Bank robbers took advantage of New York City's east-side fireworks this year and sawed a hole in the roof of a Lower East Side bank to carry out a heist.
Police sources told the New York Post the robbery was carried out at Popular Community Bank during the Fourth of July fireworks show over the East River. The show was apparently so loud that no one heard the robbers sawing the hole.
Check out a photo of the roof:
Thieves sawed a hole in the roof of the bank on the Lower East Side during fireworks on th... https://t.co/I94xGXcNGl pic.twitter.com/wbXJFu83Pp
- [ Crime News ] (@goinsidecrime) July 6, 2014
The thieves used a ladder to climb to the bank's second-story roof from a nearby construction site. They reportedly made off with $290,000, according to Gothamist.
Only one of the vaults was broken into, with the main vault left sealed, according to the Daily Mail.
Apparently, this tactic isn't new. Last year, police apprehended a group of thieves in California who broke into banks from rooftops. In that case, the suspects used a sonar stud finder to figure out where the banks' vaults were located, then sawed a hole in the roof.
And in Baltimore in 1997, three robbers allegedly cut a hole in the roof of a bank to rob it. They then used the same hole to escape the bank.