Bank robberies aren’t always big news; there are too many for every one to make headlines. According to the FBI, there were over 4,000 bank robberies in 2014 alone. Most involved masked men (or women) going up to tellers and demanding money…nothing out of the ordinary. However, some robberies really stand out. One example is the Banco Central Burglary in Fortaleza, Brazil; it involved months of deep tunneling and much of the money was never recovered. In total, over $70,000,000 was stolen. New Jersey doesn’t have anything at that level, but we do have some pretty crazy bank “robberies” in the Garden State.

It all began at a PNC Bank on Thanksgiving Day.
Wikipedia/AgnosticPreachersKid
On November 27, 2008, around 8:40 pm, an alarm went off at the PNC Bank on routes 518 and 601 in Montgomery Township. Police responded to the scene and saw what they believed to be at least one shadowy suspect through the limited visibility of drawn blinds. (The PNC Bank pictured is in Washington DC.)
Then, the SWAT teams had to be called in.
Flickr/Oregon Department Of Transportation
The police attempted to communicate with the suspect through phone calls and a bull horn, but received no response. SWAT teams were called in and nearby apartment buildings were evacuated. After over an hour (and with some reports saying the "standoff" lasted up to three hours), SWAT teams entered the building to find...

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A life size cardboard cutout... Awkward.
Flickr/Gage Skidmore
The only "person" inside the bank was a life size cardboard cutout, used for advertising purposes. The over 30 officers from three towns who responded must not have been thrilled about this Thanksgiving day "heist."
That's nuts, right? But maybe it isn't as nuts as the real life robbery story I'm about to tell you now.
Wikipedia/Jared Kofsky/PlaceNJ.com
Mendham Borough is a safe, lovely place to live but in 1960, something was amiss - two men were planning a robbery. Since this was a small town, they stood out like sore thumbs. Police chief Earl Moore noticed the men casing the Morris County Savings Bank on a snowy spring day. Within a few days, he gathered evidence that these men were planning a heist. Within months, he told the whole town about it.

As time passed, townspeople kept tabs on the would-be robbers. They would visit the bank and try to get jobs in the area, all while being closely watched. Finally, in October 1961, the thieves enacted their plan. A bomb threat was called into the local schools in order to distract local law enforcement but the police were not fooled. The next day, the bank manager noticed the men driving slowly around the bank and alerted police. After driving around the bank several times, the men entered and attempted their robbery. Of course, they were arrested.

We sure have had some strange bank robberies here in New Jersey, haven’t we? Can you think of one that stands out? We’ve also had some pretty horrific killers in the Garden State (including mafia hitmen and one of the most prolific serial killers in the world). To learn more about their crimes, click here.

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