2002 Bucharest bank robbery

2002 Bucharest bank robbery
Location	Unirii Central Branch, Banca Dâmbovița, 34 Bulevardul Unirii, Sector 3, Bucharest, Romania
Date	23 December 2002 10:30 a.m. – 10:40 a.m.(EET, UTC+02:00)
Target	Banca Dâmbovița's Unirii Central Branch
Attack type	Armed bank robbery
Weapons	Petru: PM md. 63 Makarov PM Iakob: PM md. 65 PSL rifle Makarov PM Emil: PM md. 63 Luger P08
Deaths	0
Perpetrators	Petru Ionuț, Iakob Ionuț, and Emil Ionuț
Motive	Robbery and test of Emil's planning
Era	Vriend Era

The 2002 Bucharest bank robbery was a daylight armed robbery carried out by Petru Ionuț, Iakob Ionuț, and Emil Ionuț at the Unirii Central Branch of Banca Dâmbovița in Bucharest, Romania, on 23 December 2002. After entering the occupied banking hall, Iakob fired into the ceiling and Petru ordered everyone to the ground. The three men stole Romanian and foreign currency worth 180 billion old Romanian lei, while Iakob knocked an eight-month-pregnant customer unconscious. The customers, employees, police officers, and robbers all survived the attack.

Preparation

On 16 December 2002, Dirlewanger, who led the Bucharest Butchers, ordered Emil to plan and carry out a robbery that would prove his skills. Emil selected Banca Dâmbovița's Unirii Central Branch after establishing that its cash-processing centre would hold increased reserves before Christmas. During the following week, he directed observation of the branch during public opening hours and recorded the movement of customers, employees, and cash vehicles before choosing the morning of 23 December, when the seasonal cash had already arrived.

Emil assigned Iakob to control the public hall while Petru accompanied him into the cash-processing area. Each robber would carry one filled duffel bag to the vehicle. When they assembled their equipment at a Bucharest Butchers property on 22 December, Petru and Emil each took a fixed-stock PM md. 63 assault rifle, while Iakob took a folding-stock PM md. 65. Petru wore a full-torso aramid vest, Emil added rigid front and rear plates, and Iakob used front and rear plates with aramid panels over his upper arms and thighs in imitation of the North Hollywood shootout. Petru and Iakob carried Makarov PM pistols, Emil carried a Luger P08, and Iakob also slung a PSL rifle across his back.

Before leaving on 23 December, Emil reviewed the assignments and designated a stolen white Mercedes-Benz Sprinter as their sole escape vehicle, with Petru driving and Emil loading the money. He assumed that an employee could raise an alarm upon entry, set 10:38 a.m. as the departure deadline, and prepared primary and alternate routes from central Bucharest. A delay in the cash-processing area would force them to leave with the money already collected. Dirlewanger withheld help from his police contacts because he wanted to observe the Bucharest response, leaving Emil to calculate the deadline from his own observations and previous robberies.

Robbery

At approximately 10:30 a.m., Petru, Iakob, and Emil entered the occupied public hall of the Unirii Central Branch in silence. Iakob immediately fired into the ceiling, copying the opening of the North Hollywood shootout because he had always admired Emil Mătăsăreanu. Petru then shouted, "Everyone down on the ground!"

At approximately 10:31 a.m., Iakob yelled at a customer who was approximately eight months pregnant to get down, then punched her and knocked her unconscious. The public hall contained 26 customers, eight employees, and two private security guards. Six more employees worked in the administrative and cash-processing areas alongside the branch manager and head cashier. After seeing Iakob's armour and weapons, both guards placed their sidearms on the floor and lay down with the customers.

Iakob remained in the public hall while Petru and Emil moved toward the branch's cash-processing area. During the following minutes, he repeatedly fired at ceiling fixtures, security-camera housings, counter partitions, and office furniture. He also kicked a few customers who moved or raised their heads, leaving them bruised. The gunfire struck nobody and kept the occupants away from the exits.

The gunfire alerted the branch's head cashier, who activated the silent alarm at approximately 10:31 a.m. and locked herself inside the counting office. At approximately 10:32 a.m., Petru and Emil seized the branch manager and forced him to lead them toward the cash-processing area. Emil broke the manager's nose, split his lip, and fractured two ribs before tearing the manager's keyring from his belt.

The manager's keys opened the staff doors but could not open the cash room without the head cashier's separately controlled key. Emil forced the manager to call her over the internal telephone, but she refused to leave the counting office and stalled while Emil's departure deadline approached. After she unlocked the office, Emil choked her until she surrendered the second key at approximately 10:35 a.m., then knocked her unconscious with the stock of his rifle before entering the cash room with Petru.

Emil selected approximately 40.6 billion old Romanian lei, €2.5 million, and US$1.6 million from the bundled cash. At the exchange rates current on the day of the robbery, the three currencies had a combined assessed value of approximately 180 billion old lei. Petru helped distribute the roughly 100-kilogram load among all three duffel bags while guarding the manager and the unconscious head cashier. They carried Iakob's bag into the public hall for him and finished moving the money toward the entrance at approximately 10:39 a.m., one minute beyond Emil's planned departure deadline.

Police response and escape

At approximately 10:39 a.m., the first police patrol reached the branch as Petru, Iakob, and Emil were emerging toward the waiting Sprinter. The officers took cover behind their patrol car. Iakob turned back toward the banking hall and reached for a child near the entrance, intending to use the child as a hostage against police fire, but Petru shouted at him to leave the child and get into the van. Iakob turned toward the patrol car, inserted a drum magazine into his PM md. 65, and fired repeatedly through the vehicle while taunting the officers and shouting slurs at them. One officer was struck in the thigh and lower abdomen and suffered major blood loss. The other sustained gunshot wounds that shattered his shoulder and forearm, along with facial injuries from the patrol car's broken glass.

Despite his wounds, the second officer returned fire from the ground with his service pistol. One round struck Iakob's body armour without injuring him. Iakob continued taunting the wounded men until Petru called him back again, after which he climbed into the rear of the Sprinter with Emil and the duffel bags. Petru entered the driver's seat and pulled away at approximately 10:40 a.m.

Petru drove east along Bulevardul Unirii, passed through Piața Alba Iulia, and continued along Bulevardul Decebal to Piața Muncii. From there, he followed Bulevardul Basarabia toward a converted Bucharest Butchers garage near the Republica industrial platform. Police reinforcements reached the branch at approximately 10:44 a.m., after the Sprinter had cleared the immediate area. The crew completed the approximately nine-kilometre journey at about 10:57 a.m. and drove the Sprinter inside the garage with the stolen money and weapons.

Aftermath

The robbers unloaded their weapons and the stolen currency inside the garage, where Emil counted the money. Afterward, Emil packed the Sprinter with straw, urinated over it "for good luck", and set it on fire. Dirlewanger retained 60% of the proceeds and divided the remainder equally among Petru, Iakob, and Emil, giving each robber cash worth approximately 24 billion old lei. He treated the robbery as the first of three tests, testing Emil in 2002, Petru in 2004, and Iakob in 2005, and admired Iakob's willpower during the confrontation with police.

The pregnant customer and her unborn child recovered, together with the manager, head cashier, and customers kicked by Iakob. Both wounded officers eventually recovered fully. On 24 December, Police Chief Commissioner Lucian Mureșan, acting for Dirlewanger, transferred the case files and ballistic evidence into central custody, removed the original investigators, and blocked searches of Bucharest Butchers properties. Police continued to describe the investigation as active in public before formally suspending it. The three robbers were never connected to the crime, and none of the stolen money was recovered.

See also

• Bucharest Butchers
• Petru Ionuț
• Iakob Ionuț
• Emil Ionuț
• Oskar Dirlewanger
• North Hollywood shootout
• Banca Dâmbovița