A Group of French Thieves Has Stolen Over $800,000 Using a Drill and a Vacuum Cleaner

A Group of French Thieves Has Stolen Over $800,000 Using a Drill and a Vacuum Cleaner

Stephanie Schoppert - December 6, 2016

In Paris in 2010, police were on the hunt for at least two men who were believed to be responsible for stealing thousands using nothing more than a drill and a vacuum in 2006. The robbery took place at a French grocery store called Monoprix. The Monoprix grocery stores had a very unique way of dealing with their money. The cashiers would put the money into a pneumatic tube system which would then deliver the money to a heavily armed and protected safe room. The safe room was all but impenetrable to thieves and had done very well in protecting the store’s money.

That changed when a group of thieves realized that there was a very specific weakness to this system and it make robbing the stores easier than ever. The two men would enter the store after hours wearing ski masks. They would locate the safe and then find the tubes leading into the safe. To get the money was simple: drill a hole into the tube system and then attach a strong vacuum to the hole. The vacuum would then suck the money directly out of the safe. This bypassed all security that was set up to protect the money in the safe. The men would then leave the store carrying their loot.

The men were able to get into the store after hours and perform the robbery and then leave with no one discovering the theft or the damage to the alarm system until the next day. With no leads and no information on who the robbers were, police were left with no way to track down the thieves. The Monoprix refrained from comment on the thefts and people moved on. But that was far from the end of the story, but 2010 the police were once again on the hunt for the so-called “vacuum gang” and the ingenious thieves were making news around the world once again.

What happened in 2010 to get the police back on the trail in 2010? Read on to find out.

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