Michael Hopcroft Posted January 29, 2018 Report Share Posted January 29, 2018 One of the standbys of Champions, and of superhero comics, is the bank robbery. A gang of thugs waltzing into a bank office or branch and gabbing all the money there, only to be interrupted by the heroes. It's as old as comics. Only one problem -- there's really no point to robbing banks anymore. Tellers work with very small tills, nobody keeps much cash around because all large transactions are done electronically now, and, seriously -- if you can lift buses or smash through brick walls, the return on a bank job in these times is a pittance compared to other crimes you could be committing. Bank robberies today and basically either crimes of desperation or the acts of a lone person robbing a single teller. The capture, arrest, and conviction rate of real-world bank robbers is close to 100%, even with a good disguise. Not worth it. So if you want to have the heroes foil a crime committed by a brute-force villain (as opposed to more subtle schemers and the outright megalomaniacs), what sort of crime works? I know the bank robbery is a genre trope, but it doesn't make as much sense anymore. So what do they do to announce themselves and present themselves as a threat we need superheroes to deal with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsatow Posted January 29, 2018 Report Share Posted January 29, 2018 Depends on the bank. A commercial bank might have a lot of money from deposits by stores and then there are always safe deposit boxes. But there are always other targets... Expensive car lots. High tech factories and stores. Weapons are a money maker. Your modern gang members tend to rob jewelry stores in smash and grab raids. Celebrities. They usually have money and expensive things. Better yet, you can kidnap them for money. Monetary exchanges. Especially in busy airports/hotels. Casinos. Criminals. A lot of criminals deal only in cash. Federal Mints. (Washington, Denver, Philly, San Francisco, West Point, and obviously Fort Knox) New marijuana dispensaries. Most people probably don't want a dispensary on their credit card bill. drunkonduty 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. R Posted January 30, 2018 Report Share Posted January 30, 2018 High end hotel may have internal vaults for their patrons. A show called Masterminds had one episode about some crooks who did that on New Years Eve. And they were never caught. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsatow Posted January 30, 2018 Report Share Posted January 30, 2018 An oldie but goodie that just popped into my head: Museums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcw43921 Posted January 30, 2018 Report Share Posted January 30, 2018 2 hours ago, dsatow said: Depends on the bank. A commercial bank might have a lot of money from deposits by stores and then there are always safe deposit boxes. But there are always other targets... Expensive car lots. High tech factories and stores. Weapons are a money maker. Your modern gang members tend to rob jewelry stores in smash and grab raids. Celebrities. They usually have money and expensive things. Better yet, you can kidnap them for money. Monetary exchanges. Especially in busy airports/hotels. Casinos. Criminals. A lot of criminals deal only in cash. Federal Mints. (Washington, Denver, Philly, San Francisco, West Point, and obviously Fort Knox) New marijuana dispensaries. Most people probably don't want a dispensary on their credit card bill. I would add horse racing tracks to this list--it's my understanding that both casinos and racetracks are required by law to have enough cash on hand to cover every bet made, so I think they would have plenty of cash on hand for that purpose. Small-time villains could find pawn shops an easy target--in addition to whatever cash is on hand, they would also have jewelry and weapons, and whatever other items the criminals may find valuable. Criminals are listed, and I would add they would make a great target for Robin Hood types, who would donate the larger part of the take to charities under the table. Of course the criminals being robbed would take justice--for lack of a better word--into their own hands, and that could get really messy for all concerned. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted January 30, 2018 Report Share Posted January 30, 2018 5 hours ago, dsatow said: 4. Your modern gang members tend to rob jewelry stores in smash and grab raids. ... 8.Criminals. A lot of criminals deal only in cash. Both of these are good for Australian villains. Jewelry stores are good targets for stealthier characters. Superpowers negate the benefits of modern security. But targeting other criminals is so good for more smash and grab oriented criminals that its practitioners have their own name: Toecutters. They are also known as Standover Men. Needless to say, this tends to start gang wars. Superpowered gang wars, in our case. Of course you need to adjust the level of violence to suit your campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted January 30, 2018 Report Share Posted January 30, 2018 ATM's or the trucks that refill them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted January 30, 2018 Report Share Posted January 30, 2018 3 hours ago, Hyper-Man said: ATM's or the trucks that refill them. Actually any of the trucks that transport large amounts of cash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted January 30, 2018 Report Share Posted January 30, 2018 Safe deposit companies. Check out the Hatton Garden raid... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatton_Garden_safe_deposit_burglary This is a great example of an almost perfect crime where much of the goods are unregistered and may include goods that are already illegal and the owners cannot go to the authorities and report them stolen. All kinds of potential twists in that... Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassandra Posted January 30, 2018 Report Share Posted January 30, 2018 19 hours ago, dsatow said: Depends on the bank. A commercial bank might have a lot of money from deposits by stores and then there are always safe deposit boxes. But there are always other targets... Expensive car lots. High tech factories and stores. Weapons are a money maker. Your modern gang members tend to rob jewelry stores in smash and grab raids. Celebrities. They usually have money and expensive things. Better yet, you can kidnap them for money. Monetary exchanges. Especially in busy airports/hotels. Casinos. Criminals. A lot of criminals deal only in cash. Federal Mints. (Washington, Denver, Philly, San Francisco, West Point, and obviously Fort Knox) New marijuana dispensaries. Most people probably don't want a dispensary on their credit card bill. Diamond Merchants. Grab the safe and take off. Small, valuable, easy to transport and convert to cash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted January 30, 2018 Report Share Posted January 30, 2018 9 hours ago, Doc Democracy said: Safe deposit companies. Check out the Hatton Garden raid... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatton_Garden_safe_deposit_burglary This is a great example of an almost perfect crime where much of the goods are unregistered and may include goods that are already illegal and the owners cannot go to the authorities and report them stolen. All kinds of potential twists in that... Doc One of the potential twists happened in the case of the Great Bookie Robbery in Australia. Standover men got to them. Sometimes it's better for the heroes to catch you first. Doc Democracy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterhawk Posted January 31, 2018 Report Share Posted January 31, 2018 On 1/29/2018 at 5:42 PM, dsatow said: New marijuana dispensaries. Most people probably don't want a dispensary on their credit card bill. Actually, last I heard, Federal Law didn't allow banks to handle money from marijuana shops as it was technically drug money. Shops have to hire armed guards, usually ex-military, to transport money to safehouses. Sounds like a cool set-up for a running battle, especially if the guards are also supers or ex-VIPER or PRIMUS and armed with blasters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted February 1, 2018 Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 What's the big deal about reality. You know this is a superhero universe, right? Banks still have tons of cash and/or are still targets of super-roberies if we want them to be. And even if we take the reality of electronic banking, nobody says the super-crooks have to be smart, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcw43921 Posted February 1, 2018 Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 A good point. Nothing can turn into a hostage situation like a robbery gone bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 1, 2018 Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 Let me add that perhaps in the Bank’s safety deposit boxes there is something of interest . Perhaps a key, code book, microfilm, Or Lost Time perhaps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 1, 2018 Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 Or the Smash and Grab is a ruse for the real crime? wcw43921 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted February 1, 2018 Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 How about an insurance scam? Thugs hired to steal an item which is a fake so the owner can get cash from the insurance company and keep the original! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassandra Posted February 1, 2018 Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 Supermodels during a Fashion Show. You call it the Great American Beauty Robbery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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