Stockholm cash depot hit by helicopter heist

[Julhelm]

www.thelocal.se

Robbers used a helicopter to carry out a spectacular theft at a cash depot south of Stockholm early Wednesday morning.


Helicopter heist causes cash flow concerns (23 Sep 09)
Several powerful explosions were heard in the early hours on Wednesday coming from the G4S security company’s facilities in Västberga, south of Stockholm. Among other things, the building houses a cash depot.

Police received a call about the incident at 5.19am.

The chief of police for the southern district in Stockholm, Ulrika Lönngren, who has her office in Västberga, reported hearing several loud explosions and a helicopter hovering above the depot.

The helicopter later left the area and headed north, said Lönngren.

“The helicopter landed on the roof. Then they entered the building by breaking some windows. Next, several explosions were heard from within the building, and then they were seen loading things into the helicopter and lifting off,” she told the TT news agency.

The entire area surrounding the G4S facility has been cordoned off and police have set up a command centre at a nearby petrol station, where a large number of officers, police dogs, and emergency vehicles have gathered.

An officer on the scene told TT that the robbers rappelled down from the helicopter as it hovered above the roof and then entered the building using sledgehammers or something similar to break through the roof.

Caltraps - spikes spread across the road to burst car tyres - had been placed near the facility in an attempt to complicate efforts by police to approach the scene.

According to the southern district police, Sweden’s National Task Force, a paramilitary tactical unit within the National Criminal Investigation Department (Rikskriminalpolisen) is involved in the investigation.

The entire operation lasted about 20 minutes, but it remains unclear if the robbers made off with anything, police spokesperson Björn Engström said.

Police helicopters located on nearby Värmdö were unable to be used in response to the robbery, prompting suspicions that they had been sabotaged.

But Engström said that the helicopters hadn’t been damaged. Rather, they found a bag marked "bomb" near the helicopters forcing officers to inspect the bags and the helicopters before attempting to take off, the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper reports.

Police have confirmed the helicopter used in the heist, a Bell 206 Jet Ranger, was stolen overnight from a helicopter hangar near Norrtälje north of Stockholm.

Later Wednesday morning the helicopter was found near Arninge about 30 kilometres north of the crime scene.

According to Lönngren, there were between 10 and 20 employees working in the cash depot at the time of the heist, many of whom were involved in counting money. They are now being interviewed by police.

The manager of the depot, Roy Gierde, told the Aftonbladet newspaper that there is a high likelihood the robbers were caught on film.

"We have cameras everywhere," he told the newspaper.

G4S is a security and cash handling company with operations in over 110 countries and 530,000 employees worldwide.

The company employs about 1,000 people in Sweden, where it handles large amounts of cash for businesses and banks.

The Stockholm-area depot holds cash for several banks and shops in and around the Swedish capital.

It has been speculated that these guys made off with as much as close to about 100 million euro.

[Winston Blake]

But Engström said that the helicopters hadn’t been damaged. Rather, they found a bag marked "bomb" near the helicopters forcing officers to inspect the bags and the helicopters before attempting to take off, the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper reports.

That seems like something the Joker would do - leave a bag clearly marked BOMB in big letters. It's obviously a fake - so obvious, in fact, that if the officers ignored it and it WAS a bomb, it would be (almost) comical. Not to mention the outrageous 'rappelling from a helicopter' style of the attack.

Some witnesses reported hearing a long, mad cackle as the helicopter left the scene of the crime.

If security footage shows clown masks, and all organised crime in Sweden appears to coalesce under the rule of one mysterious leader, and the police find a corpse atop a massive pile of burnt euros, we'll know what the problem is.

[Qwerty 42]

This is a serious crime and should be investigated as such, but it's rather absurd. Very well planned, too. It wouldn't surprise me if they had some contingency to deal with the cameras, too.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Sounds like something out of a damn movie.

[Dooey Jo]

It has been speculated that these guys made off with as much as close to about 100 million euro.

Yes, even though this hilarious amount would weigh over one ton if it was in 1000 SEK bills (but more likely it would have mostly been in 500 SEK bills), and would probably fill up the whole helicopter.

Even more hilarious are the intelligent people asking why the police didn't shoot the helicopter down. In the middle of the fucking city. "Waugh incompetent bastards why didn't they recklessly endanger hundreds of people!"

[Julhelm]

With handguns nonetheless

SWAT teams didn't arrive until after the crooks had flown away.

[Siege]

With handguns nonetheless

You mean Swedish police don't carry standard issue MANPADs in their cruisers?!

This is a really impressive robbery. Must've been a high-end crew to pull a heist like this, probably consisting of quite a number of people too. It's gotta be hard to keep an operation like this completely secret, so I wonder if they'll manage to stay ahead of the law...

[TheLostVikings]

With handguns nonetheless

You mean Swedish police don't carry standard issue MANPADs in their cruisers?!

This is a really impressive robbery. Must've been a high-end crew to pull a heist like this, probably consisting of quite a number of people too. It's gotta be hard to keep an operation like this completely secret, so I wonder if they'll manage to stay ahead of the law...

Well according to today's newspaper the Swedish air force happened to have two jets fighters in the air (relatively) close by, and intended to divert them over to help look for the helicopter. But when they offered their assistance to the police they we're met with: 'this is police business, don't interfere'

...

Yeaaaaah, wonder how well that worked out for them

[Eleas]

I happened to glance at the headlines of local tabloids when buying Thai food tonight. Apparently, they claim the culprits are a group of international criminals calling themselves, I shit you not, "the Pink Panthers".

[Winston Blake]

I happened to glance at the headlines of local tabloids when buying Thai food tonight. Apparently, they claim the culprits are a group of international criminals calling themselves, I shit you not, "the Pink Panthers".

Wow, I am surprised there isn't already a film about these guys.

Regarding the name, Wikipedia says it was given to them by Interpol. Reminds me of the serial killer in the film Red Dragon:

They do like to sling demeaning nicknames, don't they?

"The Tooth Fairy. " What could be more inappropriate?

[Julhelm]

Well according to today's newspaper the Swedish air force happened to have two jets fighters in the air (relatively) close by, and intended to divert them over to help look for the helicopter. But when they offered their assistance to the police they we're met with: 'this is police business, don't interfere'

...

Yeaaaaah, wonder how well that worked out for them

That goes way back to the Ådalen protests in 1931 where the military was to assist police and opened fire on unarmed civilian, killing several.

[CJvR]

Well according to today's newspaper the Swedish air force happened to have two jets fighters in the air (relatively) close by, and intended to divert them over to help look for the helicopter. But when they offered their assistance to the police they we're met with: 'this is police business, don't interfere'

...

Yeaaaaah, wonder how well that worked out for them

Well that goes way back to Ådalen in the 30'ies when the military was deployed to protect some workers from a rather violent mob of strikers and ended up opening fire. The political fallout resulted in a specific ban on using military assets domesticly to do police work.

[Eleas]

Julhelm and CJvR pointed it out. Although I'm not certain whether the Ådalen incident is applicable here; the question was whether to use the J39 units in their scouting capacity, something they were built for. Why this would be principally different from asking the military for SIGINT, I have no idea, but then I am not well versed in judicial matters.