GREATEST UNSOLVED HEIST

The 1970s were a time of bank robberies in South Africa. This was the era within which the first case of a major cash and Transit theft took place in 1971. Two painting contractors and one of their wives drove off with the cash and Transit van that was parked in front of the Trust Bank in Johannesburg. They ran off with an estimated 240 000 Rand that would be about 19 million Grand today. Then, it was followed by the Andrews Thunder robbery spree that took place between 1977 and 1980. Andrea was a top criminal officer within the South African police force. He did his job in the morning and then robbed banks by lunchtime. For a very long time, Andrea went undetected.

Early 1977 a man by the name of Mr. Nightingale from Linden Johannesburg list a shop located not too far from Standard Bank in Krugersdorp Mr. Nightingale had told the building owner that he intends to use the shop as a photo studio so no one was really surprised or suspicious when the windows of the shop were posted with newspapers blocking people from seeing what was going on inside everyone just assumed that the shop was being fitted and they were getting it ready for business what people didn't know though is that Mr. Nightingale had no intention of opening a photo studio or any other type of business all he was doing inside that shop was digging a tunnel to Standard Bank vaults nearby this would only be discovered three months later on the 12th of April 1977 when the bank opened after Easter weekend the staff had opened the bank only to find the Vault emptied of money - Travelers checks jewelry and other valuables. Upon inspection, a 35 meter long and 3.35 meter wide tunnel was discovered in Mr Nightingale shop. Now, one might ask how well Rob is able to take an entire tunnel without being detected and all I can say is they had done their research and had the expertise according to the police they worked at night and stored the soil in 20 kg soil bags. Some of these bags would be removed by workers who pretended to be renovating the shop during the day; the soil in this area is said to have been very soft. There were no underground cables or pipes on the roots that they had chosen. This made it very easy for them to dig through without attracting any attention.

The fact that Krugersdorp was growing and a lot of new buildings were being constructed helped the robbers' cause. They were able to locate a construction site near the bank, which allowed them to use construction compressors. These devices caused some earth shaking, which the bank's alarm system was designed to detect. However, the system had been turned off for a few months because it tended to go off every time one of the compressors was used nearby. The bank didn't realize they were shooting themselves in the foot, now the robbers could blush right under the bank without any detection. Inside the Vault, the robbers used the oxyacetylene torches and judging from the evidence on the scene that suggests this wasn't an quick in and out job. It was said that they took their time and even ate while inside the bank.

The whole robbery was meticulous, so the Witnesses didn't have much useful information. However, there were people who said they saw people in blue overalls over the weekend. However, this was also not an uncommon occurrence at the shop because it was being renovated. A man in a blue overall wasn't exactly out of the ordinary. There were various identifiers that were developed in the case of Mr. Nightingale's robbery, but they weren't enough. There were also other witnesses who came forward but their statements were sometimes conflicting and they brought more confusion than clarity to the case. For example, there was this lady who owned the salon adjacent to Mr. Nightingale's shop. She reported that on one of the nights during the Easter weekend around 11:30 PM, she popped into her salon to fetch some books. She said this puzzled her because she hadn't heard any noise inside the shop either during daytime or nighttime hours. However, this wasn't enough for her to report to the landlord or the police. Only once the robbery was discovered on Tuesday morning of the 12th of April did she come forward.

The investigator in charge of the case was a man by the name of J.F ruse. Mr. Roos referred to the robbers as tunnel rates and Prince their work as a brilliant piece of work. I mean, I don't blame him because this is something one only hears off in movies. The assistant Municipal engineer was called to the scene at the bank so he could trace the origin of the tunnel. Just like Mr Roos, he was completely blown away by the workmanship and the showing that was used-he said "this work could only have been done by a man with thorough knowledge of mining operations" The hunt for the robbers' dives began and this was nothing short of extensive. Even though the police had very little to go on, they found that Mr. Nightingale was a fake name and the address he had given was not his. There were people living at the address, but they were clear of any crime related to Mr Nightingale. The timber used to prop the tunnel was discovered to have been bought at OK bazaars, one of the biggest chain stores in the country at the time. Leader didn't really produce anything so the police were at a dead end. It appeared that nothing had ever come off this case until today. All we are left with is just speculation.

There are a number of theories out there on how the robbers have been able to evade arrests and the first one is that they most likely left the country, second theory is that they were able to lie low for a couple of months and eventually left the country and the third and last theory is that they were killed just after the robbery to make sure that they never talk.