This is a list of bank robberies, bank robbers and gangs involved in bank robberies.
Robbers | Robberies
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The first bank robbery in Denmark occurred August 18, 1913 in the bank Sparekassen for København og Omegn at Østerbro in Copenhagen. It was carried out by two men, Danish salesman Lindorff Larsen and a German machinist Güttig, armed with revolvers; the two got away with 9000 Danish kroner. Güttig was arrested August 30 and Lindorff Larsen committed suicide after having fled the police. [1]
Robbers
Robberies
In 1987, Labh Singh (Sukhdev Singh Sukha) allegedly masterminded [7] what was at that time the largest bank robbery in Indian history, netting almost 60 million (58 million rupees-US$4.5 million) from Millar Ganj branch of Punjab National Bank, Ludhiana; [7] a part of this stolen money belonged to the Reserve Bank of India, India's central bank. [8] [9] It was documented as “Biggest Bank Robbery” under “Curiosities and wonders” in Limca Book of Records . [10] [11] [12]
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that "12 to 15 Sikhs dressed as policemen and armed with submachine guns and rifles escaped with nearly $4.5 million in the biggest bank robbery in Indian history." "No one was injured." A Police spokesman described it as "a neat and clean operation". [9]
Khalistan Commando Force members who allegedly participated in the robbery included Harjinder Singh Jinda, Mathra Singh, [13] Paramjit Singh Panjwar, [14] Satnam Singh Bawa, [15] Gurnam Singh Bundala, [16] Sukhdev Singh Sukha, Daljit Singh Bittu, [17] [18] [19] Gursharan Singh Gamma [17] [18] and Pritpal Singh. [20]
On the night of October 31, 2005, robbers entered the safety deposit boxes of SKB Bank (Société Générale) in Ljubljana through the main door and deactivated the alarm system. [26] [27] Robbers disarmed the security guard and opened more than 400 safety deposit boxes. They took at least €32 million in gold, precious stones and cash.
In March 2012 two robbers were arrested. One of them was a security guard at the bank. [28] The court process against two robbers started [29] in November 2013. At least one robber is[ when? ] still free.
Name | Year | Location | Amount |
---|---|---|---|
Great Gold Robbery | 1855 | Between London and Folkestone, Kent | £12,000 (£1.4 million in 2023) |
Great Pearl Robbery | 1913 | Hatton Garden, London | £150,000 (£18.6 million in 2023) |
Eastcastle Street robbery | 1952 | Eastcastle Street, London | £287,000 (£10.4 million in 2023) |
Great Train Robbery | 1963 | Mentmore, Buckinghamshire | £2.6 million (£68.8 million in 2023) |
Baker Street robbery | 1971 | Baker Street, London | £3 million (£53.6 million in 2023) |
Bank of America robbery | 1975 | Mayfair, London | £8 million (£93.2 million in 2023) stolen £500,000 (£5.3 million) recovered [30] |
Brink's-Mat robbery | 1983 | Heathrow International Trading Estate, London | £26 million (£110.8 million in 2023) |
Knightsbridge Security Deposit robbery | 1987 | Knightsbridge, London | £40 million (£142.1 million in 2023) |
City bonds robbery | 1990 | City of London, London | £291.9 million (£838 million in 2023) |
Midland Bank Clearing Centre | 1995 | Salford, Greater Manchester | £6.6 million (£16 million in 2023) [31] |
Northern Bank robbery | 2004 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | £26.5 million (£51.4 million in 2023) |
Securitas depot robbery | 2006 | Tonbridge, Kent | £53 million (£96.9 million in 2023) |
Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary | 2015 | Hatton Garden, London | £14 million (£19.6 million in 2023) |
Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank branch or teller, as opposed to other bank-owned property, such as a train, armored car, or (historically) stagecoach. It is a federal crime in the United States.
Since the invention of locomotives in the early 19th century, trains have often been the target of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables. Train robbery was especially common during the 19th century and is commonly associated with gangs of outlaws in the American Old West. It has continued into the 21st century, with criminals usually targeting freight trains carrying commercial cargo, or targeting passengers of public transportation for their valuables.
The Great Brink's Robbery was an armed robbery of the Brink's building in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1950. The $2.775 million theft consisted of $1,218,211.29 in cash and $1,557,183.83 in checks, money orders, and other securities. It was at the time the largest robbery in the history of the United States and has been called "the crime of the century". The robbery remained unsolved for nearly six years, until estranged group member Joseph O'Keefe testified only days before the statute of limitations would have expired.
James Burke, also known as "Jimmy the Gent", was an American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate who is believed to have organized the 1978 Lufthansa heist, the largest cash robbery in American history at the time. He was believed to be responsible for the deaths of those involved in the months after the robbery.
A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is an armed confrontation entailing firearms between armed parties using guns, always entailing intense disagreement(s) between the fighting parties. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to describe combat situations primarily using firearms.
The Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) is a Sikh Khalistani militant organisation operating in the state of Punjab, India with prominent members based in Canada, United Kingdom and Pakistan. Its objective is the creation of a Sikh independent state of Khalistan through armed struggle. KCF is also responsible for many assassinations in India, including the 1995 assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by the Government of India.
The Lufthansa heist was a robbery which took place at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated US$5.875 million was stolen, with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry, making it the largest cash robbery committed in the U.S. at the time.
The 2006 Securitas depot robbery in Tonbridge, England, was the UK's largest cash heist. It began with a kidnapping on the evening of 21 February 2006 and ended in the early hours of 22 February, when seven criminals stole almost £53 million. The gang left behind another £154 million because they did not have the means to transport it.
Harjinder Singh Jinda was a Sikh militant and one of the two assassins of Arun Vaidya. He was responsible for three high-profile assassinations: Arjan Dass, Lalit Maken and Gen. Vaidya. He along with other members of Khalistan Commando Force participated in Indian history's biggest bank robbery of ₹ 57 million from Punjab National Bank, Miller Gunj branch, Ludhiana to finance the militancy for a separate Sikh state of Khalistan.
George Leonidas Leslie, who sometimes used the names George Howard and George Herbert, was an American bank robber and architect. He was involved in 80% of the bank robberies in the United States from 1869 to 1878, and was known as "The King of Bank Robbers".
The Chelambra bank robbery in the Malappuram district of Kerala, India is considered to be one of the biggest and most sensational bank robberies in the crime history of Kerala. In the early hours of 30 December 2007, the robbers made a hole in the floor of the Kerala Gramin Bank and got away with 80 kilograms of gold and 5,000,000 rupees, a total value of 80 million Indian Rupees.
Sukhdev Singh Dhillon, also known as General Labh Singh and Sukha Sipahi was an Indian militant, police officer, and Sikh separatist who took command of the Khalistan Commando Force after its first leader, Manbir Singh Chaheru, was arrested in 1986.
Patrick Michael "Paddy" Mitchell of Ottawa, Ontario, was leader of the notorious "Stopwatch Gang" of bank robbers. Mitchell was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most wanted list for the Stopwatch Gang's bank robberies across the United States.
The Cretzer-Kyle Gang was a Depression-era criminal group led by Joseph "Dutch" Cretzer and Arnold Thomas Kyle during the mid-to late 1930s. Largely active in the West Coast, they were one of the few groups to gain national attention outside the Midwest and also one of the last groups to be captured by the FBI at the end of the decade. Cretzer was killed in a failed attempt to escape Alcatraz resulting in the 1946 prison riot.
James "Old Jimmy" Hope was a 19th-century American burglar, bank robber and underworld figure in Philadelphia and later New York City. He was considered one of the most successful and sought after bank burglars in the United States during his lifetime as well as a skilled escape artist for his repeated breakouts from Auburn State Prison in New York.
George Earl "The Kid" Northern (1903–1936) was a Prohibition-era bank robber and early associate of Harry Pierpont. He was the older brother of Pierpont's girlfriend, Mary Kinder.
On Sunday, October 27, 1878, the Manhattan Savings Institution bank and depository in Manhattan, New York City was robbed of $2,747,700 in cash and securities by the former gang of serial bank robber George Leonidas Leslie. At the time, it was the largest-paying criminal heist in history.
On January 26, 1876, the Northampton Bank in Northampton, Massachusetts, was robbed of $1.6 million in cash, bonds, and other securities by the Rufus Gang, which was led by Thomas Dunlap, Robert Scott, and George Leonidas Leslie. Leslie planned the robbery, but did not participate physically. It was the largest bank robbery in U.S. history at the time. 75 depositors lost their money.
In June 1869, the Ocean National Bank in Manhattan, New York City was robbed of $768,879.94 in cash, securities, and jewelry by the gang of George Leonidas Leslie. It was the largest heist in New York City history at the time. Planning for the heist took three months, and was funded by Fredericka Mandelbaum, who received a 10% cut of the earnings.
On February 10, 1997, the Seafirst Bank branch of Lakewood, Washington, was robbed of $4,461,681 in cash by Billy Kirkpatrick and Ray Bowman, also known as the Trenchcoat Robbers. An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service caught the two, and they were both sent to 15 years in prison in 1999. It is one of the largest robberies in U.S. history.
Labh Singh masterminded a bank robbery of R. 6 crore from a branch...
Sikh(bracketed) separatists dressed as police officers looted a bank Thursday and escaped with $4.5 million, the biggest bank heist in Indian history, officials said. Bank robberies occur almost every week in Punjab.
It was only after the big bank robbery at Ludhiana in February 1987 that they could purchase sophisticated weapons; there was only one sten gun in the entire state.