The World's most Ingenious Thief
wired.com
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I am glad to see people on this thread who can differentiate between the morality of what he did and the actual skill, balls, and sheer luck this guy had.
While I do not condone or advocate stealing from banks or anyone, well, the damn banks do not seem to have a problem with stealing from clients . . . where I live, the banks charge the local currency equivalent of FIVE US DOLLARS per deposit, even small deposits . . . I had to order a couple of PC parts a few weeks ago, and experienced it for myself . . . stood in line for 30 minutes (out of 8 teller windows, only 4 were manned, and this is in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday) and paid that much to deposit the local currency equivalent of 15 US . . . this is in a country where minimum wage is like $2 US per hour folks . . . someone has to be a straight sheep to criticize a person who steals from banks while not saying the same about the banks themselves . . .
And this is stealing? It happens against your will, without your consent?
[[[YAWN]]]
Defending banks in this day and age denotes a lack of brains AND moral fiber
[[[YAWN]]]That is poverty. $5 bank fees is not. Get a new bank or make fewer deposits.
Those are daily scenes in this (The Republic of Colombia) country
How dare you
Go F yourself
But what do I know ... I'm just an Australian who's been living in Central America in countries much poorer than Colombia... but at least the people a little north of you are nicer. : )
Calling yourself a hacker while doing .net and flash?
You little PUSSY
You little BITCH
How dare you, sitting in your gluttonous SWINE of a country, you spoiled little swine
It'd be a happy ending to the story if the guy ended up as a hard-working security consultant trying to stop the bad guys, but based on how he's depicted in this article - a patient, methodical crook with a knack for manipulation - he could easily just be waiting patiently until he can go back to what he was doing before. If he actually does work as a security consultant for banks, that would be an easy way to stay in the loop on new security improvements and procedures.
Hopefully law enforcement keeps a close eye on him.
He is not mafia type guy. How long do you think it would take for him to start being the target for guys that hurt people that would want to use such skill as his?
He's a clever guy, don't you think he might be asking himself similar questions?
Of course bits of it must be true, the bits with solid corroborating evidence, but I wonder if the truth is quite so cool and impressive?
All the article really mentions on tape is him going around with a bunch of people emptying ATMs. Now, as far as positions in the criminal underworld go, being the ATM guy is about as low level and grunt workish as you can get, hardly the sort of work you'd expect a criminal mastermind to be doing himself!
Of course neither of us know so this is just idle speculation, I just think these things should be taken with a grain of salt since all the people involved (cops, journalists and the guy himself) have a vested interest in making it sound cooler and more impressive.
Most of the criminals they profile are like Blanchard - they steal a lot of money and get away with it for a long time. About half they criminals they profile never even get caught. It is a really good show, I highly recommend it.
One thing I learned from the show: Crime pays. As long as you're not using weapons to steal the goods, you'll very rarely get more than a few more years in prison, even if you're stealing hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.
This is a guy that needs to stay in jail.
Two years in jail for all that! I know of people who have participated in the sale of $10,000 US worth of Cocaine (a pittance, all things considered) and have gotten life sentences.
You know what I like about this guy? that he did not prey on the weak. He preyed on those bigger and stronger than him.
Ah, to think that he could have rented that van under another name, and taken steps to make sure there were no prints left anywhere, which is actually very easy to do . . . this goes to show, no one, not even someone like that, can be a one man Army . . .
Oh please with the righteous Robin Hood ethics. First, they were not stronger than him, that how he got in. Second, just because you're a bank, it doesn't mean having hundreds of thousands stolen doesn't impact anyone, or is somehow just, for that matter. Third, what do you call framing the Brink-guy for smoke-screen? Fourth, or withdrawing from thousands of pirated credit- and debit cards? Fifth, or stealing a national treasure from the people of Austria, only to stick it in a cellar, to be lost?
Even though he didn't exploit personal weaknesses in the same way a drug-dealer does, he did indeed inflict harm on actual people.
One one side what he does is obviously wrong. On the other side what fantastic skills.
With regards to the people of Austria I am pretty sure that the star wasn't made without exploiting other people.
Things like these are not so black and white.
That story is a film worthy.
What's a dilemma is that we only hear about these people when they apply their skills to evil. If he'd done a career in bank security, it's very likely we'd never have heard a word about what he did.
> I am pretty sure that the star wasn't made without exploiting other people
Sure, that's why it belongs to, and should belong to, the austrian people.
> That story is a film worthy.
Catch me if You Can II: The Austrian Job :)
It's a dilemma in the same sense that rain on your wedding day is ironic. You've just written Ms. Morissette's comeback single.
He is not just a criminal who do what he do because he have no choice. He could have been doing "good" and still be highly successful.
It's not just the skills it's the guts to do what he do. To live a life that is almost crazier than any story you can think off.
In some ways he is an artist.
With regards to the Austrian people you are missing the point. That star is not just made through hard work from the Austrian people. I am pretty sure that diamond didn't come from Austria although I could be wrong of course.
It just seemed like a really weird contrast, smart enough to plan and execute flawless robberies and escapes repeatedly, yet so stupid in that aspect. If he watched any crime serials or movies he'd probably have been unstoppable.
I think this was the safest way out of criminal lifestyle that could probably lead him to premature death.
It worked out great for him. Just selling movie rights would earn him loads of cash. Not to mention being most renown bank security consultant in the world.
They were stronger than him in the sense that they had more resources than he did. That they failed to utilize those in an efficient manner is another matter altogether.
Nor did I say that stealing from a bank is just, or that it did not impact anyone.
Framing the brinks guy? Was the man charged or convicted? No. Therefore, no frame.
Withdrawing from thousands of cards, thereby circumventing the security of financial institutions (who have billions available to them) qualifies as taking on stronger forces.
Stealing that jewel is another instance of that.
Nor did I say that he inflicted no harm on anyone.
Please, quote me on what I wrote, not what you fantasized and imagined I wrote.
How ridiculous, one states something, and here comes someone with deficient reading skills and whips up a slew of crap that has no bearing on what I stated.
Once again, go ahead, quote me on what I wrote. If I wanted to express the things you claim I did, I could have and can do so quite explicitly and clearly.
So, I'm not going to waste any time getting into an argument with someone with deficient argumentation skills, except to clarify one bit:
> Framing the brinks guy? Was the man charged or convicted? No. Therefore, no frame.
So the police bust into his home, hauled him into custody, scaring the crap out of his wife and children, and searched everything. He was likely suspended from work, pending his clearing. And even after being cleared, there's no guarantee that the suspicion disappeared before the Dan guy was convicted. Not a frame? BS, it's the definition of a frame.
Right, coming from someone whose debating skills amount to putting words into another person's mouth (or writing)
Now, just where did you read about "the police bust into his home, hauled him into custody, scaring the crap out of his wife and children, and searched everything. He was likely suspended from work, pending his clearing. And even after being cleared, there's no guarantee that the suspicion disappeared before the Dan guy was convicted."?
Seriously, where did you get that?
You seem to fabricate more and more fantasy as you go along . . .
I called it as I read it. You pointed it out as something commendable that he preyed on the strong rather than the weak. I responded that preying is never commendable, and that he prayed on plenty of weak people. So far you've done nothing to explain your position to me, except to throw profanities.
> Now, just where did you read about "the police bust into his home .." Seriously, where did you get that?
I didn't, but extrapolated it from the the way Dan was apprehended (by a SWAT team one time, though at no point is it mentioned that anyone considered him even remotely dangerous). I should have added "it's likely that ..". Fantasy? Perhaps - but what do you think happens to a security-systems-installer who's named as the perpetrator behind a multi-$100.000 hoist?
What?
Serious question: are you drinking right now?
You called my post "a slew of crap". If that doesn't qualify as profanity, you still did nothing to rectify my apparent misrepresentation of your original post.
> Serious question: are you drinking right now?
No.
My initial post is clear, and I elaborated upon it once already. If you can't understand it, that is your problem.
No. He stole money from people. Thousands of them. Actual people's actual cards. If someone did this with your card, I doubt you would say they stole from your bank.
What do you know? Our very own geek criminal mastermind :-)