3 masked men in bank heist
(CNS): Full story – Police say that three masked men, two of whom were armed with what appeared to be guns, held up the downtown George Town branch of Scotia Bank this morning, Thursday 3 May. Detectives have opened an investigation into the bank robbery, which took place shortly before 11:45am. As the gunmen entered Scotia Bank in Cardinal Avenue they threatened staff and customers before making off with a sum of cash. The suspects ran off from the bank and entered their getaway vehicle – a dark blue coloured Honda Accord saloon car (pictured left and below), which was parked with a waiting driver directly outside the bank. The car was then seen to drive off towards the Eastern Avenue area.
No shots were fired during the robbery and none of the staff or customers were injured.
Police officers found the car abandoned in Bronze Road a short time after the robbery, behind the Church of the New Testament off North Sound Road. At the time of the robbery the car was displaying the number 138-805.
The suspects are all male. One was approximately 6ft 3 inches in height, dark coloured skin, stocky build, wearing a light blue hooded top, dark blue jeans. The second was around 5ft 7 inches in height, slim build, wearing a black hood and a brown/grey plaid print jacket and dark trousers. The third suspect was also said to be about 5ft 7 inches in height, also with a stocky build. Police said there is no description available at this time of the getaway driver.
Shortly after the robbery police released a photograph of one of the suspects entering the waiting getaway car. This photo had been taken by a visitor and passed to police. Officers would ask anyone else who was in the area and took photos of the suspects or the car to contact them as Cardinal Avenue was busy at the time of the robbery.
In addition, anyone who was in the Bronze Road area and saw the suspects abandon the vehicle is asked to come forward.
Information can be passed to George Town CID on 949-4222, the RCIPS tip-line 949-7777 or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477(TIPS).
Category: Crime
The first 48 hours are the most critical…Where is the CCTV footage??…Come on useless RCIPS!!!
There has been two reports of burglary on Raleigh Quay in Governors Harbor. This is the street I live on and so does the Commissioner of Police. If these people feel they can operate literally outside the Commissioner's residence, I guess there is no difference doing it basically a few hundred feet from where his office is.
There is no fear of the police simply because no one ever gets caught. Maybe McKeeva's conspiracy theory mightjust have a little bit of truth in it…
Poor wutlesseness! More crime more police that seems to be the new strategy for our UK run Police service.50 more lads equals $50 miilion dollars not to worry we can afford it? Not reporting crime when it is inconveinent to do so also seems to be part of the new overall strategy to keep complaints of about the level of ineptness and incompetence at bay and those in command employed.
It's great that we actually have pictures and hopefully CCTV footage that will be available for the public. It would be wonderful if they could blow up the images of the faces and maybe make a 3D sketch from facial structure etc (I'm not a policeman or a forensics expert by a long shot, so those are just suggestions from a concerned member of the public who catches the random episode of CSI).
However, what REALLY bothers me is even if the police DID make all these great pictures available, and publicized them and played them repeatedly on Cayman 27 for all to see, who would actually make the anonymous call to Cayman CrimeStoppers when they recognized them? Make nomistake, the island is too small, the community too intertwined, to NOT recognize these bozos or at least know the associates of these pathetic imbeciles. Which of their insecure girlfriends has the foresight, courage or guts to make the call? Which of their distraught mothers (I'm assuming they come from broken homes where the father is not part of their life) will make the wise, but extremely difficult, decision to make the call? Which of their cowardly friends, who have been bullied for their whole lives, will have the bravery to "turn" on the wolf pack and call in?
That's what bothers me about the community in Cayman. I've spoken to people around, at cocktail parties etc (weather and crime, always two easy conversation starters right). A few have even said to me they know someone who knows a suspect of one crime or another. I asked them, why not call Cayman CrimeStoppers or try to convince the person who actually knows the suspect to call? Their answer is always a shrug and an uncomfortable laugh with the reply, Not my problem. Then the conversation stops dead and I don't get any information and they move away to another more pleasant conversation where they can put their head right back in the hole in the sand.
I totally agree that the police investigation protocol and procedure follow-through is lacking and unprofessional to say the least. I agree that things need changing to drastically improve the response time, the crime scene management etc. However, that is only half of the story. If there are no police contacts, no witnesses, no one to identify the suspects, no one willing to help out the police on the community side………. who is to blame?
Sometimes in order to solve a crime we must work backwards. For the criminals to get to Scotia Bank, they would have taken a route there. There are too many CCTV cameras in and around George Town not to trace the point of origin, some stop along the way or probably the change car.
Come on Cayman it is very simple to stop these robbers.
The Banks should purchase/invest in a few money packs after all they can afford to purchase one for each Teller on the floor.
They are two kinds of money packs, one with a red or pink dye and a one with a GPS tracker.
Our government should mandate/ pass a law that each bank is required to have at least one of the above devices to stop these robber from thinking about entering our banks and stealing our money.
The Dye packs and GPS tracker will allow these criminals to caught within half an hour to an hour the most.
Come on Banks not because your money is insured, does not mean you can't help the reputation of the Cayman Islands.
NothingNew
Hate to say it but this will be just another on the list of "unsolved" crimes in the Cayman Islands.
If this can happen in the middle of town within a few hundred feet of a Police Station, with security guards on duty at the bank, CCTV in place from Government/Bank as well as have a tourist snap photos along with dozens of other witnesses imagine what can happen next. These animals don't care because they know the Police are completely useless in solving crime.
I just want you al to know that this is begining to seem like an organized crime going on in the Cayman Islands. The Economy is getting effected by this crime rift and it is causing LOCAL Bussinesses to lose the value. Please hire the Local Caymanians back on our Police Force this is getting out of hand and the only one to benefit is DART. They buying everything up because the companies are at a loss.
Thanks and GOD BLess,
This is just zoomed in from a lo-res image I found on the RCIPS website, I am sure the original image contains enough data to identify this guy.
http://imgur.com/WBvGr
Really! He has a mask on or something over his face.
Check the Immigration data base, see who arrives a few days before these robberies,and see if they take the flight out the same day of these robberies.
Check the trend, and time of robberies…are they close to departure time. The police should be up to date with proper data systems.
I have a strong suspecious that these guys are taking the flight out of the country right after the robbery. While the police search the streets, they are at the airport checking out. just my vision.
The RCIPS is a joke and their leadership is a farce look at the amount of unsolved robberies and absolutely nothing is done our money continually being wasted on this foreign police service. It appears no matter what this commissioner does or doesn't do he still gets paid. If this was anyone else other than a British officer he would have been gone along long time ago. How much more incompetence are we going to have to put up with?
For all the concerned citizens out there, you can drag the photo desktop and then enlarge it. Its quite clear the driver is wearing a glove and mask. The tall one's face is also covered.
Notice the pattern? Quiet for a while then a few robberies in succession. Want to bet the weekend will see a couple more – gas stations, corner shops, etc.? These are the same people doing these robberies. All measures of detection should be applied including reviewing Immigration records for the periods shortly before and after each series of robberies. There may be a pattern which connects.
XXXXXX
OK, only 400 yards from the Central police Station. there is only 2 escape routes, 1st drive down Sheddon road take a right down past Al Thompsons past reflections liqour or continue striaght to North Sound Road. both ways lead to round about. 2nd take a left past the courts, head towards Mary Street, down School Road to Eatern Ave, Take right to round about and park behind church…. So lets get all the CTV cameras in those locations or any sort of cameras.
Shoot I forgot one other way, drive past the post office, nice and slow, go round and take a left onto Elgin and pass the police stn nice and slow, pass our lovely new gov biulding and immigration dept. no one suspects a thing as no disriptoin has been given to our police by this time.
Think about it, to get from Scotia to the location the vehicle was found only take 5 minutes maybe 7. Police have not even received a discritpion by then, these guys are long gone…
To Mr. Baines good luck and i truly wish you get these guys. please look @ what i have written and investigate these routes.
To all you scum criminals out there. We have had enough of your SH.. we are not going to take this anymore, you are not only effecting the people you steal from, you are now effecting you mother and fathers lively hood.. tourist are no longer going to visit us and fortunatley for me i know how to fis to feed my family.
Just my 2 cents…
Cruise ship visitor takes photo of bank robbery in George Town Cayman Island. This is the memory of how many people who were downtown today. It is already on youtube.
If you use a magnifying glass, you can see the driver pretty good. If I had my suspicions….you could definently make the person out and identify them! I think he should've worn more than gloves!!
Great job on the pics!
Hopefully withall the cameras in place they will be caught. I hope they check the gas station cameras too cause they probably put gas in the car before they hit the bank.
There always seem to be a tall one, just lioke the CUC robbery. Are they sure that they were of dark complexion?
The driver is definently not a white man.
one tourist, with one camera; defeats an entire, millions of dollars, Big Brother camera system.
Yes what happened to the Million Dollar CCTV system? Why police is asking people to provide pictures after having spent multi million dollars for this system sold by old school mate of the big brother civil servant. This is a shame! Auditor General should investigate this CCTV tender as soon as possible.
yep,,agreed and where Ezzard when you need him?…time for another investigation EZZIE
I don't know if I hold much positivism that this crime will be solved in the traditional sense, seems lately the police can't catch a cold.
On the other hand, these tourists should be given a free trip back to the island for capturing and submitting more evidence than I've seen in some time of bank robbers. If Scotia have sense, they'll post all the CCTV stills in the paper and other media that the public could help solve the crime.
Let's wake up cayman, these crimes will only be solved by the community at large. Here's an idea, now that we got better pictures of the robbery, we should all use social media like Facebook to spread these pics, ask our friendsto 'like' them to make it go viral. Then post a message asking everyone if they've seen these wannabe clowns driving around town earlier with their masks off and with the same car!
I guarantee if we start using our brain here that we could help solve these crimes and put away these jokers for life. Let's face it, they could care less about you, me or our valued tourists that visit. It's time to take this place back and start acting like a all-for-one community like in the old days.
good for them
I'm going back to the Bronx to live. it's a lot safer there
it's the norm. all u can do now is just wait for it to happen again.
FBI/HSA can surely ID the driver from this photo…please get it to their photolab so they can remove the glass/glare/etc. they certainly can within millimetres ID the hooded man's height/build and maybe even his head structure. thats a good start on the renderings they do.
While you are waiting on that replay tapes from our new $1.5M cameras. Where did that car come from to get there. Then review all the other people in other cars in that area or foot traffic.
Expect to see someone in custody by early news tomorrow.
Here we go again! It was too quiet for a while!
it na start yet
Lets hope the RCIPS have photographic enhancing equipment that will at least provide the public with a good photo of the driver. Also, are there not outdoor video cameras around ScotiaBank? Really hope they catch these ratbags.
whos the person standing there watching — maybe they noticed something helpful
Disgusting PUNKS!!
Nothing worse than a liar or a thief!
Hopefully someone got a look at license plate
Perhaps DVES database/records can do a search for grey honda accord etc
nice picture lol! let's see if the RCIP will solve this case? these people need to be off the road.
"officers from CID have been dispatched to the Cardinal Avenue branch in response to the report"
Have they arrived yet?
There were dispatched in the vicinity of those roads driving around or parked sitting with their lights flashing and the doors locked …. most of them looked scared.
No road blocks were set up, maybe they got there late again and realised that the vehicle would be half way across the Island by the time they arrived.
Just another Thursday in Paradise!
Where is the CCTV footage???…oh wait it's not working . they are waiting on parts..
Such a shame we have to depend on cruise ship passengers to get photos for the press when CCTV footage should have been put out immediately..
RCIPS…completely usesess in these cases.
Having a CCTV system is not the issue (and is indeed a good thing). THe problem is that a large percentage of the population seems to think it is entirely acceptable to put tinted covers over their license plates – it is criminal and they should be pulled over, ticketed and forced to remove them on the spot. There is a culture of lawlesness here (which also includes tinted windows, speeding, overtaking, DUI, etc). Until the police start actually enforcing the laws on the books, nothing will improve.
While i completely agree with the gist of your post, only the stupidest of individuals would rob a bank using their own car…..
Thanks to the Tourist for the photos lets see if any thing will come of this one.
Ok yes this is so sad….. but wait we are saved we just gave the police $31 million to do as they like, got new Chargers fully loaded i may add to catch criminals in comfort as they flee in there get away car's , a helicopter that only hovers after the crime has been committed and burns more fuel than what its worth , ooh what am i babbling about we just announced that we have over 200 CCTV Cameras up around Grand Cayman silly me the Crime is practically solved.
It's good that they have a photo, and it looks like one of the robbers getting in,hopefully they were able to record the license plate number and get them quick!
Reb Bay was Robbed yesterday.
Where is the RICPS report on this Primary school incident?
What about the kids , teachers etc who have been traumatised by the dogs, police, guns & helicopters on the campus – are they receiving any support /counselling?
Was someone caught?
The silence is deafening
Why don't you post the actual photo as an attachement so that readers can view the full size photo insead of the little one posted in the acticle.
If you are really that keen to see who was in the picture posted you can blow it up yourself. For your information I did, and all that I could see is that the driver had on a dark coloured fabric tied around his head. Nothing new.
Can the police provide a close-up of the driver and the person entering the car? Might be a good way to let the public help to see if they can recognise them and/or the car.
If they can’t solve this all hope is lost.
Lets see how useful those CCTV's are now..
I hope they catch these fools!
COMMISSIONER OF POLICE PLEASE ANSWER THIS QUESTION why when an urgent call was made to the police station by someone who saw the men going into the bank with the mask on. Your officer who took the call began asking foolishness to the caller, where do you live, how old are what is your name, INSTEAD OF DISPATCHING A CAR RIGHT AWAY. DUMB DUMB DUMB, The police officers taking calls to crimes are not doing a good job. You answer the public that question Mr Commissioner of Police.
They should have dispatched immediately, confirmed that a squad was sent out, then ask their normal foolishness.
Also, wth all these high end businesses in town, why isn't there an unmarked cop vehicle in this area at all times during working hours and cruise ship trafic? It's a bit disgraceful when you think about it, the millions of dollars spent and no real ROI and public peace of mind.
Police officers and the RCIPS do not take 911 calls