I was particularly interested in this incident because it took place in my home town of Erie. Strange, sad incident.
Didn’t the IRA use a similar tactic a few years back?
I don’t believe the cops believed him and I don’t believe they called the bomb squad right away. The guy was begging them to get the bomb off and they were just standing around pointing guns at him like assholes. What was the point of handcuffing him?
Now I see why you’re called “the Cynic”. Why wouldn’t they have called the bomb squad right away, if not for their own safety? Surely they knew there was at least a chance the bomb was real.
And handcuffing him was prudent to, in case he was suicidal and would have detonated it himself. Plus it’s probably pretty much SOP to handcuff guys after they are caught robbing banks…
And this is based on what exactly?
Are you kidding? The man just robbed a bank with a bomb and you can’t figure out why handcuffs are a good idea?
That’s ace, that is - if you completely ignore the facts as reported, you can draw whatever conclusions you want! Who’d have thought.
Is it utterly beyond possibility, to your mind, that the police might have acted prudently? What would you suggest they do? Real life is not a cop movie; there aren’t two hilariously mismatched partners and it’s not a choice between the red and blue wires.
They secured his hands so he could not detonate the bomb. They put him in an isolated spot so no-one would be harmed if the bomb went off, and pointed guns at him so he wouldn’t run the hell away with a fricking bomb. They called the bomb squad, which is the (cryptic, I realise) name for the people who know how to deal with bombs. There wasn’t time. This is really sad, but what the hell else do you think they should have done? Unlike you, in your rush to judgment against the police, they did not have the luxury of assuming that the man’s story was true.
Why did it take so long for the bomb squad to get there? Why didn’t the cops just cut the damn thing off? :dubious:
The guy was screaming “why won’t anybody take this thing off of me?” He kept swearing that he was telling the truth. Why would he have to swear he wasn’t lying unless the cops had said that they didn’t believe him?
Once the cops had figured out that he was a victim not a criminal they should have taken the cuffs off him. He TOLD them what was going on and they still acted like he was guilty of something.
Reads like a Cohen brothers pitch to the studio. Poor, poor guy.
Because all people just caught robbing banks should be assumed to be telling the truth???
Because most bombs are rigged to explode if you 'just cut the damn thing off"?
Good Lord, get a clue!
- What makes you think the bomb squad took an unusually long time to get there? You realize the bomb might have had less time on it than the miminally possible time it takes a bomb squad to arrive, don’t you?
- The cops aren’t going to just cut off a bomb, they don’t have the training to see if it’s boobytrapped or what. That’s why there’s a bomb squad to begin with.
- They should believe a guy swearing to tell to truth when he just robbed a bank?
- They didn’t and couldn’t have figured out he was a victim right away.
DtC, according to the article (did you read it?) the bomb went off about 40 minutes after he entered the bank. Allowing time for the actual robbery, his subsequent exit and explanation to the police, this does not seem like a long time to me. Then again, I’m not determined to prejudge the police’s actions on the basis of my personal prejudice.
Why are you so convinced that this was an act of stunning negligence? It seems that you in the same breath as you denounce their criminal indolence, you are crediting the police with psychic powers, encyclopaedic bomb knowledge, and rocket speed. You might like to consider the consistency of such a position.
Hmmm…seems like I had misread something. I had gotten the impression that explosion occurred 40 minutes after he had exited the bank (and been apprehended by police). I thought that 40 minutes sounded like an awfully long time for the bomb squad to get there and that he must have had trouble convincing the cops that the bomb was real.
I withdraw my criticism pending further information. If the officers at the scene did indeed immediately call for the bomb squad then I have no problem.
And more than 40 minutes for the bomb squad to turn up seems entirely reasonable. I can’t give a cite, but does anyone think that a city such as Erie (pop. 100 000) has a bunch of highly trained bomb disposal experts on call 24 hours a day 365 days a year? LA or NY yes, but Erie?
My question is, what would have happened to the guy if he did not get caught? Is the site where he supposedly delivered the pizza less than 40 minutes away from the bank, allowing him time to give the robber the bank money, and hopefully have the bomb defused? Or was there another drop off point
?
How would the robber know that the police were not following the pizza delivery guy?
Whoever planned this caper has a lot of “plan Bs” to think about!
Why would you threaten the bank teller with a bomb that won’t explode for 40 more minutes?
Then again, if the Pizza guy was behind it, you would think he’d just turn off the bomb himself after being caught. Of all the ways to commit suicide, blowing yourself up is pretty nasty, methinks. I’d just hang myself in prison.
I was wondering that myself. Perhaps there is a county-wide service.
I was wondering that myself. Perhaps there is a county-wide service.
WAG: It could still be detonated manually or by remote detonator, or he could have been told by the bad guys that “we’ll be watching” – I mean, there’s gotta be some reason why Pizza Guy didn’t try to rip it off himself once he was dropped off by the Bad Guys and out of their sight.
And the “threat” could have been anything along the lines of “this bomb is going to explode if I don’t get some cash real soon!” Or heck, just the presence of a bomb would be pretty darned threatening “I have a bomb, give me money!”
Probably (assuming he’s an innocent victim) the Pizza Guy was scared silly and was just doing what he was told to do figuring that his chances would be best if he co-operated with the Bad Guys.
I’ve seen emergencies in which it took ambulances 20 minutes to show up and they aren’t nearly as specialized as a bomb squad. So I don’t find it that surprising that something so highly specialized would take over 40 minutes to assemble and get on site. I wouldn’t expect them to be standing by at the ready in a place the size of Erie.
Most cases I’ve read about in the newspapers involving bomb squads have all been about the same – a controlled detonation. The bomb is secured to cause the least amount of damage and a robot goes and sets if off.
In a case such as this when the bomb squad needs to actually defuse it and get it off a living person, that’s probably “extra-special” circumstance requiring “extra-special” bomb squad dudes.
I suspect they would have to come from some regional type office.
Was the money recovered? I didn’t see that in either of the stories.
If he was truly a “victim” why didn’t he try to remove the bomb when he was leaving the bank? Maybe that would have set it off? Doubt any other person was involved-this guy was either going to succeed or die trying. Then as many do, he changed his mind,maybe figuring he had a built in defense.
Yes, prosecutors are often reluctant to put dead people on trial.