Crimes, anonymity and the Net

06.10.2008
An ingenious bank robber dressed as a road maintenance worker pulled , thanks in part to the Internet.

The robber pepper-sprayed a guard outside the Bank of America in Monroe, Washington, grabbed a bag of cash from a Brinks truck, and . He then floated down to the Skykomish River where presumably he had a boat or a car or possibly a zeppelin stashed.

But that wasn't the genius part. Security guards couldn't pursue the robber because there were a dozen other people at the bank dressed exactly like him -- dust mask, safety goggles, work gloves, blue work shirt -- . They'd all been instructed to show up at the bank at 11 am dressed for a job that promised US$28.50 an hour.

So is this what Senator Ted Stevens meant when said the ? Maybe he just meant the Net is going down the tubes... like a bank robber down a river.

It was hardly the first time Craigslist has been used to mask a robbery. Last March, an Oregon home was ransacked after , to cover up a crime they'd already committed. There's at least . It's a long list.

Now the cops are hoping the bank robber left a trail of digital breadcrumbs behind. In this way this story is similar to last week's "citizen journalism" snafu, where , possibly to drive down Apple's stock price. Now the with an iReports user employing the handle "Johntw." Anybody out there know him?