$5 Million Stolen in Bank Heists

CBSNewYork

Three men accused of stealing more than $5 million in a series of bank thefts in two boroughs were facing federal charges Tuesday.

“These sophisticated bank burglaries had the makings of a movie plot,” said FBI New York Field Office Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton called the heist the “work of a crew that was well organized, meticulous being elusive to law enforcement.”

The HSBC bank on 13th Avenue and 44th Street in Borough Park, Brooklyn was broken into on the weekend of April 9, when burglars got in through an empty store next door and then through the bank ceiling.

The burglars used flammable gas and a fire torch to cut through the roof and into the vault, the criminal complaint said.

“They found exactly what they were looking for — literally bundles of cash,” Bharara said, “over $330,000, as well as valuables customers kept safe in safe deposit boxes in the vault.”

“They left very few clues of the heist. Our crime scene team hunted for every shred of evidence,” added Bratton.

The suspects were also allegedly responsible for the burglary of Maspeth Federal Savings bank on Woodhaven Boulevard in Rego Park, Queens on May 24. Investigators said the suspects climbed a ladder up the back of a bank, cut a hole in the roof and ransacked through several deposit boxes before fleeing the scene.

The suspects even built a hut at on the roof to give them some cover, the complaint said.

Contents from several safe deposit boxes were taken and the boxes were left empty on the roof. According to officials, approximately $296,000 in cash was stolen, along with $4,340,000 in jewelry, diamonds and other valuables.