h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lunchtime today was enlivened by a good old-fashioned bank robbery. I missed the main event by a few minutes but was in time to see the police cordon off part of the area. There were banknotes strewn about where the idiot had dumped them while trying to escape; all useless, of course, being covered with that indelible red security dye.

Police were still swarming around the area four hours later, checking every bus leaving in case there was someone splattered with dye going for a ride. Presumably they were keeping an eye on car traffic too.

The award for the best comment goes to my boss. 'A bank robbery?', she said. 'That is *so* 1980s.' I think she has a point. Everyone's so worried, agitated and generally all-of-a-doodah about identity theft, online fraud and phishing, people have forgotten about RL violence as an actual threat.

How "exciting". It's true, we don't hear of many old-fashioned bank robberies around here any more, either, though every so often someone will still knock one off.

Hopefully none of the staff or customers of the bank were injured during the robbery?

You obviously don't have enough P addicts in Oz. They seem to be doing the hold-ups in NZ these days (from what I've heard, as it's all up north). I think they do service stations, although there are quite a few run of the mill bank robbers here too. We must be behind the times as usual

There were some bank robberies here a few years ago, where they ripped ATM machines out of the wall with a truck

What's a P addict? Dearie me, showing my age here, can't keep up with all the trendy new drugs!

The closest thing we came to that here in dear old Angoulême is a couple of years back, some loony ran into Galerie Lafayette (a small department store) with a toy pistol & ordered the shop assistant to give him a map of Charente.

Presumably a tourist driven frantic with the slow pace of life round here, trying to escape...

zdt

I thought all banks were turned into wine bars.. *hic*

Terri, P is methamphetamine. Probably called something different in Europe. Nasty, nasty drug, makes people violent and stupid.

Hmm; sounds not a good idea, since many people are fairly violent & stupid to begin with.

The street violence lately is just sickening; kids get stabbed & shot every week in UK, seems like anyone who tries to intervene is highly at risk of being murdered.

zdt

Yesterday's culprits are still on the loose, apparently, splattered with dye though they may be.

Kea, I've never heard meth called 'P' before. Any idea where the term comes from?

Oh, and nobody got hurt in the robbery. A few threats were made but apparently no actual weapon was produced at any point. Amateurs, basically, and not alert enough to know about the dye-bombs banks include with stolen cash.

I think P is short for pure meth or maybe pure amphetamine - is methamphetamine a purer form of amphetamine? Something like that. It's probably a NZ name, as we seem to have a special affinity for methamphetamine addiction.

I didnt know about dye bombs either How do they work?

I'm not sure exactly how dye bombs work, but I assume they're attached to the bundle of cash given to the robber. This one burst about 20 metres from the bank; I don't know if that's done by a timer or an electronic signal or if the bomb just ruptures after being shaken about. However it happens, the dye makes the banknotes unusable.

I note there's still a redddish stain on the terrazzo floor of the shopping mall, even after a lot of scrubbing. It's remarkably effective stuff, that dye.

Awww now that is cool and you were nearly there!

I watched "Dog Day Afternoon" recently and decided now is a great time to watch loads of bank robber films.

I'm trying to get thinner so naturally I've been watching lots of films about food.

What anoys me about the bank robbery thing is that, if I had to be near one, it couldn't be more glamorous. It was only a couple of pimply scabrous oiks who had no idea how to make a proper job of it...