The most spectacular bank robberies in People's Poland

The times of the crude PRL were not favorable to the cashiers. Thousands of wiretaps and increased surveillance of citizens made the already difficult task more difficult. After all, bank jump is Mount Everest in the thieving trade ... But there were also daredevils who wanted to get rich quickly and daringly. How did they do?

In the People's Republic of Poland, crime was supposed to decrease. The iron grip of the totalitarian arm apparently made it impossible for organized crime groups to function. Large-scale crimes and scandals - if the newspapers are to be believed - practically did not happen. When one looks at period magazines (especially crime books), it turns out that the biggest problem at that time was minor political and economic crimes. Pitawal classics mention robberies, beatings, and less frequently rape and murder. In a word - at most the effects of frustration and alcohol among desperate and pathological individuals.

And yet the underworld and gangs of robbers, more or less organized, existed then, as evidenced, for example, by the famous novel by Leopold Tyrmand "Zły", describing the criminal underground of Warsaw . Many matters were simply not informed of the public, so as not to undermine the faith of citizens in the effectiveness of the new law enforcement services. Is it possible to really cover up the bank jump - is it the most capitalist of crimes?

The robbery of the century

Perhaps because larger scandals were usually swept under the carpet, the events of August 1962 confused law enforcement agencies. They also became a real sensation for the boredom of the People's Republic of Poland. The bank jump in Wołów, because this is what we are talking about, was quickly - probably due to the scale of the project - dubbed the robbery of the century.

This pleasant building is nothing like the scene of one of the biggest cash jumps in the People's Republic of Poland. Today, instead of a bank, it houses the seat of the Wołowski City and Commune Office (photo:mar, license CC BY-SA 3.0).

It takes place in a quiet, Lower Silesian town. Why was it the inconspicuous bank of Wołowski that was worth the sin? Well, it was the only local branch of the National Bank of Poland branch in Wrocław in the entire poviat. This means that not only the revenues from all local trade agencies were stored there. The facility also kept salaries and wages for employees of all local state-owned companies (and then all institutions were state-owned!). So, at times, there was real wealth.

The temptation was great, the more that the bank was located in a poorly secured post-German house and was extremely poorly guarded. There were only two full-time guards working there, taking turns. When both of them had their day off at the same time - that is every day between 3 and 10 pm - the facility was left without any protection . No wonder that finally there were people willing to break the Wołowska piggy bank ... This is how the authors of the book "Zagadki kryminalne PRL", published this year by the Bellona Publishing House, describe the course of events:

At hour 22 a cleaner left the bank; the young hid in the basement, and when the guard entered there they called hands up! At first he thought it was a friend's joke, but when he saw two men with stockings on their faces and pistols in their hands, gave up immediately. He had no chance since his gun was lying locked in a bank armored cupboard.

A masterpiece

The guard, bound and gagged, with a towel wrapped around his face, lay in the basement all night. The cleaning lady didn't find him until morning. The thieves had a good few hours to escape and cover their tracks ... Meanwhile, over PLN 12.5 million disappeared from the bank's coffers. For comparison, it can be added that the average salary at that time was PLN 1680.

The entire local militia was quickly brought to their feet. The authorities treated the matter very ambitiously, so the most effective investigators were engaged. The precise implementation of the plan indicated the work of professionals. At one point in the investigation, the thread of an international gang of gangsters was also taken into account. However, the policemen had some doubts - planning this action required a perfect understanding of the local realities.

The perpetrators of the robbery escaped from the crime scene in a Warszawa car (photo:Marek Argent, license CC BY-SA 4.0).

An interesting lead for investigators could be the information about a large pool of new banknotes that were then in the bank. The information was sent, along with the details and banknote numbers, to many retail outlets across the country. However, to no avail. The perpetrators acted very carefully. There seemed to be a perfect crime ... Until one person made a tragic mistake.

Unlucky bedspread

On October 2, 1962, in Kluczbork, an apparently ordinary customer entered one of the local shops. She liked one of the bedspreads sold in the restaurant. She went to the cash register, took out a new bill and handed it to the cashier. We read what happened next in " Criminal mysteries of the Polish People's Republic ":

Cashier started go [banknote] carefully watch, what resulted in after the moment very nervous reaction clients: " madam me will give back this five hundred, got her from stranger, if false, this I'll travel I prefer to lose ”. Then already employee shop no gave up, called militia and madam F. hit na audition. Already na introductory stage myself broke down.

The main perpetrators of the "robbery of the century" on the bank in Wołów in the dock, 1962. Photo from the book "Criminal Riddles of the PRL" (photo:PAP / CAF / Eugeniusz Wołoszczuk).

Once everything was revealed, both law enforcement and the public were shocked a second time. It turned out that the sophisticated "attack of the century" was not made by an international gang of robbers, but by respected and well-off residents of Wołów! There was a local taxi driver among them, there was also a saddler, and even a "handyman" - a TV repair specialist. The gentlemen came up with the idea of the robbery ... while playing cards! And who knows, if not for the carelessness of one of them, maybe we would still be writing about a perfect crime?

Record of robbers stupidity

Not all the robbers were as capable as the group from Wołów. For example, two inconspicuous gentlemen who tried to make a jump to the Warsaw cooperative "Rekord" in 1952 did not show off. The cause of their failure was much more prosaic.

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Amateur cashiers attacked the cashier and security guards who were transporting the money to the cooperative. At first they achieved success - the escorts, seeing the gun, quickly handed over the briefcase with the money. But it was only a won battle, not a war. They got away completely awkwardly.

The crowd of passers-by immediately followed the thieves. The startled attackers threw away the stolen money, but soon they were caught anyway. After detailed research it became known why the retreat could not be successful. The robbers, just before the jump, drank over a liter of vodka for the courage…

The perpetrators of the perfect crime from Jasna Street in Warsaw managed to escape with the 24-hour revenue of the Central Department Store. Their booty was PLN 1,336,500! (source:public domain).

A perfect crime

Yet a perfect jump happened in People's Poland. The thieves have not been detected to this day, and the case is still controversial. We are talking about the famous attack on Jasna in Warsaw in 1964. The bandits then attacked the convoy transporting the money to the bank. The treasury was guarded by 3 people:the cashier Jadwiga Michałowska and two guards, Stanisław Piętka and Zdzisław Skoczek. The incident was reminiscent of a scene from an American gangster movie. This is how they are described in " Criminal mysteries of the Polish People's Republic ":

When the three of them tried to enter the building, Michałowska noticed a young, short man in a trench coat, following the building from the side of ul. Jasna towards the entrance. In an instant, Piętka almost happened to be with him collided. Then the bandit shot him straight in the chest. He pulled out a bag of money and started running away. The injured ranger managed to yet to go inside the building and collapsed on the stairs. He died soon.

The robbers seized the money and started to escape. Everything was perfectly planned and organized. Most likely, they had at least one partner who took over the bag of assets and jumped into the substituted car. They also managed to confuse passers-by: eyewitnesses presented several contradictory versions of the event!

The militia organized a large-scale manhunt. A road blockade was ordered and over ten thousand cars of the Warsaw brand were inspected (this was probably the one that thieves had escaped). Everyone who came to the capital on December 21-22 was interrogated and had to provide an alibi. People dealing with fencing were under surveillance all over the country. All for free. The perpetrators disappeared like camphor and no trace of them was left.

Impunity or not?

The perpetrators of the Jasna raid have remained undetected to this day. In 1989, the case became statute-barred. But did the thieves really go unpunished? This is what the official version says. According to it, they most likely went abroad and lived there in peace, taking advantage of the stolen property. However, not everyone believes it.

House under the Eagles at ul. Jasna 1 in Warsaw, which housed the 3rd Branch of the National Bank of Poland. On December 22, 1964, unknown perpetrators robbed over 1.3 million zlotys from it, killing two escorts. Photo from the book "Zagadki kryminalne PRL" (photo:Andrzej Zborski / FOTONOVA / East News).

Many journalists and researchers find a second bottom in this matter, based on the accounts of some witnesses and the available, though fragmentary, documents. After the publication of the journal "Kulisy" in 1997, an article about the robbery, the editors received a letter in which the anonymous author - in a concise and matter-of-fact style, it is assumed that it was one of the uniformed - proposed another, now more popular hypothesis:

According to a street rumor, but also o of all documents discovered years later, they may have be captured and put to death under mysterious circumstances. Without the sentence and the publicity accompanying such cases, because they were probably employees of the Security Office or policemen and it showed the face of the power conflicting with the official communist ideology.

Inept followers

Two years after the Warsaw attack on Jasna Street, robbers from Poznań tried to commit a similar crime. Their goal was a convoy carrying 700,000 zlotys to the post office. However, they were less fortunate. Or maybe they just acted less professionally and prudently? The beginning of the action was somewhat reminiscent of the situation on Jasna Street. There was a scuffle, shots were fired, one of the escorts was shot (fortunately, this time it was not a fatal shot). And the attackers fled.

The robbers from Poznań were inspired by the movie "The League of Gentlemen" from 1960, in which Jack Hawkins played the main role. The thief he played, Lt. Col. Norman Hyde, was, however, much smarter than his Polish followers (photo:Allan Warren, license CC BY-SA 3.0).

It was even worse than that. During the escape, one of the thieves was struck down ... by a teenage passerby who tripped his leg . Another was injured. Soon the whole gang was taken over by the militia. The robbers were allegedly inspired by the then popular movie "League of Gentlemen". As you can see, art does not always inspire sublime deeds ...

Today, such "classic" bank robberies are a thing of the past. Contemporary perfectly organized jumps to the cash register are not so spectacular. After all, the modern world has created conditions for easier and safer withdrawal of public money from the bloodstream, and fraudsters do not have to chase with pantyhose on their head and a knocker in their hand. And the cashiers? They are slowly ceasing to be the heroes of the romantic songs hummed in housing estates and yards about elegant and daring gentlemen who once again fooled the law enforcement agencies ...