European Central Bank in Franfurt, Germany - Writers Forum

Jusso · 04-25-2008, 02:57 PM

Im writing a Ocean's 11/12/13 esque series and I thought of a perfect target. The ECB in Frankfurt. I have done my research and in 2007 they produced 190,000,000 €500 bank notes alone not counting the other types. The value of 190,000,000 €500 bank notes is €95,000,000 ($148,144,363.56 ). The bank has a total reserve of €526 billion.

The location of the bank is at 50°06′34″N 8°40′26″E / 50.1095, 8.6740 which is according to my calculations and research places it at the Frankfurt Eurozone building which is being used until completion of bank headquaters that will be located near the Großmarkthalle (the wholesale market of Frankfurt) and schedules completion of the building is around 2011. (October 08 is the start of the project).

Basically its in the worst position possible for a theft. Its close to the city precinct and barracks. The "Main" river which runs through Germany is right next to it also. And considering it has state of the art security systems, and whatever else you would want to add it would be impossible to get in. All visitors must check in at the front desk, register, then proceed to a security check where they will be given a orange card that says they are a visitor. Anyone without those cards will be arrested if not shot. Counterfeiting one of those cards that the employees wear also including the visitor card would be extremely difficult. Visitors can only stay 30-60 minutes tops inside the building. No tours are given ever.

The location of the banknotes according to some photos that I have uncovered are in a storage facility. Coins may be in a seperate facility. That could also be a decoy with fake money. The banknotes appear to be in boxes which I would guess contain around 10,000 per crate. I will calculate more on that later. In order to convert all of the money which just to be safe would be done slowly you would need a place in a smaller country. My friends welcome to the small land-locked enclave in the Apennine Mountains, home to the worlds oldest republic, San Marino. They use the euro and are a part of Italy. Who would have ever guessed that place haha? With a population of 29,615 as of July 07 its pretty small. Great for obscurity and privacy. Plus if they do come after you the mountain range is a great place to hide out.

Now finally here is my question. If you had a crew of highly trained professionals with a budget of around 10-20 million total and a large time frame to work with. How would you steal 95 million euros from the bank without anyone knowing? It doesn't have to be reallistic. No smash and grab, I severly doubt a simple Susan B. Anthony or Reverse Big store would work. It would take a lot of planning, perfect execution and discipline. Give me your thoughts.

Mike C · 04-25-2008, 04:05 PM

If I had 20 million Euros I wouldn't bother robbing banks.

Jusso · 04-25-2008, 04:16 PM

The total amount of every single resource pulled that the group has is around 20 million. And the reasons why they steal things are that they don't enjoy there old jobs or daily life, they are all opportunists, its a job to them.

Sam Winchester · 04-25-2008, 04:35 PM

Yeah, but if they can pull twenty million dollars to fund this, why bother taking the risk? They're already rich. No matter how skillful they are, if they keep pushing their luck, they're eventually going to be caught.

You would need people on the inside, forgers to make you a fake admittance card, specialists to disable the security systems, and ex-military guys to provide backup against the armed guards. Basically you're talking about one of the hardest bank robberies ever.

Sam.

Jusso · 04-25-2008, 04:44 PM

Its supposed to be the hardest bank robbery ever. I have some general ideas about how they could pull it off. And on the arguement about money, yes they have plenty of it but they are not satisfied with just a couple million or so. And its not always about the money. They are rebels and they love doing what they do best. Once they got those first cold chills down their spines they couldn't resist the temptation.

Mike C · 04-25-2008, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jusso

How would you steal 95 million euros from the bank without anyone knowing?

Bullshit aside, I kind of think the author takes on the responsibility of coming up with the story when he decides to write. Unless you want to discuss my fee, in which case I'll tell you everything.

Jusso · 04-25-2008, 05:14 PM

I don't exactly understand what you mean by "fee" but here is one of my ideas.

Scenario A: The bank will have to transport the marks (target banknotes) to the new site by armored truck. They get 2-3 guys inside the company that is contracted to transport the money and will use fake identities. After several months if not a year or two when the time comes if the inside guys aren't chosen for the job then something will happen to two or three of the other drivers such as a severe stomach virus, food poisoning, or something along that line. The inside guys will use some of the techniques that a con man would use on a street. Also they could do a modified "Boesky" or a "Doppler / Lookie-Loo" where one of the thieves would impersonate a high level official of the contractor company and say that they need to start thinking about the "future" and let the two insiders to drive the truck.

Now here is the tricky part. They could either pull a "Irwin Allen" or a modified "Ella Fitzgerald" to force the maintence crew of the tunnel to put a certain countermeasure that would actually cause a disaster. Or they could get rent a tunneling machine under the cover of a countermeasure installation procedure or something like that and simulate a small earthquake that would cave in a calculated part of the tunnel. The problem though is that the marked trucks would have to be together beacuse they are going to be sealed off by fallen debris and rocks. The trucks are emptied and put into two other trucks while counterfeit banknotes are put in the other two with the drivers unharmed. The real money would be transported to a freighter that is set to travel to Naples before continuing to a location. Once at Naples (or wherever) and after evading customs the money will be be mixed with two identical bags containing blank banknotes. A marked bag + a fake bag with the other combination heading to the same destination at a later time. To ensure that not all the money will be captured (which wont happen.)

Now the destination is a house in San Marino nestled between the Apennine Mountain range. In order to pass across the border they will have to simulate road damage and impersonate a road construction crew that will pass across the border and begin work. Once at the target house the money will be divided and slowly converted using the local banks.

I have other ideas and plans that I will layout later.

Mike C · 04-26-2008, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jusso

I don't exactly understand what you mean by "fee" but here is one of my ideas.

I mean if you're asking me how to do it, I'll tell you - for a fee. Fixed, or a percentage on return.

Otherwise, as I said, you should write your own story based on your own ideas.

Olly Buckle · 04-26-2008, 02:51 AM

If you know how to do it Mike how about we just go halves on the take?

I don't think you need to rationalise them continuing to work like that, I never heard of a rich person who retired because they felt they had enough, mostly you need to be greedy to get rich in the first place.

Jusso · 04-26-2008, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike C

I mean if you're asking me how to do it, I'll tell you - for a fee. Fixed, or a percentage on return.

Otherwise, as I said, you should write your own story based on your own ideas.

There is no way in hell I am going to pay you to give me a idea. Are you poor or just desperate?

Sam Winchester · 04-26-2008, 05:14 PM

Have you ever heard of the word "sarcasm," Jusso? Mike's taking the mick.

Sam.