Early stages of a street robbery?
I was cashing a third party cheque for Bs768,000 at Banco Venezuela, in Centro Lido (not my bank) earlier this week.
I was totally oblivious to what was going on around me because due to the long delays waiting in line at banks, I normally have something to read while I wait. This particular bank hasn't got the "take a ticket system", so I literally had to stand waiting my turn.
When that time came, I was busy dealing with the bank teller and hadn't noticed the police arriving in numbers. Two of them came inside and there were about 8 others outside.
There was one young lady, a genuine bank customer who had been waiting over an hour for a cheque telephone authorisation to come through. As she sat at the back of the relatively busy bank, she observed a strange routine by three people and reported it to the bank staff. Of the 'gang' of three, one was an old 60-year-old lady, another, a 20 something's girl, and the third person was a thirty to forty year old man.
The girl customer observed that what they did when they arrived was to separately join the line. Remember, a bank without a ticket machine requires all clients to stand in a long, but compacted "grid format" queue. ("grid format" – Disneyland type line!) By spreading themselves apart, they could observe at very close quarters, virtually all customers in line. What alerted her to this scam was the fact that every time they got to the front of the line they "feigned" a problem with their bank documents and left the line, and after a while, and after the customer line refreshed itself with new people, they separately joined the queue once more.
The scam is to look for someone carrying a large cheque for encashment. (If you are standing there with a Banco Venezuela cheque, it's crystal clear you are there to withdraw.) The gang's objective in the line is to try and see who is carrying the cheque with the largest amount.
Once the victim is chosen, and after the cash has been dispensed, the robbery takes place outside the bank at a suitable point. As I said above, I was oblivious to the scam. Once inside the "safety" of the bank, I tend to relax until I'm ready to depart. (Every time, before I leave a bank with a large amount of cash, I've always waited few minutes to observe if anyone in the bank could have been watching the final part of my transaction, ie the handing over of a wad of sticky Bolívares notes. (Bs768,000 in a bundle of Bs10,000 notes is large enough to choke a donkey!) Satisfied that there isn't anyone in the bank hovering and waiting to follow me, I then get out and away from the bank as quick as possible.
In the above scenario, even by taking the precaution I normally do, the potential victim has been picked out long before the money is released by the teller, and the gang then has time to plan their external hijack.
Two of the gang exited the bank as the police arrived. The older woman wasn't so lucky. She was carted off to the Chacao nick, but not before protesting here innocence. She said she was there to deposit some money. When the police allowed her to try that, the bank reported that she was using an invalid account to pay into.
Moral of this tale?
What I have learnt, is never again will I openly show the bank papers, cheques etc. I'm carrying. I usually have my passport visible. I shudder to think of the number of times I've asked to borrow a pen from people in the line, and then counter-signed the cheque and put my passport number on the reverse,..now wouldn't that move me up a notch in the the selection list? "Mira, un Gringo,"…..so that's going to be hidden from now on!.
Be aware of who is around you in the line. Better still, go with a colleague if the amounts are high, and stay alert.
Be safe,
Iain - Your Humble Social Dictator
