Early Morning Bank Robbery in San José
Three men, heavily armed, stormed the branch of the Banco Crédito
Agrícola de Cartago (BCAC) located across from the court house in San
José and made away with ¢12 million colones (us$25.500 dollars) in an
early morning bank heist.
This time there were deaths or hostages like the failed bank robbery of
the Banco Nacional branch in Monteverde last week.
According to police, three men waited patiently in the early hours of
yesterday morning when at 6:30am they took advantage of the lack
security on the changing of the guard rotation.
Using tear gas and they overtook the guards and waited for the branch
manager to arrive, who was taken by surprise and forced to open the bank
vault. Apparently the bank did not use a timed vault system.
The three men then fled in a the bank manager's automobile but abandoned
it a short distance from the bank when they realized the automobile had
a tracking device and fled on foot.
Police are still searching for the three men.
The Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) is looking in the
possibility that the bank robbers may have had some "inside" help,
seeing it strange as to how the three men could easily overpower the
guards, knew exactly the time of the guard rotation on when the bank
manager would be arriving.
The OIJ agents got the feeling of something strang is going on with this
robbery after completing the initial interviews of the guards. An OIJ
source revealed to the press that the guards offered contradictory
statements to investigators. In addition, the bank alarm was never set
off and no call was made to 911.
Police say the action was well planned and the group knew that the bank
did not have video surveillance and nor did they take the cash that was
set aside for robberies, money that contained a dye mark system that
would be visible once it left the bank.
The Ministerio de Seguridad Pública and the Organismo de Investigación
Judicial (OIJ), along with Fuerza Pública chief, Walter Navarro, are
denying that a "bank alert" exists in the country. Aside from the
robbery yesterday morning and that in Monteverde last week, officials
are denying are other reports of any other bank robberies.
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