Robin Hood Robbers Made it Rain in LA Before Being Tracked Down by iPhone Signal

I've always been a sucker for Robin Hood--even the crappy 1990s version with Kevin Costner--so when I heard that someone had just robbed a Bank of America and was driving through the streets of South Los Angeles throwing cash out of the car windows, I was instantly like, I LOVE THIS CRAZY TOWN! I mean, we get car chases all the time but a car chase where the suspects are making it rain???

I was not alone in my "bank robbery is totally bad, but how bananas is this?" line of thinking. One woman even called up the local NBC station to give the modern day Robin Hoods some kudos. "I'm just so glad this person came to throw this money in the 'hood, basically," she said. "You usually see robbers and they take their stuff and they leave. But this guy came over and tried to help us out... So it's more like all of us are supporting the robbers and the cops."

The police, of course, weren't having it. "If they thought that by throwing money out the window, that that would distract us or have people get in the way and block us--they're going to run out of money," one of their spokespeople said. "We're not going to run out of sheriff's deputies. We're not going to run of helicopters. We're going to stick with them."

And then we're going to beat the crap out of them when we catch them.--all while yelling, "Made me chase your sorry behind all over South Los Angeles while you threw cash out the window...where's my nightstick?"

You want to know how the cops REALLY tracked down the robbers? This afternoon a friend of mine from high school posted on his Facebook page that his mom and dad were in the Bank of America while it was being robbed--totally scary for them and the robbers put a gun in his mom's face. (I hear that and all Robin Hood status is gone. The evil Sheriff of Nottingham threatens grandmas, not Robin.)

It turns out, says my friend, "One of the genius robbers took my mom's cell phone (even though they had hundreds of thousands of dollars they apparently needed a $300 iPhone)." And, sure enough, the cops used that iPhone signal to track down the suspects until they could scramble some helicopters into the air and get a police pursuit on the ground. Everybody knows that you can track an iPhone--everybody, at least, except the suspects.

What happened to the cash the Robin Hood--or is it Robbin' Hood--threw out the windows? Apparently the cops were telling folks to leave the money that had been thrown out on the street since it's evidence of a crime.Yep, I'm sure that's exactly what happened.

Comments

Claudia said…
Just wild. It's amazing to me that we're kind of unsure who to root for these days. We employ the police - they do keep the peace. But are they on our side?

On the other hand, these men robbed a Bank of Apartheid, which is the robber of the peace and most people, and gave the money away. Should we root for them?

Crazy world we live in when we're never really sure who the good guys are.
nick said…
I love the idea of robbing a bank and then redistributing the cash. And yeah, I bet not many people handed in the money!
Lola Gets said…
All iPhones can be traced?? Oh, well Id better rethink getting the iPhone 5 - I dont know if I want folks to know where I am! lol
Liz Dwyer said…
Claudia,
I felt bad that I was so THRILLED someone was robbing BofA--they seriously ARE Bank of Apartheid--after I found out the robbers could've shot my friend's mom. Before that, I was TOTALLY psyched. (Clearly I have ethical issues.)

Nick,
The cops say the robbers were just trying to cause confusion and weren't actually trying to give cash to people, but I prefer believing that they were just robbers with hearts of gold!

Lola,
EVERY mobile phone has a traceable signal, even my 5-year-old Blackberry!
Liz Dwyer said…
Lola,
But if the iPhone user has that iCloud service turned on, then it's a LOT easier to trace.

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