Posted on 12/07/2013 2:57:07 PM PST by Theoria
One of the biggest armored-car companies in this sprawling Texas city has a message for would-be robbers: It is not worth the trouble, or your life.
In response to a series of armored-truck robberies this year in the Houston region, the company, GardaWorld, has taken the unusual step of talking publicly and talking tough, even for Texas, about the lengths to which it will go to protect its cargo, its employees and the public.
“We’re letting the bad guys know: We’re going to defend ourselves,” said Robert Hatchett, the senior manager for GardaWorld’s Texas operations. “They can expect, in one way or another, to pay. They’re going to pay for it with physical injury, harm, possible death. They’re going to pay for it with prosecution, and they’re going to pay for it with restitution. We’re not going to let it go.”
Harris County, which includes Houston, has had 11 armored-car robberies since January, roughly a third of the nationwide total this year. The F.B.I. had reports of two holdups of armored vehicles in New York City this year and none in the Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles areas.
All 11 robberies in the Houston region occurred outside banks, check-cashing stores and other businesses as the guards were handling thousands of dollars in cash while walking to or from their trucks or servicing A.T.M.’s. The most recent came on Friday morning, when a gunman drove off in an armored van on the University of Houston campus and later abandoned the vehicle nearby. The authorities did not say how much money was taken.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
... 'Robbers succeeded in escaping with cash in 4 of the 11 robberies this year.'
Armored-car robberies are almost always a nasty business.
The bad guys have been watching too many reruns of Walker Texas Ranger for ideas on how to do it.
That’s really a very high risk maneuver!
The carriers need more advanced training.
They don’t get much.
Around here, I’ve seen the guards by twos. One carrying the bags or pushing the cash cart and the other one walking with him, gun in hand, not holstered.
It took "a series" of robberies for the armored personnel to warn would be robbers you're actually gonn'a USE those frikkin' gun sight/doors ?
Why the hell do you think the frikkin' things were built into them in the FIRST place ?
Frontier activities demand frontier justice, IMO.
Don’t drive angry.
I remember one tv movie years ago (McCloud?) where a guy on horseback fired a bazooka at an armored car. That had to be a one-off television moment.
Funny you should post that story about the old shotgun squads. It was a topic for discussion on the local radio station the other day. One of the retired APD officers was telling some interesting stories about how armed robberies pretty much came to a screeching halt around Austin.
There’s no way the hippidy-dippidy powers that be down there would let that happen again.
Not around here either.
Makes perfectly good sense when you think about it. The armed robber is threatening deadly violence as soon as she enters the store.
I was in a Hong Kong shopping center once and met a small phalanx of heavily armed amored car guards double timing my direction. Stepped out of the way.
My brother used to be a union tin knocker in NYC in the early 70’s. They insisted on cash paychecks back then. Armored car came in every payday with two back up guards with 12 gage shotguns.
One guard typically hung back from the crowd with his yellow shooting glasses on just waiting for somebody to make a move on the bags of money at the pay shanty. My brother used to say “that guy just couldn’t wait to shoot someone”. LOL
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