had entrusted money to banks
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and then lost it all during economic downturns, so like many people, he ended up hating bankers.
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When Araujo guaranteed Bolster that no one would get hurt - in fact, they wouldn't
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even have real weapons - Bolster agreed to the plan and got to work.
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So what exactly IS the prep work for the robbery of the century?
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Thanks partly to its temperamental weather, Buenos Aires has plenty of storm drains underneath
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its streets that lead directly out to the river.
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The robbers would enter one that ran close to the bank and then dig up a tunnel to connect
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it to the bank itself.
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However, bypassing the bank's nighttime alarm system would be a huge challenge, much
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more difficult than digging a hole.
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So how would the thieves turn off the bank's alarm?
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Simple: by not tripping it at all.
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The thieves would rob the safe deposit boxes in the bank's basement in the daytime, when
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the alarm wasn't set, but the bank was swarming with people.
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How would they enter a bank during the workday and not draw attention to themselves emptying
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the safe deposit boxes?
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In Araujo's mind, the answer was even simpler: stage a fake bank robbery upstairs, to cover
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the real bank robbery going on in the basement.
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Some say the phrase “it's so crazy it just might work” was born that day.
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The duo then proceeded to assemble a crew of experienced thieves, financiers, and misfits
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they'd need to pull off this job, presumably in an “Ocean's Eleven”-style montage.
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Enter: an experienced bank robber named Doc and his associate Ruben Alberto de la Torre,
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nicknamed Beto.
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They were former members of an Argentinian group of armed bank robbers known, unimaginatively,
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as “Super Banda”.
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Another fixer and a getaway driver were added to the crew.
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Araujo also found a financier and problem solver in retired rich Uruguayan thief Luis
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Mario Vitette Sellanes, who invested $100,000 into the operation.
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What did they need the money for?
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Well, Bolster had to come up with a way to get into the bank, spend a lot of time and
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energy tunneling through, and find a relatively unobtrusive way to get the safe deposit boxes
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open so they wouldn't be heard from upstairs.
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Bolster decided to rent a safe deposit box at another Banco Rio branch, noted down the
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brand name, and ordered a few boxes himself to find the best way to open them.
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He concluded that a jackhammer punching through the locks would do the job, and could be kept
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to a reasonable noise level.
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He built a jackhammer that could be transported in pieces to the bank, assembled there, and
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then taken apart.
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However, as anyone who's seen “The Italian Job” or almost any heist movie knows, getting
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a lot of valuable, heavy goods out of the location you're robbing presents its own
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challenge.
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Since the thieves were going to drop back down into water-filled drains, getting the
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goods into Zodiac boats seemed like a good idea, but the water level was usually too
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low to hold up the loaded-down boats.
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Since Bolster couldn't make it rain - no more puns, we swear - he naturally decided
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he'd build a wooden dam in his shop, disassemble it, and reassemble it in the storm drains
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over several days.
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The morning of the heist, the seven men met for coffee - because apparently even bank
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robbers need caffeine to start their day - and then dispersed to start the heist of the century.
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Bolster headed to the storm drains to make his way towards the bank underground.
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Julian Zalloecheverria drove the getaway car to a pre-arranged meeting spot.
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Vitette and a mystery man named Luis the Uruguayan drove a stolen car to the garage under the
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bank, while the rest of the men drove another stolen car to the bank itself.
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Beto and Doc headed in first, with Beto waving around a toy gun he had stolen from his nine
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year old son that morning.
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Shockingly, this worked, and everyone in the bank immediately dropped to the floor.
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Araujo left another stolen car outside the bank purposely to make it look like a getaway
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vehicle, so police would think they had found the robbers' escape plan.
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Araujo walked into the bank in a baseball cap, ski mask, long blond wig, and sunglasses;
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how he managed to avoid weird looks on the sidewalk before entering is anyone's guess.
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Meanwhile, Bolster had reached the end of the tunnel he had dug and was just chilling
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in the dark underneath the bank.
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Doc went down, broke the basement wall separating the bank from Bolster's tunnel, and let
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Bolster in to help with the robbery, unbeknownst to anyone inside the bank.
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This was because Luis and Beto had already subdued and isolated the hostages.
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Vitette then took on the persona of Walter to deal with the cops that had just arrived,
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in order to make police believe that the robbers had been caught in a heist gone wrong.
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Araujo's plan was somewhat brilliant: the thieves were basically staging a visible botched
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bank robbery upstairs to cover up the invisible robbery happening in the basement.
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Vitette even released a few hostages one after the other to make the police think that they
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had the upper hand, and could get the rest of the hostages through negotiation alone.
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The whole crew had been told they had two hours to get in and get out.
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Bolster assembled his jackhammer-like contraption in 20 minutes and spent another hour and a
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half opening safe deposit boxes.
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After Vitette got the signal from Araujo to come downstairs, he told the cops to order
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pizza and then went down to the basement, telling the hostages if they moved they'd
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be killed.
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Beto and Vitette helped Bolster stuff the valuables into bags, while Araujo and Doc
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sprayed bleach to destroy any DNA and threw around fistfuls of hair from a barbershop
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floor to confuse police even further.
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As you do in a bank heist.
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As the men exited through Bolster's tunnel, they cleaned up all evidence of the broken
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wall, and hid the hole behind a large, heavy cabinet.
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The men piled into the Zodiacs, and even though the motor malfunctioned, Araujo had brought
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paddles.
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The men paddled to the getaway van ten blocks away, used a previously tested pulley system
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to haul the bags up from the storm drain, and drove off, all while police still thought
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they had the bank robbers surrounded in Banco Rio.
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When police officers eventually stormed the bank, the robbers were already home watching