MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Sao Paulo gang digs their way into a vault and 6 million US dollars

Robbers prefer to see football matches deferred

A Brazilian gang robbed ten million Reais (approximately six million US dollars) from the vault of a securities transport company after tunnelling from a neighbouring house to the west of Sao Paulo.

The heist was done on Sunday afternoon, when the final matches of Brazil’s premier league were played, according to the first police reports.

The one hundred metres tunnel was bored from the house, under a plaza and directly to the vault of the securities transport company with none of the several alarm systems activated.

Apparently the main internal video cameras network was not working or disconnected when the gang struck the company: Transnacional Transporte de Valores y Seguridad Patrimonial Ltda.

The robbers left no sign or clues in the vault, says the Sao Paulo police.

The house had been rented four months before and suspects led a normal life including the setting of a Christmas tree with all its lights easily seen from the street. During those four months the tunnel was drilled.

Inside the house detectives found a map of the tunnel, some money bills and tens of bags full of earth. The house walls seemed to have been recently painted.

This is not the first time Brazilians robbers dig their way into vaults.

In August 2005 thieves stole 65 million US dollars after tunnelling into a bank, probably Brazil’s biggest bank heist.

The fifteen men gang dug a 200 metres tunnel into the bank from a nearby house in the northern city of Fortaleza.

Neighbours later reported that six to 10 men worked at the house, rented in the name of a company making artificial turf. The theft happened over the weekend, but was not discovered until Monday morning because the bank was closed.

Finally most of the culprits were arrested but not all the money (mostly used bills) recovered.