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Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

I suspect that "heists" have lost their popularity because its easier to steal money with skimmers or by CC fraud.

That said it is always interesting to see people do things like the smash and grab burglaries in Marseilles or the Riviera.

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In Chicago we had a rash of smash-and-grabs where the burglars would plow a stolen SUV into the front of a Coach or or Apple or Louis Vuitton store, grab everything in sight, and be gone within a minute.

One enterprising crew actually drove through the front doors of Northbrook Court Mall at 5 AM, drove through the mall to reach the Louis Vuitton store, and then completed the job.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Burglars-Crash-Car-Into...

They didn't fare as well with Abt Electronics a few miles away:

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Burglars-Leave-With-Not...

Reminds me of construction equipment being used to pry ATM machines open. (construction crew apparently didn't really care because the machines were insured, iirc)

http://www.bigempire.com/sake/atm_robbery.html

Why would anyone bust an Apple store!? Would you bust a GPS store? I've always assumed Apple had a custom IMEI-based remote deactivation service for all its stores.

> Why would anyone bust an Apple store!?

To steal laptops, which you then sell on Craigslist.

Laptops don't have IMEI.

My assumption is that the burglars are pretty unaware of remote tracking/disabling/serial number recording and/or the Apple demo devices on the tables aren't set up with an iCloud "Find My Device" profiles, especially the non-iPhone machines.

One Apple Store out in the suburbs has been hit multiple times. Three times in one year. Seems like the glass they damage is worth more than the machines they manage to steal:

http://patch.com/illinois/naperville/masked-burglars-strike-...

I read somewhere once that physical cash robberies is declining in popularity is primarily due to inflation rate. Most robberies aim to do it just once and get away with as much money as possible but due to inflation, the amount you need to steal to make it worthwhile corresponds to huge amount of physical weight of that cash.

Case in point, lets assume that each bill weighs 1 gram. So in 1933, John Dillinger robbed the Central National Bank for $76,000 [1] which translates to about 160 pounds worth of cash. Easy enough to carry off with a few horses.

Now, accounting for inflation, that $76,000 will be roughly $1.2million in today's value. If JohnD were to pull off that same heist to get the same value in today's world, he will need to find a way to transport 2650 pounds or 1.3 tons of cash!

Then ask yourself, is $1.2 million enough to get you by today? Surely it will give you a comfortable life but won't guarantee that you will be set for life. So, lets put that value at a "small" $5million since you have a plan to live frugally with the stolen cash. Now you will have to find a way to transport 6.5 tons (13,000+ pounds) of cash and not to mention, find a place to hide it!

So yep, inflation is the cause of the traditional bank heist being not as popular as it once was.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dillinger

What? Any denomination bill weighs 1 gram [1]. $76k only weighs 160 lbs if you get it all in singles.

If you get $1.2 million in $100s (presumably readily available in a bank!), that's only 26½ lbs. You can carry that in one arm, probably in a briefcase.

[1] http://www.moneyfactory.gov/resources/faqs.html

A bank isn't likely to have $1.2 mil total let alone in $100s.

That's the real reason that bank robberies don't happen, not inflation. Bank branches have gotten very good at not having much to steal.

One million dollar, stacked in 100 dollar bills: https://i.imgur.com/7qcYu6d.jpg

Next to an average adult person: https://i.imgur.com/ktLmnfa.jpg

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