The 2018 movie The Old Man & the Gun tells the story of Forrest Tucker, a gentleman bank robber who cannot seem to stop robbing banks, not with violence or safe cracking, but with kindness and a smile, and just a small display of the large handgun in his waistband. No one ever gets hurt, except the bank's balance, and the take is generally small, only being what a teller or bank manager can manage to stuff in the bag.
Forrest is obviously old, and therefore disarming. The earpiece he wears is taken for a hearing aid, but is really a radio tuned to the police band, alerting him to how soon the cops are going to get there His escape is well planned, with another stolen car planted somewhere that he drives the initial getaway car to. He sometimes has partners. In one year, they knocked over 60 banks. That's quite a weekly average.
The movie is delightful, produced by Robert Redford, who also plays Forrest. Forrest, has been caught over the course of his decades of crime, but he's also managed to escape from San Quentin and remain on the loose. Surely no small achievement. The real Forrest Tucker died in prison in 2004 after being sentenced at 78 years-of-age and sentenced for the last time in 1999. The movie is based on a 2003 New Yorker story by David Grann.
The movie of course is art imitating life. It adheres very closely to Forrest's story. And now we have life imitating life, with the capture of an octogenarian cat thief responsible for decades of apartment heists where tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry was transferred to a new owner.
Sam Sabatino, 82 has walked past his last doorman and taken his last elevator ride to the penthouse and gotten into his last apartment to fill his black bag with tens of thousands of dollars of watches and jewelry, all because the last doorman he tried to slip past knew a cousin named Suarez was not a building resident.
For decades, Mr. Sabatino has been guilelessly cruising past doormen, following tenants back into their apartment house lobby by chatting them up about their dog (In Manhattan, people love it when you talk to them about their dog.) Mr. Sabatino would then take an elevator to a floor and look for signs that someone might be away on the particularly holiday weekend he has targeted, generally Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Labor Day weekends. He also worked other cities besides New York, doing his thing in California, Pennsylvania and Arizona. You repeat what works, and for Mr. Sabatino, all this worked fine.
Mr. Sabatino was finally arrested when he came back out of a high-rise Manhattan apartment house when the doorman met him at the elevator and told Mr. Sabatino, that there is no cousin of his named "Suarez" living in the building. Mr. Sabatino was met on the sidewalk with an empty black bag and was arrested by the police.
There was no disclosure on how the police came upon his alias, and thus the car that was registered to the alias. But anyone who's watched even a sliver of television cop shows—American or British— knows there was a BIG white board in a precinct somewhere covered in photos and arrows helping the detectives track Sam's movements.
It was not by chance that he was met by the police as he emerged from a target building and was arrested. He was sought for years and years after jumping bail after a string of robberies and arrests. Mr. Sabatino's bail jumping got lost in the system, and allowed him to keep up his burglaries.
His alias was known, James Clement, and his car was tagged with a GPS tracking system. Thus the police knew he was in New York on the recent Labor Day weekend.
The police say Mr. Sabatino would try various doorknobs on various floors in buildings he gained access to, looking for ones that opened. Signs of being away, newspapers at the door, or packages, were the obvious clues that someone was probably away. The rest was easy.
And this is where not everything seems to be told; by the police, and by the reporters. People in Manhattan who might have untold riches inside didn't lock their doors? No mention is made of burglary tools. Finding that many doors unlocked just seems implausible.
I once got a peek at an insurance agents rate sheet for insuring jewelry in the metropolitan area. The insurer might have been Metropolitan, but that doesn't matter. It clearly showed various rates per thousand dollars of insured to be widely different depending on the insured's location. Manhattan, to my surprise, had by far the lowest rate.
I didn't ask why, but my thinking was that with high-rise living, the only way in is generally through the door. After the first floor, windows are out. And access to that door is probably protected with double, or even triple locks. And then there is the doorman and the CCTV surveillance cameras. Burglary just might not be the thing in Manhattan luxury buildings. Or, at least it would seem.
Nevertheless, our Man Sam got in like Flynn and made a livelihood stealing, and I'm sure fencing jewelry. When the police reached his daughter in Florida she shrieked into phone, "But he's 81." The newspaper account has him at 82, so Trina, given the news, just can't do the math in her head that fast, or, she missed the old guy's birthday. No matter now. Bail has been set at $1 million because he's a flight risk.
Thanksgiving dinner just might be somewhere else this year.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment