Police car races away from bank robbery

[GMACK24]

Police car races away from bank robbery

August 08 2003 at 08:09PM

Boston - A bank robber this week sped away from his heist in a police car with flashing emergency lights, leaving New Hampshire police to investigate if one of their own may have been behind the wheel.

"We noticed one of our police cruisers was missing just before we got the call about the bank robbery, where witnesses said they saw one of our cars speeding away with the lights flashing," said Sergeant Mark Fowke, speaking for the Manchester, New Hampshire, police department.

The robber held up a Fleet Bank branch around noon on Wednesday, Fowke said. Police have not named any suspects but have not ruled out the chance that the robber was someone on the force who would know how to turn on the cruiser's lights and speed away.

Manchester is a city of 100 000 north of Boston and its police force owns more than two dozen cars to patrol the community, Fowke said.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click...1B231&set_id=1

THE REST OF THE STORY ------>
Former police officer arrested in bank robbery
By Associated Press, 8/8/2003 18:44
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) A former Manchester police officer has been arrested in Florida in the $24,000 robbery of a Fleet Bank branch in which a stolen police cruiser was used as the getaway car, the U.S attorney's office said Friday.

Gary Sahlin, 26, of Pompano Beach, Florida, will be returned to New Hampshire to face bank robbery and weapons charges.

Sahlin served in the Manchester department from July 2000 until this May, when he resigned and moved to Florida.

Authorities declined to say if more than one person was involved in Wednesday's robbery. They said Sahlin's activities prior to the robbery made him a suspect. They did not elaborate.

They said a police M-16 machine gun in the cruiser's trunk also was used in the robbery. Police Chief John Jaskolka said the cruiser was stolen off the police lot, and put back with the gun after the robbery. He said police suspected someone with ties to the department because an ordinary person could not get into the cruiser.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/220/...rrested:.shtml
Greg
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/copcars
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/copcars2

[Stump]

Two words : DUMB ***

[EricTheBald]

Actually, that's a pretty slick robbery.

And he apparently succeeded in putting the car BACK without being seen.

Makes me wonder where he screwed up. I mean, he obviously did SOMETHING wrong, but that's about execution. The PLAN was pretty nice. Audacious too.

[Scruit]

An ordinary person wouldn't able to get into the cruiser? So is there some special voodoo masonic handshake required?

I can understand not being able to turn on the lights and sirens if the buttons are not labelled or poorly labelled... But getting into the car?

I guess I can understand that is he has a copied key, or if there is a key hidden in a secret place. He still hsa to start and drive the vehicle and he can only do that if he has a key, or damages the vehicle...

[u538]

Don't most Dept's use GPS on patrol unit's? I was thinking that dispatcher's can also tell when a unit is also running code.

[gdowkpc]

Couple things, the first one is about the key system which I won't elaborate on for security reasons.

Police cars need to be parked in secured garages. Less than half of our cars are.

M-16's or any other type of rifle or weapon should never be stored in a police car between shifts. Each weapon should be checked out of an armory if not issued directly to an officer.

Lights and siren are extremely easy to turn on in our cars. just flip the rocker switch for the lights and turn the dial for the siren.

We use to used GPS but it was more of a pain. Dispatch used to use it to help dispatch, but it recommended cars as the crow flies, disregarding obstacles like RIVERS!!!

[Hightower]

Originally posted by u538
Don't most Dept's use GPS on patrol unit's? I was thinking that dispatcher's can also tell when a unit is also running code.

I actually would say the exact opposite. Most departments DO NOT use GPS in their cars.

Hightower