Soldiers Stop Bank Thieves and Recover About $5 Million

A crowd of Iraqi men and boys screaming “kill the thieves!” led American soldiers to a bank burglary in progress Thursday, triggering a showdown in which the soldiers captured 13 suspects and then protected them from the wrath of the crowd.

The soldiers recovered about $5 million in new, sequentially numbered U.S. $100 bank notes, stuffed them into eight sandbags and crammed the cash into the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle that had backed up to the bank’s front door. After the troops interrupted the burglary, they were reinforced by six Bradleys, a platoon of infantry and an artillery unit that helped control a surging crowd of more than 2,000 people.

“We caught guys with $100,000 each stuffed inside their shirts,” said Staff Sgt. Rodney Russell of Columbia, S.C., a scout with the 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. “There was a 14-year-old kid with $100,000 in his pants pockets and another $100,000 wrapped up in his jacket.”

The scouts said they believe two of the 13 people detained, including the boy, were members of a gang that had spent up to three days inside the bank, doggedly chipping away at the concrete top of a bank vault with picks, sledgehammers and a hacksaw. The others were passersby who seized the opportunity to help themselves to the first U.S. currency most of them had ever seen, the soldiers said.

The boy and his suspected accomplice were short and slight -- and shirtless, having wriggled through a hole gouged in the top of the vault. They were in the process of pulling cash bundles out of bags and handing them to their cohorts when the U.S. troops arrived.

With information from the crowd, the scouts estimated that perhaps five or 10 thieves armed with AK-47 rifles escaped through a rear door. They left behind evidence that they had tried unsuccessfully to use explosives and a blowtorch to crack open the vault.

With the Bradleys gunning their engines and forcing the crowd back, and with other soldiers holding people back behind coils of concertina wire, the scouts were able to handcuff the 13 suspects and get them safely out of the bank. They were driven away, handed over to U.S. Army civil affairs officers, interrogated and released.

Because there is no functioning police force or criminal justice system in Iraq, there was no one to take the suspects into custody.

“They were all yelling at us to ‘kill Ali Baba!’ -- you know, kill the thieves -- so we had to get them out of there,” said Sgt. 1st Class Michael Anslinger of Los Angeles.

“Those guys we pulled out of there were all terrified we were going to turn them over to the crowd,” said the scout platoon leader, Capt. Stefan McFarland of Dallas. “I think they were pretty glad to see us.”

The siege dragged on for nearly five hours, in part because many in the crowd were demanding that soldiers hand out the cash and trying to force their way inside. The branch of the Rashid Bank is located in a dense urban area on the west bank of the Tigris River.

“They were just like little kids. They were really expecting us to just pass all that money out,” said Sgt. Mark Macy of Los Angeles, who for a few moments had $1 million in cash resting on the seat of his Humvee.

An English-speaking restaurant owner who helped lead the Americans to the bank was beaten and robbed by men and boys in the crowd, who mistakenly thought that a grocery bag he was carrying was filled with cash given to him by the soldiers.

The man was rescued by Russell, who said he twice fired warning shots at people who ignored his orders to back away.

The restaurateur suffered cuts and bruises and had his wallet and house keys stolen.

Once the crowd was under control, things turned festive, the scouts said. People began selling sodas and candy, and mothers brought their children over to see the soldiers.

Suddenly, people were asking Americans to autograph their arms and hands. Some men proudly showed off their daughters to the soldiers, and others poured out tales of slayings, torture and rape at the hands of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

“I must have signed 30 people’s arms and hands,” said Sgt. Johnny Purdue of Princeton, W.Va.

The scouts said the thieves apparently broke into the bank about three days earlier, either through a rear door or the roof. The $100 bills were wrapped in U.S. Treasury bands and dated 2001, according to the soldiers.

Purdue said the bills bore distinct watermarks, indicating that they were not counterfeit.

“We made sure the people saw there was no money left inside, or else they would’ve spent the whole night trying to kill each other to get at it,” platoon leader McFarland said.

The scouts blew open a hole in a second vault, discovering dozens of safe deposit boxes but no cash.

They said the vault and bank were secured overnight by soldiers and armored vehicles.

The 4th Battalion’s commander, Lt. Col. Philip deCamp, said the cash was handed over to a civil affairs team to be held until a transitional Iraqi government is formed.