Chapter 838: The Vanished Robbers
Song Mingguang then shared his opinion.
"I suggest we check all the surveillance cameras around the bank. They must have scouted the area beforehand, so during the robbery, they were fully armed and their faces couldn’t be seen, but during scouting, they certainly weren’t in disguise."
"Through nearby surveillance, check if there have been any suspicious individuals lingering and moving around the bank recently."
"I think we should have some findings."
Li Donglin nodded in agreement with Song Mingguang’s suggestion.
The other party must have scouted the area, so it can’t be that they only showed up at the bank entrance or nearby once or twice.
The possibility of multiple appearances is higher, so by screening surveillance near the bank entrance, some useful clues and information should be obtained.
"Does anyone else have any suggestions?"
Several people exchanged glances and stayed silent.
Li Donglin noticed this and prepared to conclude the meeting and take everyone to the scene to have a look.
"Director Li, I made a discovery."
Lu Chuan suddenly spoke.
"Oh? What’s the discovery?"
Lu Chuan had been replaying a segment of footage from the surveillance in his mind repeatedly.
He finally found something amiss.
"Captain Gao, could you please adjust the video to the segment where the robbers appear."
Gao Xiang operated the progress bar to adjust to the time point when the robbers first appeared.
"Play..."
"Stop!"
"Captain Gao, enlarge the image..."
"The robber on the right near the bank entrance, he’s holding a pistol..."
"Everyone, look at the pistol grip."
Following Lu Chuan’s reminder, everyone carefully examined the pistol grip of the robber on the right near the bank entrance.
Grass!
"Fake?!"
Those present, though not dealing with firearms every day, have a far better understanding of guns than regular people.
"It’s actually a fake gun!"
Wang Song, Song Mingguang, and others then noticed the discrepancy.
Lu Chuan nodded; this was exactly his discovery.
Compared to others who rarely handle guns daily, Lu Chuan possessed specialized firearm skills as a system reward.
So his perception of firearm structure and feel is far keener than others.
Among the three robbers, the one near the door held a gun with his right hand against a security guard’s head, conveniently revealing the safety side of the gun.
Logically, under such circumstances, the gun’s safety should be open, meaning the firearm should be ready to fire at any moment.
However, in the video, the pistol safety is generally in the closed position.
Meaning, the pistol in this situation couldn’t fire by pulling the trigger.
This is quite unreasonable.
With the image enlarged just now, everyone could see that it wasn’t a real safety being closed, but rather that this gun is fake, with the safety being merely a decorative feature.
The video passing quickly didn’t reveal this, but was quite clear when enlarged.
Thus, after enlarging the video, the key issue was immediately discovered by Wang Song, Song Mingguang, and others.
Gao Xiang was also dumbfounded.
He truly didn’t expect.
The three robbers used fake guns to rob a bank, and they succeeded, stealing 8 million in cash.
This damn... Is this not a tall tale?
Ah, no wonder the speaking robber kept persuading the security and bank staff not to resist, building them up psychologically. It turns out the guns they held were fake.
In that case, does this qualify as armed robbery?
Certainly not.
Armed bank robbery and robbing a bank with fake guns are completely different concepts.
In any situation, armed robbery, regardless of the target, is treated with extra severity during the criminal proceedings.
This is because firearms themselves pose a substantial safety threat to people’s lives and properties.
However, fake guns lack the inherent danger of real firearms, thus robbing with fake guns doesn’t count as armed robbery.
"How about the guns of the other two?"
Gao Xiang reviewed the video, but wasn’t entirely sure.
The firearms used by the other two didn’t show obvious fake gun characteristics.
It’s specifically the gun of the robber near the bank entrance that’s confirmed to be fake, because its safety shape was caught on camera, and upon enlarging, it’s clear that safety is fake.
The guns of the other two robbers couldn’t be determined.
But, everyone estimated they were also fake.
In this case, seeking them out through firearm channels might not be feasible.
Though this discovery might not have a substantial effect on cracking the case, all involved felt a sigh of relief internally.
If the robbers had real guns, then during both the investigation and subsequent pursuit, extra caution must be exercised, and the strategy would be entirely different.
But if they had fake guns, it implies the robbers don’t have particularly threatening weapons against the life of police.
Thus, during the case investigation, the police would be able to employ some bolder methods and approaches.
Of course, we have determined one of the robber’s pistols is fake from the video, but we lack evidence proving the other two robbers’ guns are also fake.
Therefore, Li Donglin emphasized: "Everyone must remain vigilant; the other two pistols in the adversary’s hands remain uncertain, whether real or fake. During the investigation, prioritize safety, assuming they have real guns, is not excessive."
"Captain Gao, take us to the scene."
"Yes!"
The crime scene was already cordoned off.
This bank has temporarily ceased operations.
"Were the footprints collected?"
Gao Xiang shook his head: "When we arrived at the scene, it was already very chaotic; the bank’s personnel along with the security staff had mostly disrupted the footprints near the entrance beyond collection feasibility."
"After receiving the report, we arrived at the scene by 6:20, twelve minutes post-incident."
"According to clues from eyewitnesses on the scene, after acquiring the boxes, the three robbers left in different directions."
Gao Xiang gestured directions: "One ran to the left, one to the right, and the third headed towards the alley opposite."
"We deployed three teams in pursuit along their escape directions, but gained no results."
"Was the surveillance checked?"
Gao Xiang nodded affirmatively: "It was checked."
"Initially, the three were captured by surveillance and spotted by people, but later vanished."
Vanished?
"What does that mean?"
This puzzled Gao Xiang.
Though the trio fled in three different directions, their appearances quickly dwindling; within about ten minutes post-escape from the scene, they utilized no transportation. On foot, they couldn’t have gotten far.
Estimated to be around a kilometer, given they were carrying two boxes weighing several dozen pounds.
Yet within this brief ten-minute span, they vanished.