In what could have been another ‘heist of the century’, authorities in San Isidro, Argentina, narrowly prevented a significant bank robbery after a metal rod unexpectedly emerged from a cobblestone street. The discovery led to the unveiling of a sophisticated tunnel system designed to breach a branch of Macro Bank.
The incident began on Wednesday when a driver parked on the northern outskirts of Buenos Aires heard an unusual noise emanating from beneath his car. Upon inspection, the noise was traced to a metal rod that had surfaced from the street. This prompted a police response, and upon further investigation, authorities uncovered a tunnel originating from a nearby warehouse, approximately 220 meters from the bank.
The tunnel, which had been meticulously lined with wood, featured ventilation, electric lighting, and appeared to be nearing completion just outside the bank’s vault. Inside the tunnel, police found evidence of significant excavation, including large amounts of displaced earth and extraction machinery.
Authorities estimate that the tunnel’s construction took between six and nine months, and they praised it as an engineering feat, comparing it to the tunnel used by notorious drug lord El Chapo Guzman during his 2015 escape from a Mexican prison. However, despite the elaborate preparations, the would-be robbers have yet to be apprehended.
The thwarted heist drew immediate comparisons to the infamous 2006 ‘heist of the century’ in the same upscale town of San Isidro. In that incident, a group of criminals meticulously planned and executed a robbery, making off with nearly $19 million from a bank. The 2006 robbers famously used toy weapons and left a note in the vault reading, “In a neighborhood of rich people, with no weapons or grudges, it’s just money.”
While the latest attempt to replicate the 2006 heist was foiled, the discovery of the tunnel serves as a stark reminder of the lengths to which criminals will go in pursuit of their targets. The investigation remains ongoing as authorities continue their search for the masterminds behind this elaborate plot.
