If the perps are covered in soil, BUT don't get caught - was it in fact a clean get-away?
These are the imponderables that keep me up all night...sadly.
Every little helps: Dirty MOLE BANDITS clean out Tesco ATM from BELOW
The movies tell us that tunnels are normally dug when a person locked behind bars laboriously scrapes away dirt with just a spoon to secretly set themselves free. Now some naughty scamps in Salford, Greater Manchester, have used the technique, not to escape, but to break their way into a shop to steal cash out of an ATM. …
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Friday 21st March 2014 06:39 GMT Khaptain
The hole in the wall became the hole in the ground....
Just for the sheer audacity and the risk I think that they have well earned their 86k. Would be interesting to know how much the operation actually cost, time, labour, electricity or candles, work boots etc.... They might actually have been better of simply getting a job......
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Friday 21st March 2014 10:22 GMT Anonymous Coward
East European miners.
This was the first thought I had, when I read about it last night. That said, 80 grand, even at 4 months' labour, split between two hard-working, bingo-splurging East Europeans gives them well over 10 grand a month. Not exactly a minimum wage, and you can't get that as an unskilled labourer, can ya? Even with four of them, 5 grand a month is not to be snubbed at. And think of the benefits - flexible working hours, you're your own boss, no tax to declare... Yes, the insurance policy in case of a misadventure is a bit flakey, and you might not get out alive, but hey, people risk their lives daily for less, eh?
Admittedly, it's illegal, and highly immoral (though shall not steal from bankers, etc.), but in these times of economic hardship, I do applaud all the hard work. It's not like they clubbed a security guard and snatched his box, is it?
...
and what does it all have to do with the Register? Ah, it was an ATM, I get it :)
and Friday, we're into Friday...
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Friday 21st March 2014 09:57 GMT Goldmember
Re: Effort!
Effort, yes, but they got a fairly decent pay day from it, especially considering the area (if indeed they are locals).
The same thing happened in Fallowfield (South Manchester) a couple of years ago. Fortunately (or unfortunately from their point of view) they chose to do it just after New Year before the thing had been refilled, and the monumental effort only got them about £6k.
I remember listening to the radio at the time, and Mike Sweeney quipped how the gang would have made more money working minimum wage jobs over the time it took to dig that tunnel.
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Friday 21st March 2014 06:52 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Ah for £86k I'd soil myself too....
The article says they spent months. Presumably they drilled through the concrete floor overnight, but had all the rest of the dirt already moved.
Depending how many months, and how many there were, they might have earned more money digging for a road crew than they earned from this.
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Friday 21st March 2014 07:38 GMT McHack
DARPA is asking for it
"What, this burrowing autonomous drone with cutting attachments that can bore through reinforced concrete and pick up stuff? Built it for a military contract, but honestly officer, I think the NSA wants it, to breach buried cables and stuff. Well, hope you catch those ATM thieves!"
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Friday 21st March 2014 20:33 GMT John Smith 19
Oh Noess
""What, this burrowing autonomous drone with cutting attachments that can bore through reinforced concrete and pick up stuff? Built it for a military contract, but honestly officer, I think the NSA wants it, to breach buried cables and stuff. Well, hope you catch those ATM thieves!""
The last thing you need to give DARPA.
Ideas.
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Friday 21st March 2014 09:04 GMT Anonymous Coward
Not for the first time...
There was also an occurrence of this in 2012 (I think) where a 100 ft tunnel was dug to break into a video store and about £10000 was nicked. GMP didn't manage to track them down either and have suggested it might be the same gang.
So fellow Mancunians, keep your eyes open for blokes walking about and shuffling their feet just like in the great escape!
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Monday 24th March 2014 09:07 GMT Robert Carnegie
Re: Precedent and clue
Jeremy Brett was in that one on ITV3 the other week. I didn't recognise the red-headed victim, but Scottish actor Richard Wilson played the role of "The League", whose name I've also forgotten. And it was explicitly organised by Professor Moriarty, unlike anything in the canon except for "The Final Problem", which ought to be next week, I suppose. Richard Wilson wasn't Moriarty, he was very scared of Moriarty. That was for a bank vault full of gold. I don't think Moriarty would have approved the operation in 2014.
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Friday 21st March 2014 17:33 GMT Rick Brasche
86K of British money, on site, for an ATM, in a department store? That's a whole lot of $USTP!
Most ATM's are filled with less than 5K (US) and if more is needed, it is delivered from the bank the morning it is loaded.
Do they have 16 fully stocked ATM's in one store?
Something smells dirty to me.....
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Friday 21st March 2014 21:22 GMT Anonymous Coward
Quite impressive
A 15m tunnel that looks like about 1m wide and about 1.5m tall, that's about 30 cubic metres of material, maybe 40 or 50 tonnes (depending on composition of spoil and moisture content), upwards of 10-11 skips to get rid of this.
Its not an insignificant amount of spoil to loose - doesn't look like its been dumped on the waste ground by filling bags in the bottoms of their trousers either.
And as Rick says above, 82k of GBP sounds like a hell of a lot for one cash machine to have in one go, I'd have thought about 8-9k would be more normal.
Unless of course they just cut a hole in the bottom and waited to catch it as it was filled up over a few days...
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
