In 1992 there were 847 bank robberies in the UK; by 2011 that had dropped to just 66. Now Lawrence Dobbs writes in the Telegraph about how technology is killing off this age old profession. "The development of more sophisticated alarm systems and CCTV, as well as supporting forensic developments such as DNA analysis and facial recognition software, all serve to assist police," says Jim Dickie, a former detective who spent more than 30 years with the Metropolitan Police. Those who do try are either feckless opportunists or "serial offenders" who have already served time and are easily found on police databases. "Hands-on heists are a dying art, because those who have a background in it are literally dying off."
In 2015 a gang of aging jewel thieves pulled off one last spectacular job. Using a diamond-tipped drill and a 10-ton hydraulic ram, they broke into the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd vault and made off with at least £14million in precious stones, gems, bullion and jewelry in the largest burglary in English history. But the Hatton Garden burglars were caught because they used one of their own cars within view of a security camera. According to David Kelly, it's CCTV which has changed things most. "It's now virtually impossible to travel through any public space in a major metropolitan area without being captured. They're everywhere, the image quality is better, and the ability to store images for longer has increased."
Then there are your physical alarm devices: motion sensors, window monitors which detect glass shattering, or devices which trigger when a door is opened. "These devices can now be deployed wirelessly – in an older building, where you might not have wires in place," says Kelly. "There are also tools at the disposal of the private sector, in cooperation with the public sector, which are perhaps not matters of common knowledge, and there's a tactical advantage to our clients in them remaining that way." Add to this the various technologies used to protect or track the loot itself – dye packs hiding inside stacks of banknotes, which explode when they leave a certain range; GPS tracking on security vans and inside cash containers – and you can see why even a hardened criminal might prefer to stay in bed.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Friday January 22 2016, @09:31PM
Joe Moore: Anybody can get the goods. The hard part's getting away.
Bergman: Uh-huh.
Joe Moore: You plan a good enough getaway, you could steal Ebbets Field.
Bergman: Ebbets Field's gone.
Joe Moore: What did I tell you?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Whoever on Saturday January 23 2016, @02:39AM
Actually, the car wasn't seen when they attempted to get away. What happened was that the robbers bored through the concrete wall, but came across the back of the strong boxes. This stopped them, so they left. A day or so later, they came back with new equipment and it was on this return that the car was spotted. The car was a sufficiently rare Mercedes that it could be identified from the shape and colors, without needing to see the license plate.
The robbers should have been caught earlier -- a silent alarm went off but when someone went to check on the premises, they mistakenly thought that the alarm was a false positive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @09:34PM
You'd do less time. Even in Iceland.
(Score: 4, Funny) by bob_super on Friday January 22 2016, @10:30PM
Break into a Boardroom and rob the attendees.
Nobody ever recalls any bad decisions made in those rooms.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @09:41PM
Thanks, Obama!
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday January 22 2016, @09:52PM
What is this going to do to the proud and honored tradition of bank heist movies?
At this rate, we may never see a remake of The Heat! The horror! Why, how can hollywood compete if they don't have a series of totally believable plots to reuse every 20 years?!
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday January 22 2016, @10:04PM
Err.... "Heat", I mean. Not "The Heat". That's a little different.
I... I was just so caught up in my righteous indignity! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNITY I SAY!
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday January 23 2016, @12:51AM
Luddite! Robbing by shoving loaded pistols into peoples' faces and blowing open safes is so crude.
In Capitalist America, banks rob you. Bail us out, or the economy gets it! That's Too Big to Fail, baby. And they're making movies about it: Wolf of Wall Street, The Big Short. Holding a few people hostage is nothing on holding the entire world economy hostage.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Friday January 22 2016, @10:06PM
I think swordfish was a modern bank heist movie. They were after computers, not jewels.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @10:12PM
I feel it necessary to point out that criminal behaviour is as unacceptable in the twenty fourth century as it was in the nineteenth. And much harder to get away with.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Hawkwind on Friday January 22 2016, @10:16PM
Reminds me of a recent attempt by some young folk to break in to a Modern Art Museum. They didn't even make very far before being picked up. A police officer was quoted as saying:
Yeah for modern art!
http://cphpost.dk/news/attempted-burglary-at-louisiana-overnight.html [cphpost.dk]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @10:40PM
Another Profession That Technology is Killing Off
"serial offenders"
That makes it a non-profession. The serial offenders do it because of personal reasons... not because they need the money to pay for groceries.
In other news, technology is also killing off privacy and freedom in the name of safety. Cameras everywhere. Arse-probing at every corner. Unacceptable DNA analysis and facial recognition of all innocents everywhere in order to keep them safe from "serial offenders" that do not threaten people's privacy or freedom... who just want some spare change.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @10:42PM
The rational part of me knows that the people involved are criminals, and that many of them have and are willing to kill to succeed, but there's a romantic part of me that's almost sad to hear that daring, intelligent heists, the kind that pit human ingenuity vs human ingenuity, are dying out.
(Score: 0, Troll) by opinionated_science on Friday January 22 2016, @10:43PM
Do we only get /. reposts now?
Carry on....
(Score: 2) by Marand on Friday January 22 2016, @11:07PM
Do you post that same sort of useless remark on slashdot every time SN posts first?
I was not aware that news could only be reported at a single location. Perhaps you should notify Associated Press that they need to close up shop as well.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by opinionated_science on Saturday January 23 2016, @02:59AM
well I noticed the troll score, but the Hughicken and soulskill are /. paid informants. So they saturate our soylent paradise by throwing synchronised news at us.
I'm just saying, the DICE empire is wielding a mis-information tool, and I don't see why we should help them.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Appalbarry on Friday January 22 2016, @11:56PM
It's only a repost if you read both sites.
In fact, 99% of everything on the Internet is a repost from or to somewhere else.
God. Life really is too short.
(Score: 2) by khchung on Friday January 22 2016, @11:58PM
Only from a serial offender.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @10:44PM
So it has come to this. There aren't any jobs anymore. If you steal bread to feed your starving family, you will die in prison.
Might as well just go on a killing spree now! Society has already broken the social contract.
And idiots wonder why terrorism exists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 22 2016, @11:58PM
Yip, bank "jobs" have been outsourced to the Nigerian Prince.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Saturday January 23 2016, @12:02AM
Years ago, back in the days where banking was done at counter, and you had to use little bits of paper to do it, I had a conversation with a friend who worked as a bank teller.
What she told me was this: the most common reason for a bank robber to get caught was that they wrote their hold-up note on the back side of one of their own deposit clips or cheques.
Nerves and stupidity will do that to you.
* By definition the successful criminals are the ones that you'll never hear about. Well, and the bankers.... some people rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen....
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Saturday January 23 2016, @06:39AM
Bank robberies are down in the US as well 3,430 bank robberies in the US in 2014, down from 4495 in 2011.
(The FBI doesn't release yearly statistics on Bank Robberies for some reason).
https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/bank-crime-statistics-2014/bank-crime-statistics-2014 [fbi.gov]
The FBI currently boasts a 54 percent solution rate. Oh wow.
According to FBI statistics for the fiscal year 2014, the average loss incurred during bank robberies was $6,000.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Murdoc on Saturday January 23 2016, @12:22AM
...and Nate Ford when you need them? Because sometimes bad guys make the best good guys!
But really I'd bet they try to use this as justification for more public surveillance. Not that the UK needs it.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 23 2016, @02:44AM
It's not that people don't 'rob' banks it's just that they don't do it the way they used to. The modern day 'bank' robber hacks websites, they hack stores like Target, they hack credit card numbers, they hack personal information, they find ways to steal identities and scam people, and they use that to personally benefit. In a sense it's just that traditional bank robbery has been replaced with a more modern sophisticated version of it. Yes, traditional security has improved to reduce traditional robberies but those that 'rob banks' or steal people's money have also gotten more sophisticated as well. and the thing is that traditional police are not really trained or sophisticated enough to handle these types of crimes.
One safety feature that ATMs have is a maximum withdraw amount. So if someone tries to mug you at the ATM they can only withdraw a maximum amount. But these days these types of confrontational thieves aren't as common. Now it's the cyber criminal. Or, many people have an expensive phone that can easily be taken.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Saturday January 23 2016, @05:32AM
Agreed for the most part. There is another angle through which banks can be robbed. There are a couple YouTube videos of talks given by the "Soldier of Fortran", an IBM mainframe hacker/security guy about how pathetic IBM mainframe security really is. It seems that once you tunnel your way into the bank's intranet (assuming it isn't foolish enough to leave the mainframe directly accessible to the public Internet) hacking the mainframe is pretty trivial.
Here are links to the [youtube.com] videos [youtube.com]. Watch them while you stuff your savings into your mattress. ;-)
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.