Quite possibly the coolest bank robbery ever. EVER!

[_Angus McAwesome]

Link

Bank robber hires decoys on Craigslist, fools cops

In an elaborate robbery scheme that's one part The Thomas Crowne Affair and one part Pineapple Express, a crook robbed an armored truck outside a Bank of America branch in Monroe, Wash., by hiring decoys through Craigslist to deter authorities.

It gets better: He then escaped in a creek headed for the Skykomish River in an inner tube, and the cops are still looking for him. "A great amount of money" was taken, Monroe police said, but did not provide a dollar value.

It appears to have unfolded this way, according to a Seattle-based NBC affiliate: around 11:00 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, the robber, wearing a yellow vest, safety goggles, a blue shirt, and a respirator mask went over to a guard who was overseeing the unloading of cash to the bank from the truck. He sprayed the guard with pepper spray, grabbed his bag of money, and fled the scene.

But here's the hilarious twist. The robber had previously put out a Craigslist ad for road maintenance workers, promising wages of $28.50 per hour. Recruits were asked to wait near the Bank of America right around the time of the robbery--wearing yellow vests, safety goggles, a respirator mask, and preferably a blue shirt. At least a dozen of them showed up after responding to the Craigslist ad.

"I came across the ad that was for a prevailing wage job for $28.50 an hour," one of the unwitting decoys, named Mike, said to the NBC station. As it turns out, they were simply placed there to confuse cops who were looking for a guy wearing a virtually identical outfit.

Authorities eventually found the getaway inner tube (a getaway inner tube!) and suspect that accomplices may have picked up the robber in a boat. According to the NBC affiliate, police hope to track him down by figuring out who posted the Craigslist ad in the first place.

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was not immediately available for comment.

Whoever this Criminal mastermind was, he should totally be featured as Batman's new arch nemesis in the the next movie. Get-away intertube... I know lol'd.

[_Gazelam]

He took out the guard with pepper spray?

Who was the delivery service? Keystone security?

[_Dr. Shades]

Have you ever been hit with Pepper Spray, Gazelam?

Here's the deal: Pepper spray is measured in SHU, which stands for "simulated heat units." A standard jalapeno pepper clocks in at about 5,000 SHU. Pepper spray, on the other hand, registers a whopping 2,000,000 SHU.

I was hit with a double-dose of it a little over a decade ago. Take it from me, pepper spray is NOT to be taken lightly. It causes immediate closure of the eyes, near-closure of the throat (depending on where and with how much you get hit), a severe burning sensation of the skin, and MASSIVE, UNBEARABLE irritation of all the above.

One hit with that, and you're OUT of the fight. If that cop was sprayed point-blank, there was NO WAY IN HELL he'd be in any condition to pursue the guy--being unable to see the suspect would put a major damper on that, all other things being equal--and even if he could, there'd be NO WAY he could fight and overpower him.

So the cop being taken out by pepper spray is perfectly plausible to me.