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You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!
A masked gang of armed thieves Monday blew up an armored van full of cash in the middle of an Italian highway in a daring daylight raid reminiscent of the classic heist film “The Italian Job.”
The brazen robbery involved about six criminals dressed in full white and black outfits stopping a Battistolli security van traveling in Puglia, with the bandits detonating a bomb that blew the armored van wide open, the Puglia Daily reported.
Wild footage showed the moment the thieves, armed with rifles, blew up the vehicle, with smoke and debris flying everywhere as the robbers rushed to loot the destroyed van’s contents.
It remains unclear how much money ended up being taken.
But the crazy caper is reminiscent of a scene in the 1969 flick “The Italian Job,” in which two members of a robbery crew played by Michael Caine and Tony Beckley are preparing explosives to rob a van and they blow up the whole vehicle.
Video from Monday’s highway robbery showed the Puglia gang had parked their cars on the road and set fire to another vehicle to stop traffic so they could carry out the heist.
During the incident, the robbers exchanged fire with responding Italian police, with Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto describing the chaos as “a bloody incident,” CNN reported.
At least one police officer was wounded in the shootout, with images from the aftermath showing a bullet hole in the windshield of a police cruiser.
No members of the public were injured during the incident, Italian police said.
Along with robbing the cash-transport van, the bandits also ambushed and robbed other vehicles that were stopped on the highway, according to Italian media.
Only two suspects have been arrested in the subsequent police chase and manhunt, with a 38- and 62-year-old charged with attempted murder, aggravated robbery and possession of war weapons, according to Italy’s public broadcaster RAI.
The Battistolli security company said the incident was only the latest of such attacks on its transport vans in the past two years, calling on officials to improve security on the roads.
“In the last two years, the Battistolli Group has suffered 14 attacks, a situation that requires attention and concrete action,” the company said in a statement.
“We express our closeness and solidarity to our colleagues, the bystanders involved, and their families,” the group added about the latest robbery.
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