A story for the dreamers. We gave you the RM800,000 (US$215,000) ATM robbers, whose moment of glory quickly ended with their arrest the following day.
Now, we bring you “floor plan man,” a gentleman who waltzed into a Damansara Heights bank September 8, wearing shorts, slippers, and a backpack, while carrying a floor plan of the bank as his “official document.”
The Sun reports that within 20 minutes, he was walking out with RM600,000 (US$143,000) of the bank’s safe money.
His plan was simple. Entering the bank at 12:30pm, he was calm and confident, and told employees he was there to service the fire extinguishers. He asked to be allowed into a restricted area, showing them a piece of paper that appeared to be a floor plan of the bank.
The manager was called, and asked the man for identification. Unable to produce anything more than the floor plan, the manager refused to allow him entry, and left promptly for lunch.
However, the man did not leave the bank. CCTV cameras showed him loitering around the branch, and later sneaking through a door to behind the bank’s counter. Cameras also showed him casually chatting with staff, including the chief cashier.
Here he pretended to check extinguishers, all the while creeping closer to the bank’s safe room, accessible only to the bank’s manager and chief cashier. When the chief cashier walked into the room, the thief used a magnet to prevent the latch from automatically locking.
When the cashier left, the man calmly went into the room, stuffed wads of cash totaling over RM600,000 into his backpack, and cool as ever, walked out of the bank.
He even stopped to chat to the security guard, telling him that his coworkers who were supposed to assist him hadn’t showed, and he needed to go fetch them.
At 2:30pm, the bank manager returned from what one can only refer to as a rather leisurely lunch, and asked his employees what happened to the fire extinguisher technician. When staff said that he had suddenly left, the manager became suspicious and immediately went to check the vault. He found that RM600,000 was missing.
Police were called, and the manager was taken in for two days of questioning regarding the suspicious circumstances. He was later released, after police could not tie him to the heist. On Sunday, the chief cashier was arrested, but she too was later released.
The bank has since suspended both senior staff members.
Investigators learned that prior to coming to the bank, the man had attempted to pull a similar stunt at an office, claiming to be an air-conditioning technician.
He was denied entry by suspicious employees. He left, and headed to the bank.
Police, news editors, and most probably anyone reading this, are shocked at the sheer negligence of bank staff for letting a man with no official documents walk around restricted bank areas unchecked.
Let’s face it, with no ID, wearing shorts, slippers and a casual short-sleeve shirt, you won’t even be allowed into Zouk. Banks, y’all need a door policy.
He’s still at large, wanted by police, and probably spending that paper.
And if you’re wondering why this is just being reported 10 days after the fact, the whole incident seems to have been kept quiet until now — when police realized they were going to need the public’s help to track down their man.
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