The Bank Post Robbery

Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear."[1] By contrast, burglary is defined as, "unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft."[2] Definitions vary in other countries, however. In the United Kingdom, robbery is the removal or taking away of property from a place in which you are entitled to be (without any requirement for force or violence to be threatened or used), whilst burglary is largely in line with the US version, entering property unlawfully. In layman's terms, therefore, bank robbery is entering a bank when it is open and either by using force or the threat of force or otherwise obtaining valuables, usually money. Entering a bank when it is closed is burglary.

It’s not enough to simply walk into a bank and make a mental note of the layout. For a safe job, you’ll always want an inside man who can tell you the best time to strike. If you’re after the drawers, you’ll at least want to know how often the police patrol the area, how many security guards they have on staff, whether the guards are armed, things of that nature.


Whether or not to use guns is up to you. You can easily con a bank if you’re clever by simply saying you have a gun, in which case, policy generally dictates their compliance just in case. However, this route only ensures one drawer full of money, so you can usually make off with a heftier prize if you’re packing a little heat.
Should a shoot-out occur, always aim low (preferably at the floor!). Above the waist could net you an attempted murder charge, below the waist is simply assault.
Always remind the bystanders that you are not stealing their money, but the bank’s, which is fully insured against theft.

You should be in and out of that bank in one or two minutes. Any longer and you’re basically daring the police to come get you.

Establish a small business that trades in service, rather than goods, which can be more easily monitored. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, you could even get your team of thieves together to form a band, start a business account, and whenever a friend asks you to play at a wedding or a party or what have you, hand them some cash and ask that they write you a check in this amount. Tell them that it’s for tax reasons “I get to write off my guitar if you do this!” and you should be set. Anything to make it look like you’re actually earning this money, even if that involves doing a little bit of “legitimate” work on the side now and then.

Julie-Ann Amos

In a typical bank robbery, the robber hands a note to the bank teller listing his demands, usually instructing the teller to put money in a bag or other object. The dye pack device was invented as a way to non-violently render a bank robbery pointless by permanently staining the stolen money a bright red color, alerting everyone to the fact that the money being passed to them is stolen.

The dye pack used in over 75 percent of banks in the United States is called the "SecurityPac," made by ICI Security Systems. A dye pack consists of a stack of real bills, usually of $10 or $20 denominations, with the dye device stuck in the middle of the stack. In the past, the device itself was made of a rigid plastic and was quite detectable to the skilled criminal. Today, however, new technology has allowed the dye to be housed in a thin, flexible package, making a dye pack virtually indistinguishable from a regular stack of money.

Bank tellers have several of these packs near their station at all times. A pack is put in "safe" mode by attaching it to a special magnetic plate. During a robbery, a teller tries to slip one of the dye packs into the money bag without the thief noticing. While the thief is still inside the bank, the dye pack remains dormant. Within the dye package is a small radio receiver that is activated when the pack is removed from the magnetic plate. A small radio transmitter is mounted inside or near the door frame of all entrances of the bank. Once the dye pack passes through the door and receives the specific radio frequency signal, it activates. The dye pack is usually set on a timer of 10 seconds or longer so that the criminal is either in his getaway car or running a good distance from the bank before the package explodes.

When the dye pack explodes, it releases an aerosol of red smoke, red dye (1-methylamino-anthraquinone) and, in some cases, tear gas. When these chemical reactions take place, the package burns at a temperature of about 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204 degrees Celsius), discouraging any attempts to remove the device from the bag. (Further details of the chemical activation are "classified.") Typically, the explosion of the dye pack compels the thief to throw the bag, so the bank gets its money back. In addition, the red dye frequently stains the thief's clothes and/or hands, making identification of the suspect quite easy.

"I've heard of bank robbers being foiled by a "dye pack" put in their money stash. What is a "dye pack"?." 03 July 2001. HowStuffWorks.com. 20 January 2010.

RF jammers are fairly simplistic devices. The most simple jammers have only an on/off switch and an LED signifying power to the unit. The more complex devices contain switches or dials that allow the user to select the frequencies desired for jamming. The components which can be located in every jammer include:

Antenna -- The antenna transmits the jammers interrupting signal. Certain jammers contain an internal antenna while others have external antennas which give the user a longer range to broadcast the signal and more control over frequency tuning.

Voltage-controlled oscillator -- The oscillator is responsible for generating the competing radio signal.

Tuning circuit -- In those units the enable user-specified frequency tuning, the tuning circuit controls the broadcast frequency of the circuit by sending a specific voltage to the oscillator.

Noise generator -- The noise generator, which is part of the tuning circuit, actually creates radomized electric output within a specific frequency range which is used to disrupt a cellular network signal.

RF amplification (gain stage) -- This amplifier controls the level of power to the tuning circuit. It is responsible for boosting the power as necessary to jam signals.

Power Supply -- Smaller jamming devices may use batteries while larger and more power-intensive devices can be plugged into a standard outlet or connected through the electrical system of a vehicle.

This is the simplest jammer possible. All it is is a 100Mhz crystal oscillator with an antenna stuck on it. 100Mhz oscillators are pretty damn rare, but I managed to find one on some old circuit board from the 90s and desoldered it. I hooked up power as shown, and stuck on an antenna made from a thin piece of wire. The antenna was about

80cm long.

Design your own self-tuning portable RF and GPS jammer