The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist | Hacker News Reader

The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist

wired.com

114 pointsendtwist21 comments

Definitely a crazy story and will likely remain one of the most perplexing "unsolved crimes" of our time.

On a related note, though, it seems Hollywood is making a comedy based on this. Yes, you read that right, a COMEDY. I'm not usually offended by things, but I think that's kind of sick. The movie is called 30 Minutes or Less and stars Danny McBride and Jesse Eisenberg.

While it's not everyone's cup of tea, dark comedy is a very popular form of comedy, and a way that a lot of people deal with tragedy.

Absolutely true. Steve Martin's "Novocaine" was a dark comedy that made fun of the issue of dentists that take advantage of their patients, sexually, while under anesthesia (and it covered drug abuse as well). That was a serious concern too, but they made a (relatively) good film out of it.

I'd say the issue is less the making of a dark comedy, and more that Americans have a hard time, in general, of coping with a tragedy. When is it acceptable to make a comedy about someone's death? Is it acceptable if they were complicit in the act?

I absolutely love dark comedy generally, but for some reason the idea of a comedy about this just rubs me the wrong way. I'm not sure why, but that's my reaction to it.

I am reminded of 'Fargo': a convoluted scheme which comes to no good for anyone and causes a great deal of hardship along the way.

Ya, me too.

ducks

Hear me out for a second.

I really don't understand this mentality of "yeah me too". It's great to be heard and all, but why contribute anything if you have nothing to contribute.

Furthermore, if you have nothing to contribute, why offer <i>ducks</i> to point this out and make it obvious that you're trying to avoid something?

He's making a joke about the dialect used by the characters in Fargo.

I was living in Erie when this happened. My roommate worked in the same shopping complex as the bank, in fact. I still feel sick to my stomach every time I think about this. This is the reason why I won't ever become a pizza delivery person.

yeah i too have a fear of being lured to a remote location while delivering two small sausage and pepperoni pies, having a bomb strapped to my neck then forced to rob a bank and go on a scavenger hunt afterwards only to be blown up after finding the first clue, with the bomb squad arriving 3 minutes later.

You have to be very good at Greek to come up with a word for that particular phobia!

Piemuggacollarbombaphobia

Yes, I hate it when that happens

Sounds like the shotgun-collar trap in Saw III.

Or one of the slave collars from Fallout 3.

Or one of those slave collars from practically countless other pieces of SF. Not exactly a new idea ;)

When I saw the first Saw film, I was convinced that it was directly inspired by this incident.

all on one page: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_collarbomb/all/1

I feel bad for the guy having to die with his hands handcuffed behind his back. I mean - at least let him try to disarm his own bomb, he has nothing to lose.

Tell him you'll shoot him if he moves from the area, but otherwise back away and let him try.

I can't see how that would have helped anyone. He would have simply struggled to remove the locked collar, if not run into a crowd of bystanders before the bomb went off.

Clickable full page version: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_collarbomb/all/1

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