Stockholm cash depot hit by helicopter heist

Published: 23 Sep 09 07:48 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/22234/20090923/

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Robbers used a helicopter to carry out a spectacular theft at a cash depot south of Stockholm early Wednesday morning.

Several powerful explosions were heard in the early hours on Wednesday coming from the G4S security company’s facilities in Västberga, south of Stockholm. Among other things, the building houses a cash depot.

Police received a call about the incident at 5.19am.

The chief of police for the southern district in Stockholm, Ulrika Lönngren, who has her office in Västberga, reported hearing several loud explosions and a helicopter hovering above the depot.

The helicopter later left the area and headed north, said Lönngren.

“The helicopter landed on the roof. Then they entered the building by breaking some windows. Next, several explosions were heard from within the building, and then they were seen loading things into the helicopter and lifting off,” she told the TT news agency.

The entire area surrounding the G4S facility has been cordoned off and police have set up a command centre at a nearby petrol station, where a large number of officers, police dogs, and emergency vehicles have gathered.

An officer on the scene told TT that the robbers rappelled down from the helicopter as it hovered above the roof and then entered the building using sledgehammers or something similar to break through the roof.

Caltraps - spikes spread across the road to burst car tyres - had been placed near the facility in an attempt to complicate efforts by police to approach the scene.

According to the southern district police, Sweden’s National Task Force, a paramilitary tactical unit within the National Criminal Investigation Department (Rikskriminalpolisen) is involved in the investigation.

The entire operation lasted about 20 minutes, but it remains unclear if the robbers made off with anything, police spokesperson Björn Engström said.

Police helicopters located on nearby Värmdö were unable to be used in response to the robbery, prompting suspicions that they had been sabotaged.

But Engström said that the helicopters hadn’t been damaged. Rather, they found a bag marked "bomb" near the helicopters forcing officers to inspect the bags and the helicopters before attempting to take off, the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper reports.

Police have confirmed the helicopter used in the heist, a Bell 206 Jet Ranger, was stolen overnight from a helicopter hangar near Norrtälje north of Stockholm.

Later Wednesday morning the helicopter was found near Arninge about 30 kilometres north of the crime scene.

According to Lönngren, there were between 10 and 20 employees working in the cash depot at the time of the heist, many of whom were involved in counting money. They are now being interviewed by police.

The manager of the depot, Roy Gierde, told the Aftonbladet newspaper that there is a high likelihood the robbers were caught on film.

"We have cameras everywhere," he told the newspaper.

G4S is a security and cash handling company with operations in over 110 countries and 530,000 employees worldwide.

The company employs about 1,000 people in Sweden, where it handles large amounts of cash for businesses and banks.

The Stockholm-area depot holds cash for several banks and shops in and around the Swedish capital.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

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08:54 September 23, 2009 by Tangobit
what the f**** is going on in Stockholm....
09:04 September 23, 2009 by Luckystrike
C'mon Tangobit, this was a classy heist, not a liquor store kind robbery. Stockholm should be proud!

I live 100m from this garage, and I still missed all the action...damn!

I think whoever has the balls to pull off a heist of this kind, and manages a successful getaway, deserves the loot!
09:05 September 23, 2009 by this_aint_sparta
Sounds more like a drill or an exercise.

Foreigners cant find the resources for this and the locals cant find the balls :-)

or may be the shooting of the climax scene of Ocean 14, or the 5th part of Bourn identity may be.
09:37 September 23, 2009 by George C
Hee hee .... Thieves get away by helicpter and police set up a road block ...

Nice one ... its like a scene from a movie ... "Mission Impossible"
09:56 September 23, 2009 by this_aint_sparta
@Luckystrike

yeah he deserves the loot but the only punishable act done is to give stress to swedish security forces early morning for which they will be dealt with iron hands and the swedish brutal justice system might punish them for 20 hours of community service with continious career counciling. :-))

After the incident swedish SWAT has tightened the security in all tunnelbana stations and all the E4 exits. 2000 more security personals have arrived from Denmark to patrol the south of Stockholm.
10:20 September 23, 2009 by Seltue12
Whoa..this is like a scene from friction movie.
10:43 September 23, 2009 by kirikiththa
May be some polish connection behind this
10:46 September 23, 2009 by Bra_billie_boy
Wow!! This is so James Bond!

The helicopter has now been found abandoned in Arninge
10:52 September 23, 2009 by Luckystrike
"The manager of the depot, Roy Gierde, told the Aftonbladet newspaper that there is a high likelihood the robbers were caught on film."

"We have cameras everywhere," he told the newspaper.

I'm putting 100 kronor on the table that they were desguised or wearing balaclavas....That's the first thing I would think of, at least before jacking a Heli!
10:59 September 23, 2009 by karex
This doesn't seem like your every-day heist. Looks more like organized crime. I would suspect that the perpetrators not only are not Swedish, but perhaps don't even live here either.
11:06 September 23, 2009 by zeero
OK, I can see the movie....:-) well done job.
11:24 September 23, 2009 by Bra_billie_boy
@karex: I don't feel like agreeing. The robbers might as well be some trained police men who have gone bad or some other people who have access to police resources.

The ultimate story would be, some policemen conspiring together, then pulling this stunt, leaving behind the helicopter, escaping without a trace and then showing up in their offices a bit late and joining their colleagues in a search for the robbers :P That would be a super cool stunt!
11:43 September 23, 2009 by hilt_m
wow that doesn't happen every day
11:57 September 23, 2009 by bwana
my guess is that this most likely was carried out by Swedish ex military (most likely non commissioned officers and privates).

Due to the conscription system, there are a lot of people in Sweden who would be able to pull this off.

I remember reading about a few Swedish heists, realising that the perpetrators where all trained at my regiment (they were not in my platoon though).
12:25 September 23, 2009 by Tennin
Sounds like these people did their homework.
12:36 September 23, 2009 by zedtyi
Ho, ho ho, Go go go Gudget wauzaz

Jean Claudy Van daim

Throw mama from the train

Swedish are danger skelems

Next time Gudget, next time
12:38 September 23, 2009 by rehan2132
I believe that it cant be done without the involvement from the internal staff.
13:17 September 23, 2009 by Lostaussie
One has to wonder how they will dispose of such a large amount of Swedish cash?
14:59 September 23, 2009 by Iago
kirikiththa,

Polish connection? Care to elaborate? Formoza?
15:00 September 23, 2009 by crazy_leo
@Lostaussie - Exactly my thoughts :)
17:02 September 23, 2009 by Akhtar Rasool
Hi all! I have another guess and it is based what is happening all over the so called civilized world. Usually this kind of robberies are not possible for the general public criminals. Also there are no companies which provide the wonderful services and equipments to do such crimes. Ofcourse usually govenments officials, secret agencies, military or police personals are found to be involved in such cases and it will click to our minds if we go back and see the major mishaps in the world. No body can judge if someone is too bad from his inside. Just the point to see is how much trained these robbers are.

Anyway back to the point which I guessed is, perhaps some such government officials who are against the hiring of foreigners in the swedish police department can be the part of this wonderful movie scene to answer those government officials who are in fovour of hiring foreigners although in uk, canada and america, the foreigners' performance in police is amiable.

I guessed like this because these days I have heard somthing hiring the foreigners in police department because most of them dont drink and is a key thing for the success of police personals suggested by some officials.

However, the thing to be noted is, see how this scene of movie will go on by the involvment of secuity personals, investigation teams mm because this will make us guess the central idea of this movie scene.

In the end, i would say we should always spread words of goodness because the excessiveness of good words will ultimately overcome the bad words and ofcourse the bad thinkings and bad people.

I like to see comments about my guess, have nice time, tack
19:23 September 23, 2009 by contactmagic
Akhtar Rasool - what a load of balony! There's always that 1% chance that you are right. But truly, your comment just seems to be a psychological outlet from built-up feelings of confusion.
19:47 September 23, 2009 by Texrusso
How I wish this robbers can pull similar stunt in Finland to teach those RACIST FINNISH Police a lesson, who spend their whole life and days chassing cheap immigration cases instead the main problems the befalls society.
23:44 September 23, 2009 by BCR
This is so cool. If these guys get caught, I hope they make some money with a movie or book deal, because to be frank, they earned it.

Awesome!
10:20 September 24, 2009 by izbz
Can't wait to watch this story in the movie!!!! Hope the movie company will buy the rights to do that.

Daring, cool heist! I am sure even the robbers get caught, they will still make tons of money from book and movie rights. Anyway Swedish jails are hotels compare to Asian Jails. Sentence are too light, just like going for a semester!

Happy holiday to the robbers if the get caught!
18:17 September 24, 2009 by Tutu
Where are friends Pauli and DreEswd. the thieves must be immigrants
18:40 September 24, 2009 by sherkovic
IF that would have happened in USA ... they would have shot down the helicopter; or if not..the next day newspapers heading would have been 'Al-qaida master minded bank robbery'
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