BUNGLING crooks who robbed a van on its way to Heathrow got away with £75million — in MONOPOLY money. The gang snatched the white Ford Transit from a street — convinced it was crammed with genuine currency. But it was carrying hundreds of copies of the family board game, plus bundles of worthless Monopoly £500 and £100 notes to be used in an ad campaign.
Police last night vowed to send the hopeless Great Game Robbers straight to jail — WITHOUT passing Go. One detective quipped: “There will be no Get Out Of Jail free card for these chancers when we catch them. And they won’t be collecting £200 either.”
The brand new liquid petroleum gas van was stolen as its driver made a delivery in Slough, near the airport. A courier was due to drive it to Heathrow next day, so its cargo could be loaded on a plane to Czech capital Prague.
Inside were copies of a new express travel version of the traditional property-buying game — and piles of notes issued by the fictional Bank of Monopoly. They were to be used as props in a commercial by makers Hasbro, being filmed in Prague to highlight how Monopoly has become an international game. One scene was to show notes raining down over the city on to happy players.
Police are working on the theory that word got around the criminal world that an important shipment was in transit — and that somehow the gang became convinced that real money was involved. A police source said: “Apparently the driver left his keys in the van and came back to see a man inside trying to start it.
“He tried to haul the thief from the vehicle but was unsuccessful and it sped off.”
The van was spotted ten days after the theft, but its contents had gone. A 32-year-old man at the wheel was arrested and was last night being held on remand.
0 comments:
Post a Comment