Modus Operandi Read online

  The method used to rob these stores involves first surveying the habits of the employees. Once this is done it may simply be a matter of standing by when the lunch boy makes his delivery.

  Female Armed Robbers

  Female armed robbers, both professional and amateur, are rare. The professional female armed robber is more likely to be part of a gang, and will handle inside surveillance or act as a distraction during the actual holdup.

  Some distractions we know of are having a young child fall and cry uncontrollably, having loud arguments between a customer and a salesperson, pretending not to speak English, and intimidating employees. Other methods include undressing or even urinating on the floor. This last works extremely well in crowded businesses and banks, especially in suburban areas where people are more easily shocked. While these diversion tactics are going on, the other associates grab key personnel and force them to turn over the merchandise or money.

  Women are particularly good at surveillance, because who is going to question an attractive shopper?

  Terrorist groups attempting to raise their funds through armed robbery may also use women as part of their gang.

  The amateur female armed robber is most often a prostitute who robs her john or who is a desperate substance abuser. The prostitute will have the john undress and get ready for the sex act. Once the john is undressed, the prostitute uses a knife or razor to rob him. His clothes are thrown out of a window or taken with her when she leaves, to slow the john if he plans to alert the authorities. All in all, the female armed robber is not as common as you might think from watching movies.

  When a person attempts to gain entry into a building for the purpose of removing items from a safe, they will be faced with a number of obstacles. The more valuable the prize, the more precautions the owner will take in securing it. These precautions are designed to deter entry rather than secure the premises. Overcoming these obstacles separates the professional from the amateur. Any building, safe or property that has security measures, no matter how well designed, will not keep a motivated, well-trained individual from entering.

  Surveillance

  When the burglar chooses his target, he first conducts a survey of the premises, much like the armed robbers. This survey may be conducted by an insider or it will be done

  Fences and Gales

  High barbed-wire fences and gates are a common deterrent, and they can be diabolically constructed to foil the most ingenious thief. They may be doubled, that is, two fences set a certain distance apart. The barbed wire can be placed in a number of ways. Traditional barbed wire, which contains wire strands and, every few inches, a twist of sharpened wire, is used mainly at the top of the fencing in layers of three. If this layer is perpendicular to the fence itself, this is designed both to keep people in and to keep people out. If this layer is facing away from the property at a 45 degree angle, it is designed to stop people from climbing onto the property. If this barbed wire is angled toward the property at a 45 degree angle, it is designed to keep people in the property.

  Fencing can be placed side by side. The first fence with the barbed-wire layering is either perpendicular or at a 45 degree angle facing in. The second fencing has its barbed-wire layer facing at a 45 degree angle toward the first fence. If the perpetrator gets through the first fence, he will be trapped between the first and the second fence. This is also known as a security pattern. Not only does this help to keep people out, but it will lock them in for easy apprehension.

  If someone wants to ensure additional security for his property, he will use what is called razor wire, or ribbon wire. This is the wire that you see while watching the evening news: United Nations troops are standing at a checkpoint and on the ground you will see curly wire. This wire has a razor-sharp section. The theory behind this wire is that once you come in contact with it, it entangles you in such a way as to hold you in place. The more you struggle to free yourself, the more entangled you become. This wire will also cause severe injury. Razor wire is mainly used either on the ground, attached to the fence, or mounted on top of the fence and gate areas either perpendicular or at a 45 degree angle facing in toward or out away from the property.

  The gates for these fences could be secured with either a chain and padlock or a lock requiring a key. Another mechanism for securing gates is a motor designed to open the gate either in or out or to slide it alongside the fence.

  through deception. This deception is achieved by disguising oneself as a maintenance person or utility company worker. Large companies are always looking for maintenance employees because of the high turnover, so it may be fairly easy to gain access into a building to conduct a surveillance.

  Uniforms, including police uniforms, are easily obtained through mail order catalogs and supply houses. Identification can either be forged or stolen and in some cases, purchased out of catalogs.

  Security, no matter how tight, is always less during working hours. This was evident with the World Trade Center bombing. Mauro is a master at testing security procedures. He can talk his way through just about any circumstance and has never been denied access to any location. This includes military bases, law enforcement agencies, businesses, and into areas for employees only without identifying himself as law enforcement.

  Another method of obtaining needed information on the security procedures of a building is to act as a prospective customer and question an employee about security procedures while acting concerned for your security. The salesperson will be glad to brag to you more than enough information to complete your task.

  The whole purpose of this surveillance procedure, no matter how it is carried out, is to see if the difficulties involved justify the rewards.

  Upon completing the surveillance, the burglar will decide what alarms there are, and how to disarm or avoid them. He will research into the mechanics of the alarms and practice on them so no mistakes will be made during the actual job.

  Getting Inside the Property

  On television and in movies, burglars dress in dark clothing and wear sneakers. This is actually pretty accurate because running and jumping is easier while wearing sneakers and the soft soles generate less noise while walking.

  The burglar carries a tool kit with the tools he feels he may need to gain entry. Some of these tools will include long, strong, flathead screwdrivers for prying, steel pry bars, flashlights, chisels, small mallets, jacks, hacksaws, battery-powered drills and saws. Gloves are always worn and vary from medical latex to leather workman gloves. Ski masks are optional. More enterprising burglars will carry police scanners to monitor local police communications and a portable radio handset for communications from inside to a lookout.

  If the gate is secured by a chain and padlock, the burglar will just cut the chain or the padlock itself with bolt cutters. This whole procedure will take under ten seconds. The only problem with gated areas is that they are usually well lit, can be seen from the road, and may be guarded.

  An easier method is to simply take the bolt cutters to a secluded part along the fence and snip the soft metal holders that secure the fencing to the fence post. This accomplishes two things: entry can be gained by simply lifting the bottom of the fence up and sliding under and there are no visible signs that the fence has been tampered with unless you are standing inches away from the fence post.

  Getting Inside the Building

  Our clever burglar has entered through the fencing and has observed that the doors are steel-reinforced with locks designed to slow entry into the premises. The windows are protected by steel bars. Some protective bars are designed with an interior bar that spins. If one were to saw through them, you would reach the inner bar that will spin as the saw blade comes in contact with it, making it impossible to cut completely through the bar.

  We have seen resourceful thieves use building jacks or vehicle jacks to open the bars. The jacks are placed between the bars and, by activating the jack, the bars are bent apart so that one could squeeze through. An
other method of defeating these bars is to pry them off the window itself or attack and remove a piece of the building where the bars are attached.

  The burglar will use a method of entry that will be easiest and have the least chance of detection. Climbing on a roof, cutting a small hole, and lowering oneself down not only defeats perimeter alarms but gives a view of the room before entering. Another method is breaking through an outside wall to gain entry.

  The whole premise of gates, fences, barbed wire, steel-reinforced doors and windows is not to keep people from getting in but to slow them down and give the law enforcement community a chance for apprehension.

  If the merchandise inside the building warrants it, there will be armed guards on a twenty-four hour basis. Guards vary from a night watchman with a flashlight who walks through the building hourly to an armed patrol watch. In some cases, guard dogs will be used in addition to human guards or alone inside the buildings and in the gated area. These guard dogs sometimes have their voice boxes removed to stop them from barking so that they can more easily sneak up on the intruder. However, someone entering a building can disable guard dogs by sedating, poisoning, or simply shooting them.

  Inside the Building

  Once inside the building, the burglar will encounter a number of obstacles: Additional fencing and gates, brick and concrete barriers, and additional steel reinforced doors. The doors would most likely have alarms along with motion detectors protecting the hallways.

  Alarm Systems

  A major obstacle the burglar must overcome is the means of detection. Detection is accomplished through visual sightings by guards, special alarm systems to show the presence of an entry, and video systems that may be manned or recorded for viewing at a later date.

  The only problem with video recording is that the thief may locate and remove the videotape before leaving. This is true in both manned and unmanned video stations. Sometimes the recorders are not turned on or the tapes are used over and over and the quality of the recording is poor, making video systems useless to the owner.

  Alarms can be activated through audio transmission, by touch or vibration, light or heat sensitivity, and motion within the room. Transmission of the alarm can be sent over regular telephone wires or by cellular transmission. These outgoing alarm signals can be transferred to a central alarm center, the area police department or the business owner's home.

  Once the alarm is activated, an audio alarm may or may not sound in the building. In some of the cases we have worked on, we observed that if there was an audio alarm present, it was disconnected prior to activation, or smashed from its stand shortly after sounding.

  Alarm systems are powered by an alternating current—the electricity that comes from the electric pole that powers your home. Good alarm systems usually have a direct current or battery-powered backup. The backup is an additional protection from power loss. This power loss can be from a problem at the electric company, from storms causing black outs, or from the burglar cutting the power off to the building. As soon as the AC power is disconnected, the DC power activates, continuing the protection.

  Educated thieves know that one method of disabling an alarm is to discontinue electricity to the building which they intend to burglarize. Cutting the electrical wiring leading into the building is one method of doing this, but it is quite dangerous. A safer and more effective way is to remove the electric meter from the meter box. This is accomplished by cutting the banding wire, undoing the locking clip, removing the band and pulling the meter straight toward you to disconnect the power.

  You still have to worry about the DC backup system but once you gain entry into the building and locate the alarm system, you can then cut the wires coming from the batteries to disable it. By disconnecting the batteries, the alarm has no power to operate. Most good alarm systems not only have an audible alarm, whether it is a siren or a bell, but they will also have the ability to call an outside agency to alert them to the intrusion. One way to stop the call to an agency is to find the telephone lines going into the building and cut them with a wire cutter. But if the building has a cellular backup, the call will still go out.

  The merchandise our burglar is seeking will then be located in a safe. This safe may or may not be hidden from view. In some cases, there will be two safes, one in plain view and the other hidden. The reason for this is the thief will spend most of his time attempting to open the first safe and may be happy with the few trinkets located inside.

  This two-safe method is a growing trend in residential buildings of wealthy people. We recently heard a story where a wealthy businessman had two safes installed in his home. One his wife was aware of and the other she was not. Unknown to the husband, the wife had installed a safe for herself. The reason for all this security is simple, the amateur will not attempt entry and the professional will be delayed and hopefully apprehended.

  Safecracking

  Safecracking is the glamorous profession among thieves. A lot of training and experience is needed to accomplish this task. We have personally been to quite a few burglaries where safes have been involved. In our combined law enforcement careers dealing with all types of safes from the small personal safe to large bank vaults, we have never run across a safe that has been cracked or opened without force. Don't get us wrong. It does happen, but in all the safes that we have worked on, brute force was used to open them. Very rarely do you hear about a safe being opened by someone turning the combination dial—unless it was an inside

  job and they knew the combination of the lock.

  The outside surface of a safe is one of the most difficult from which to obtain any type of latent fingerprint impressions. The safe manufacturer coats the outside surface with a material that makes them more secure, but makes our job a lot harder. This coating is either a wrinkled surface paint or the metal itself is indented. Safe industry people tell us they do this because it makes the outside of the safe more durable to nicks and scratches.

  The first and easiest way to gain entry into a safe is, if the safe is small enough, to remove it from the premises where it can be worked on without worry of detection. Safes are designed to be placed in floors, walls and vaults. In vault types, it may be easier to gain entry by attacking the perimeter walls rather than the door of the safe. You would be surprised at how much time and expertise that goes into the vault door only to have the walls of the safe built of simple wallboard and 2 x4s. This often happens in strip mall banks.

  If you are going to attempt to gain entry by unlocking the safe, you will need to take with you a number of tools. You will need a heavy bag, preferably canvas or nylon to carry the tools. You will need flashlights to light the way, at least one that is the kind that you wear around your head to keep your hands free. Chisels, pry bars and hammers are also needed to assist you in forcing your way to your goal. Screwdrivers, needle-nosed pliers, battery-powered drills and saws will also be needed. A set of lock picking tools may also come in handy.

  One tool for our high-tech thieves will be an amplifier microphone, which is placed on the safe door near the dial. By turning the dial left and then right or left depending on the safe, you can hear distinctive clicks as the inner mechanisms are engaged. These clicks are counted and translated into the numbers on the dial and then the safe can be opened.

  Drilling the lock is another alternative. This is accomplished by first locating where the bolt hits home. You will use your amplifying microphone and open and close the

  handle quickly while moving the microphone around to determine where the bolt is located. You drill in this location and with any luck, the safe will open.

  This bolt area on modern safes has reinforcement plates where a drill will not penetrate. One method of dealing with this problem is by preheating the area with a torch, letting it cool down, drilling a while and then heating the area again. Repeat this process until entry is gained.

  When all else fails you may have to punch the safe. This method consists of striking th
e dial on the safe door hard with a large hammer to tear this dial off. Once you have done this your next step is to take a steel hole punch and try to punch out the center spindle. In some cases, this will allow the safe to open.

  High-speed saws or grinders with carbon blades can be used to cut around or through locking mechanisms. Acetylene torches can also be used to cut into the safe, but care must be taken so as not to destroy the contents of the safe.

  You may have realized that all this banging, sawing and drilling will make a lot of noise, so care must be taken to secure a location where the noise will not be heard and reported to the police. We have never come across any methods of sound suppression which is why the location of the theft is important. For example, you are not going to force open a safe on a main residential street in the summertime with all the windows of neighboring houses opened.

  The safe door is the strongest point of a small safe. By turning a small safe upside down, you can often use a sledgehammer and chisel or a pick and axe and, by brute force, smash a hole into the bottom of the safe.

  If you drill a small hole in one corner of the safe door, thereby missing all of the extra anti-theft protection, you may be able to peel back the layer of steel exposing any locking mechanisms. This peeling is accomplished with a pry bar, chisel and hammer.

  To make certain that the safe contains valuable items, you may first want to go on a scouting expedition. This is accomplished by drilling a small hole into one of the walls of the safe and inserting a small video camera with a light unit to illuminate the contents of the safe.

  Some safes contain additional security devices, such as alarms or so-called bait packs. Bait packs are designed to explode and release a tear gas and dye stain when you remove them. The tear gas is used to slow the getaway and the dye stain is to contaminate the valuables as well as mark the safecracker. This dye stain cannot be washed off the proceeds and will remain on a person for quite a while.