Police Foil Bank Robber's Scuba Getaway

[Jacks Complete]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=817&ncid=757&e=10&u=/ap/20040416/ap_on_fe_st/scuba_heist

No-one's posted this, so I though I would.

A case of "Close, but no cigar"!
----
Strange News - AP
Police Foil Bank Robber's Scuba Getaway
Fri Apr 16, 4:19 PM ET

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A bank robber wearing a wetsuit under his clothes tried to make a scuba-diving getaway but was tackled by police before he reached the water, authorities say.

Police subdued the man Thursday on the shore of Budd Inlet after a car chase, a crash and a sweaty quarter-mile dash through the woods, during which he tried to sprint into the water while lugging his diving gear and a backpack filled with the stolen cash, Sgt. Ray Holmes said.

Charles E. Coma, 35, was jailed on suspicion of robbery.

Police said Coma held up a bank Thursday with an assault rifle and fled with an undisclosed amount of money, leading police on a two-mile car chase. After crashing into a tree, he got out and ran, wearing a weight belt with an air tank and regulator slung over his shoulder, police said.

Coma managed to get close enough to toss the backpack into the water before officers tackled him on the shore and used a stun gun to halt him, Holmes said. The money was recovered.

Police found a pair of fins inside the car.

He had gone into the bank with a wetsuit under an overcoat or a sweatsuit, police said.

[tom haggen]

One of my most favorite fictional robbery scenes uses a combonation of some scuba gear, A dummy safe and a speed boat, and expert safe cracker, some nitropaint, and schematics of the target. It was from the movie the Italian Job.

[PsYcHo]

I find it hard to see how this guy would have escaped using scuba gear described in the article. Being a qualified scuba diver, i know that when using open circuit scuba diving equipment, the equipment discribed in the article, the police would have been able to follow his bubbles on the surface and get him when he surfaces. However, he could have escaped using a rebreather. A rebreather recycles the air through a scrubber then enrichs it with oxygen. Its a totally closed circuit, giving off no bubbles, thus allowing the guy to escape once underwater.

[Jacks Complete]

PsYcHo,
you are right. Of course, this guy didn't come close to thinking that far ahead, since he didn't even make it to the water!

Wonder where he got Tazered, since wet suits don't conduct?

[Skean Dhu]

when you put 300-500kV through them obviously they do.Also it might not have been a full wetsuit it could have been the ones that have short sleeve arms and legs. If I had planned this I would have stashed the diving gear at a familiar, easily accesable place(low bridge/causeway) and driven the car either into the water, or close enough I could hop out and jump in. but alas he didn't and now is being pimped out by his local/state government. I like the infiltration scene depicted in The Rock. but since he's robbing a bank I'm guessing he didn't have enough money for those underwater scooter things.

[Jacks Complete]

I would have driven straight into the water, off a bridge, and trusted that the seatbelt would stop my face meeting the car! Then, under cover of the water rushing in, and the air rushing out, I would have sat there till everything was calm, and the cops had gone off to call for back-up, then swam away. None of this running through the woods like a divy for me! I would have used a rebreather, too, except from memory they are really expensive, and my diving skills are not that great - I should get lessons!

Would it set off the terrorist alert? "Hi, I want to learn to dive, but don't bother with the getting into the water bit." seems very close to "Teach me to fly, but no landings."!

[nbk2000]

So close, yet so stupid! :p

[Small Town]

IMHO it could have been a great escape if properly thought out, ofcourse the crim probably didn't plan on crashing his car into a tree, or trying to outrun the cops while carrying an oxygen tank and weight belt. The more i think about this the better it sounds, all you have to do, after the trouble of the initial robbery and escape ofcourse, is drive into the water. A sportsbike would make the getaway faster, if a little more difficult trying to balance the tanks on your back, but as said this could be overcome by stashing them somewhere, perhaps even under your intended crash site, although margin for error is always welcome, which wouldn't be happening with either the bike OR underwater stash.

What Im trying to say is this could have been done so much better, and if your going to rob a bank why in the hell wouldn't you be equiped the most suitable equipment available?

[John Ashcroft]

Because you don't have the money for it and are impatient...

[nbk2000]

Thus we see the orgins of the RTPB concerning proper investment and planning.


Because you don't have the money for it and are impatient...


People usually rob banks because they're poor, and poor people can be desperate, and desperate people are usually impatient people, and impatience equals laziness, stupidity, and inevitable failure.

You don't plan on a scuba escape miles from the scene, as that gives pigs too much time to chase you. You use scuba only for crimes within a block or two of water, preferably on the water, like a riverboat casino or waterfront business.

Rebreathers are overkill, as the pigs can't follow the bubbles unless they've got a boat, which they're not going to have on the spot when they're not expecting you to drive off a bridge into the water. They won't know you did it on purpose, they'll simply think you crashed and drowned. :)

By the time "rescue" :rolleyes: divers show up, you're long gone, presumably thrown clear of the vehicle and drifted off, dead, into the banks. By the time they figure it out, you're long gone. Especially if you have on of those nifty electric underwater scooters to pull you along. :D

[streety]

If you want to leave your gear in the water and then hope you can 'crash' less than a breath away it might be an idea to take one of those miniature tanks with you. They look a bit like an aerosol can with the mouth piece in the top. They only give you a minute or so but it reduces the risks and the accuracy needed.

Crash your car or bike into the water, breathe off this emergency supply for the minute or so it takes you to reach your main gear and sort it all out and then switch to your main supply and swim off into the distance.

[the Jackal]

I have only been scuba diving on a few occasions but i figure you can only reasonably swim a short distance underwater hauling all that gear. even with a motorized underwater craft (very expensive) you can only go so far. i mention this because there is little point to going underwater and swimming a few km and then coming up again. you are very slow when underwater comared to driving or using some other type of transportation. this gives the police a good amount of time to setup some sort of shore patrols. better to wear a disguise under your clothes, instead of a freaking wet suit, and then after you rob the bank quickly change out of your over clothes in a secluded area. escape via mass transit where you can blend in.

overall i think this guy just added a lot of un-necessary complication to his plan.

[Bert]

overall i think this guy just added a lot of un-necessary complication to his plan.

Ha ha, Aquaman allways WAS the LAMEST superhero! (http://www.seanbaby.com/superfriends/aquaman.htm)

[Jacks Complete]

Ha ha, Aquaman allways WAS the LAMEST superhero! (http://www.seanbaby.com/superfriends/aquaman.htm)
ROFL. I damned near wet myself watching some of those clips and reading those comments... Seanbaby is a hero! :D

[streety]

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FALLEN_HERO?SITE=APWEB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Well at least this guy made it into the water.