Pizza-delivery man says he was forced to rob bank, blows up

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-08-31 04:04am

http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/08 ... 32-ap.html

Pennsylvania pizza-delivery man says he was forced to rob bank, blows up

ERIE, Pa. (AP) - A pizza-delivery man told police he had been forced to rob a bank and asked authorities to help him minutes before a bomb strapped to his chest exploded and killed him.

On Saturday, U.S. government agents and police in northwestern Pennsylvania were trying to solve the bizarre case of 46-year-old Brian Douglas Wells, who left to deliver a pizza to a mysterious address in a remote area about an hour before he turned up at the bank with a bomb strapped to his body.

No one else was hurt in Thursday's explosion, which happened in front of law-enforcement officers as they waited for a bomb squad to arrive.

WJET-TV of Erie captured audio and video from Wells as he sat handcuffed in front of a state police cruiser.

"Why is nobody trying to come get this thing off me?" he asked.

A state police spokesman confirmed Thursday night Wells had made a number of statements, including that he had been forced to rob the bank.

The tape shows Wells telling authorities someone had started a timer on his bomb under his T-shirt and there was little time left.

"It's going to go off," Wells said.

"I'm not lying."

Erie chief deputy coroner Korac Timon said Saturday the bomb appeared to have hung from Wells' neck and he had been told it was of a "very sophisticated construction."

FBI Special Agent Bob Rudge called the case unusual, noting while bank robbers sometimes claim to have a bomb, few actually do.

While no one has been arrested or identified as a suspect, Rudge said the investigation is "going extremely well." Wells' death was being investigated as a homicide and investigators were looking into Wells' background.

Linda Payne, who owns the property where Wells lived, described him as a private, trustworthy person who liked music and cared for three cats. He was a friend of Payne's husband, who also had been a pizza-delivery man, she said.

"I couldn't believe that he would rob a bank. He doesn't care that much about money," Payne said.

"I think somebody lured him into that place delivering a pizza, dropped a bomb on him and sent him into the bank...He would not have decided to do that on his own."

Wells' boss and one of the owners of Mama Mia's Pizza-Ria outside Erie, who asked his name not be published, said Saturday he took a call Thursday for a pizza delivery but didn't recognize the address given.

He put Wells on the phone to get directions. Wells left to make the delivery and never returned, the pizzeria owner said.

The address of the delivery was a rural spot along a main drag that runs south of the city, where a gravel road leads to a television- transmission tower.

Police said Wells entered the PNC Bank branch outside Erie on Friday afternoon and producing an "extensive note" demanding money and saying he had a bomb. Rudge would not provide any details about the note.

Wells left with an undisclosed amount of money and got into his car. Police surrounded him a short time later in a nearby parking lot, pulled him out of his car and handcuffed him, authorities said.

The bomb exploded about 40 minutes after he entered the bank.

Authorities obtained a search warrant and took evidence from Wells' home but a state police spokesman refused to say what was taken. The evidence arrived at FBI laboratories in Washington but Rudge could not say how long testing would take.

State police forensics teams also searched near the spot of Wells' last pizza delivery. It was not know what, if anything, they found.

Tosho · Post by **Tosho** » 2003-08-31 04:41am

Authorities obtained a search warrant and took evidence from Wells' home but a state police spokesman refused to say what was taken.

The phrase "an assload of LSD" comes to mind.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-08-31 05:47am

I doubt it. It's obvious that he went to this wierd address, was strapped up with a bomb, and was taken to the bank by his captors (who must've been close by) so he could rob the bank for them. Once it didn't work out, they set off the charges they put on him remotely. At least, that's my take on it.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-08-31 10:59am

If its true it sounds like some people are inspired by movies.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-08-31 11:32am

T.T

That is a horrible way to go.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-08-31 11:41am

Wow, that sucks hard. I hope the suicide bombers don't get ideas from this...

Post by **Colonel Olrik** » 2003-08-31 11:45am

Vorlon1701 wrote:Wow, that sucks hard. I hope the suicide bombers don't get ideas from this...

It doesn't work if you know you're going to die either way.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-08-31 02:08pm

Colonel Olrik wrote:
Vorlon1701 wrote:Wow, that sucks hard. I hope the suicide bombers don't get ideas from this...
It doesn't work if you know you're going to die either way.

It means they don't need to get volunteers anymore. Just kidnap a few people.

Post by **Colonel Olrik** » 2003-08-31 02:18pm

neoolong wrote:
Colonel Olrik wrote:
Vorlon1701 wrote:Wow, that sucks hard. I hope the suicide bombers don't get ideas from this...
It doesn't work if you know you're going to die either way.
It means they don't need to get volunteers anymore. Just kidnap a few people.

It's like the 9/11 aircraft pilots. You can't really be forced into a bus dressed with explosives. Since you know you're going to die, you'll make sure to die alone. At most, it would work a few times until the news spread. In the case of the pizza man, he was certainly told that, after the assault, the explosives would be removed (or that he would be left alone). Therefore, he had a reason to obey.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-08-31 02:36pm

Colonel Olrik wrote:
neoolong wrote:
Colonel Olrik wrote: It doesn't work if you know you're going to die either way.
It means they don't need to get volunteers anymore. Just kidnap a few people.
It's like the 9/11 aircraft pilots. You can't really be forced into a bus dressed with explosives. Since you know you're going to die, you'll make sure to die alone. At most, it would work a few times until the news spread. In the case of the pizza man, he was certainly told that, after the assault, the explosives would be removed (or that he would be left alone). Therefore, he had a reason to obey.

All you have to do is pull this off a few times with the guy surviving, and people start assuming that you'll live. Hope is at once a beautiful and terrible thing...

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-08-31 04:03pm

Vorlon1701 wrote:Wow, that sucks hard. I hope the suicide bombers don't get ideas from this...

They already have. A number of times the IRA kidnapped people and tied them into bomb rigged cars before forcing them to drive to the target. This then forced the British bomb squad units to disarmed the weapons rather then simply evacuating and allowing them to explode, the IRA considered those highly trained units to be key targets and tried everything it could it wipe them out.