It was an operation like out of a Hollywood movie. Meticulously planned and perfectly executed despite the surprising twists. How was it possible to make the jump that cost Sweden millions?
In the early morning of September 22, 2009, four people stole 39 million Swedish kronor, or more than 16 million zlotys, in twenty minutes. They broke into the best-kept place in Stockholm, took the money, and in front of the stunned policemen… flew off the building's roof by helicopter. Not a single shot was fired, no one was killed, no one was hurt. It's not a movie, it's true! Who were the robbers and how did they plan this robbery of the century?
Helicopter on the roof
A few minutes after 5 am, the Swedish capital was still plunged into darkness. Those who were awake could hear the sound of a helicopter flying over the industrial district of the city - Västberga. They probably considered it one of the machines used by local companies. And so, undisturbed by anyone, the white Bell 206 Jet Ranger approached one of the buildings. Then, lighting his way with the searchlight attached under the hull, he gently landed on the roof, next to a glass pyramid glowing with light.
At exactly 5.15am, four men dressed in black with balaclavas on their heads jumped out of the helicopter. They quickly unhooked the ladder attached to Belle and began to unfold it. Then one of them pulled a large hammer from the machine and swung it, trying to break the glass of the triangular skylight sticking out of the roof. The reinforced glass turned out to be durable, but succumbed after a few blows.
The pilot picked up the helicopter, flew aside and hovered in the air, while two robbers inserted a ladder into the skylight opening and then descended to a balcony a few meters below. They attached explosives to the window and returned to the roof. They had no time to waste - police cars were already flashing blue in the streets surrounding the building .
The building in Västberg, the best-guarded treasury in all of Europe. This is where the September 2009 robbery took place.
One minute more and I'm off…
After a while, the air exploded, and the glass one floor below crumbled to pieces. The burglars quickly descended the ladder and entered the building through the window. In the corridor, they blew up the steel security doors and got into the so-called "sub-counting room". There, in a special cage, bundles of banknotes were placed, lying in red plastic containers. To get to them, the men fired a handheld petrol sander and, in piles of sparks, severed the padlocks on the door. The money was at their feet.
The robbers, however, did not take them blindly. They were looking for five hundred crowns, and rejected containers with one hundred and twenty crowns . They packed them into bags which they had filled and then put them back on the balcony. They were aware that they had to hurry. Security guards or policemen could break into the room at any time.
Meanwhile, while the four daredevils were plundering the sub-countership, the helicopter pilot was staring impatiently at the roof. He was waiting for his friends. More than a quarter of an hour has passed since they disappeared into the building. The street below was full of police cars and officers. Worse still, there were also two buses out of which anti-terrorists armed to the teeth spilled out. Police helicopters were also to be expected soon. The situation was getting more and more dangerous, especially since ... the fuel reserve light on the console came on! "Another minute. Then I wash off, ”the pilot decided.
Fortunately for himself, his companions literally appeared on the roof a moment later. The machine landed quickly, the thieves dumped the sacks of money on board, and then they jumped inside. The pilot picked up the machine and flew off into the fading darkness of the night. The entire action lasted twenty minutes. 39 million crowns were stolen. But how did this even come about?
All because of the woman
The jump was organized by three partners:39-year-old Serb Goran Bojović (known as "the Brain") living in Sweden and two Swedes, 33-year-old Mikael Södergran and 32-year-old Charbel Charro. All of them had come into conflict with the law before and were recorded, among other things, for robberies and thefts. Throughout their lives, they obtained money in various, usually not very fair, ways.
The idea of the attack of the century came to them by chance. It started when Bojović started an affair with a young girl who had been working for the international company G4S for two years. This British company is a real giant in the security industry. It operates in over 90 countries and employs nearly 600,000 people. In Stockholm, the company collected cash from stores. She transported them to a "safe place", that is, to her vault, which was located in the Västberg district. Nowhere else in all of Sweden has more cash been stored. No wonder there were legends about the security of the room.
But there was one way to get to the cash register easily. Bojović met him thanks to his girlfriend. "You don't have to get into the vault," she told him . "You just need to punch through the roof. You drill a hole and walk straight into our room ” . That sounded encouraging…
As a result of the attack on the Stockholm treasury, Sweden lost 39 million Swedish kroner.
A balloon for a jump
The gangsters followed the lead given to them. They saw the plans for the G4S building legally in ... the office of the municipal building management. They considered several options of getting inside, including using a crane and a balloon. Eventually they opted for a light helicopter. They chose the popular Bell 206 Jet Ranger model.
Of course, a pilot was needed to drive the machine. For this role, the partners recruited Alexander Eriksson, who previously worked as a TV producer on, for example, the Swedish version of "Idol". They also recruited several other people into the operation, including Safa Kudhum, Marcus Axelsson and Tomas Broman. It took the group six months to develop the plan.
Criminals knew that it should not take more than fifteen minutes from landing on the roof of the G4S building to taking off again. That was the time it took to mobilize the company's security; the police were able to act even faster.
To escape, the criminals organized another team, which at the same time broke into a police hangar on the island of Varmdö (one of the farms there in the photo, 2014).
Bojović and his companions assumed that it would take them two or three minutes to leave the helicopter, punch a hole in the glass roof, unfold the ladder and go down to the balcony below. Another three they spent on placing the cargo on the sixth-story window, returning to the roof and waiting for the explosion. In their opinion, it should take the same amount of time to return to the building and break through the security door. They split the last six minutes equally between loading cash into sacks, carrying them out, returning to the roof and escaping. Fifteen minutes in total and not a moment to spare. Everything had to run smoothly for the jump to be successful.
Caltrops and bombs
Even before commencing the action, the group made the necessary preparations. First of all, it was necessary to get a means of transport. The longed-for Bell was stolen just before 5 a.m. on September 22 from a hangar at Norrtälje airport in the northern part of Stockholm. In addition, the criminals secured - as much as possible - the area of operation. On the streets leading from the G4S building at Västberga aleé 11, they spread ... 60 meters of spikes. In this way, they wanted to make police intervention difficult.
Police helicopters were also successfully immobilized. To this end, part of the team broke into a police hangar in Myttinge on the island of Varmdö and placed… dummy bombs there. As a result, when the police officers in charge of the action at the G4S building demanded the immediate delivery of a helicopter, the staff at the airport in Myttinge reported that it was impossible. All machines have been mined…
Why, however, those units that reached the building did not join the action? Stockholm police received a report of the robbery four minutes after it had started. They were sent by the security guards in the building. The first officers arrived ten minutes later. However, they feared that the criminals might be armed with machine guns, and waited for the arrival of a special unit. It was thanks to this that at 5.35 the robbers departed, not arrested by anyone. Soon after, at 8.15, their helicopter was found. It was located about 30 kilometers north of Stockholm. However, there was no trace of the thieves and the money.
Never before has such a spectacular and daring robbery happened in Sweden. No wonder that there was a reward of 7 million crowns for providing information that would allow the perpetrators to be caught. The news of the robbery became the sensation of the day. It was broadcast by the media all over the world. One of the stations illustrated the information ... with a few scenes from an action movie starring Tom Cruise!
The article was inspired by Jonas Bonnier's novel " Helicopter "(Znak 2018), was created on the coffee of long hours of conversations with people who made the heist of the century.
I think they quit…
Interestingly, the Swedish police had a chance to foil this extraordinary action. The organizers of the jump, looking for a pilot, recruited a certain Bosnian who - they did not know - was covered by the witness protection program in Serbia. He informed the local police about the planned robbery, which they shared with their colleagues from Stockholm.
The pilot didn't know all the details, but he did know quite a bit. He revealed, among other things, that the helicopter landing on the roof would be used in the attack. He also revealed that there is at least ten million euros at stake and that some building in Stockholm will be the target of the robbery. He even testified that the perpetrators were going to get inside by blowing up the roof. And that they want to disable the police helicopters.
Swedish police investigated the matter. It found that the sum provided by the Serbian informant was only found in three locations in Stockholm:the National Bank and the headquarters of Panaxii and G4S. As the day of the expected jump approached, the last two buildings were discreetly surrounded. However, nothing happened, so the officers decided that the robbers gave up the robbery . Meanwhile, those, having found out about the snitch, only postponed the action to a later date.
They will be in the movie
Despite their initial helplessness, the investigators quickly rose to the occasion. The arrests were made two days after the jump. Goran Bojović was stopped in Stockholm in his car. Among other things, he found bills for prepaid phones used during the robbery. Alexander Eriksson, on the other hand, ran into the airport on his way to the Canary Islands.
Swedish EC 135 helicopter used by local police to prosecute criminals.
A little later, Saha Kadhum was also caught, who managed to escape to the Dominican Republic. He was brought back home in a specially hired plane. He stood trial with the others. Ultimately, in the trial, Eriksson and Kadhum were sentenced to 7 years in prison, Charro and Södergran for 5 years, Bojović for 3 years, Marcus Axelsson for 2 years, and Tomas Broman for a year.
All the perpetrators of the robbery have served their sentences and are at large. Based on their feat, Netflix intends to make a sensational film. As you can see, inspiration works both ways. Burglars use film scripts, and the film industry - the ingenuity of criminals.
Inspiration:
The article was inspired by a novel by Jonas Bonnier " Helicopter , based on real events." ”(Sign 2018). The writer reached out to the men who organized the most audacious robbery in Scandinavian history. His story is the result of many hours of conversations with daredevils, and each side brings new twists and turns, until the surprising finale.