Cain Vincent Dyer, a former bank robber, breaks down the realism of group bank heists, as well as armored car and ATM robberies, in "Point Break" (1991), with Keanu Reeves; "The Town" (2010), starring Ben Affleck; and "Spider-Man: Homecoming" (2017), with Tom Holland and Zendaya. He looks at the safety protocols of banks and law enforcement when dealing with bank robberies in "2 Guns" (2013), with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg; "Hell or High Water" (2016), with Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges; "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" S4E21 (2017); and "Ambulance" (2022), with Jake Gyllenhaal. Dyer also explains the damage caused by robbing banks in "American Heist" (2014), with Hayden Christensen and Adrien Brody; and "Heaven's Burning" (1997).
Dyer served in the United States Marine Corps. He initially turned to bank robbery after threats to his family by a Mexican cartel, but after paying off the debt, he continued to rob banks for personal gain. He says he robbed over 100 banks across California between 1999 and 2001. He eventually turned himself in and served nine years in prison after pleading guilty to six robberies. He now works as a life coach and motivational speaker, working with victims of violent crime and helping newly released prisoners reintegrate into society.
You can watch part one of the video here:
https://youtu.be/Fgvdl87lqc8
Anyone who has been affected by violent crime can contact the National Center for Victims of Crime at 1-202-467-8700 or https://victimsofcrime.org.
Dyer served in the United States Marine Corps. He initially turned to bank robbery after threats to his family by a Mexican cartel, but after paying off the debt, he continued to rob banks for personal gain. He says he robbed over 100 banks across California between 1999 and 2001. He eventually turned himself in and served nine years in prison after pleading guilty to six robberies. He now works as a life coach and motivational speaker, working with victims of violent crime and helping newly released prisoners reintegrate into society.
You can watch part one of the video here:
https://youtu.be/Fgvdl87lqc8
Anyone who has been affected by violent crime can contact the National Center for Victims of Crime at 1-202-467-8700 or https://victimsofcrime.org.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 - Get your (beep) hands up!
00:01 - What's the matter with you?
00:02 - Back away, keep your hands where I can see 'em!
00:04 - If you're walking up and you see a bunch of people
00:06 standing in there with their hands up
00:08 or laying on the ground,
00:10 first thing you're gonna do is call the police.
00:12 Hi, I'm Kane Vincent Dyer.
00:14 Over a period of two and a half years,
00:16 I did approximately over 100 bank robberies.
00:19 Today, I'm back to look at more bank robbery scenes
00:22 and some great movies and to judge how real it is.
00:25 (dramatic music)
00:28 (guns firing)
00:31 - All right, calm down.
00:32 - It is absolutely on point.
00:34 Truck robberies are quite common.
00:37 I think there was just one in Los Angeles a week ago.
00:42 They said they had taken like 30,000.
00:45 I think after review, it came down to 15,000.
00:48 That's actually considerably small
00:51 for hitting an armored car.
00:52 The reason for that,
00:54 that's where the banks get the money from.
00:56 With that said, you're increasing your level
00:58 of danger a hundredfold.
01:00 You know, those security guards from armored car trucks
01:05 are trained to shoot back and defend that money.
01:08 It's a lot different than the thinking of a bank
01:10 can typically be to let you have it
01:13 and just to get you out of there.
01:15 - Any units in the air, get to the 61 in progress.
01:18 - I actually use police scanners in a lot of my bank heists.
01:25 I would tap in to the police activity within an area,
01:29 knowing when they're coming,
01:31 knowing how much time you have left inside.
01:33 So yes, it's absolutely something
01:36 that a gang of that caliber would have.
01:39 (tires screeching)
01:42 - Let's go, let's go!
01:43 (guns firing)
01:46 - We also see that they switch cars after the robbery,
01:51 which is very, very, very common.
01:54 All the cars that they're using are stolen,
01:56 more than likely, right?
01:57 Instead of stealing a car,
01:59 what I would do is I would find that make and model
02:02 of the car that I had,
02:03 and I would steal the license plate off an identical car.
02:07 There are a lot of guys and crews that are out there
02:10 that are like that.
02:11 You have to give the town the 10.
02:13 - What can I do you for, officer?
02:15 - Why are you closed?
02:16 - We're gonna leave one by one.
02:18 Nobody raise their head.
02:19 Do not get up!
02:20 - I've gone into banks yelling, you know, to take control.
02:25 When I actually talk to bank employees one-on-one,
02:29 when I'm instructing them to do something,
02:31 it's in a very soft tone,
02:33 that ability to adapt to a situation.
02:37 And you see the difference between when he's in the bank
02:40 talking to the customers,
02:42 and then when he switches his personality
02:46 to deal with the police officer.
02:48 - Wow, pig's not working, Danny.
02:52 I told you this thing's a (beep) pig.
02:54 - The car not working in that scene.
02:57 You'd like to think that you'd have
02:58 a perfectly operational vehicle
03:01 when you go do a bank robbery.
03:03 But hey, things happen sometimes.
03:05 I actually think that is where
03:07 you have a lot of bank robbers leave the car going,
03:09 or they'll park right in front.
03:11 There's less effort in getting in and starting up the car.
03:14 They can just get in and go.
03:15 - Let's go, let's go, let's go.
03:17 Move, move, move, move.
03:18 - Get outside now.
03:19 (gunshots)
03:21 - Hold time.
03:21 (beep)
03:22 - What?
03:23 - We see that there are undercover police officers
03:28 outside casing the bank also, and waiting.
03:32 Years later, when I turned myself in,
03:34 I was told that they would actually do that.
03:37 The special FBI agent who was attached to my case,
03:40 he would put teams together,
03:42 and they would go sit in front of banks,
03:46 and case banks looking for me to see
03:49 if I was either casing a bank, or robbing a bank.
03:53 And it was all guessing work for them,
03:55 because I wouldn't leave too much of a roadmap for them.
03:59 But it is something that absolutely happens
04:02 when they have bigger gangs
04:05 that are doing multiple robberies,
04:06 or multiple robberies have happened
04:09 within an area in a short time.
04:11 There's a lot of special effects in there,
04:12 and things like that,
04:14 but it's pretty accurate, I'd give it an eight.
04:17 - Get your (beep) hands up!
04:18 - (beep) what's the matter with you?
04:19 - Back away, keep your hands where I can see 'em!
04:22 - In so many bank robberies,
04:24 we actually witness the robbers coming in,
04:28 and yelling at customers, and tellers alike,
04:32 to get down, or to raise their hands.
04:35 That's something that I definitely stayed away from.
04:38 The thought process behind doing that
04:41 is to have absolute control of the movement.
04:46 I never ask anyone to lay on the floor, or lift their hands.
04:51 If you're a customer walking up to the bank,
04:53 and you see a bunch of people standing in there
04:55 with their hands up, or laying on the ground,
04:59 you're not gonna enter.
05:00 First thing you're gonna do is call the police.
05:02 - Hello, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen!
05:04 We are the ex-presidents!
05:06 - We see the bank robbery crew wearing the president's mask,
05:10 the rubber mask.
05:11 One of the bad things about wearing a mask,
05:14 you're alerting people that probably
05:16 something's going to take place here.
05:18 I would wear glasses, and a baseball hat,
05:21 'cause I wanted more so the element of surprise,
05:24 and to make certain that no one saw me
05:27 walking up to the bank ready to commit a robbery.
05:31 (door slams)
05:32 - Time, Mr. Carter!
05:33 - 60!
05:34 - Let's go, let's go, let's go!
05:36 - In and out in 90 seconds.
05:38 - To be in and out in a minute and a half?
05:41 Pretty much right on the money.
05:42 Typically, once you go into a bank,
05:45 and the alarm is set, depending on where
05:48 law enforcement is in relation to the bank,
05:51 it'll typically take about a minute and a half.
05:53 You have a group of guys that are all going after the drawers
05:57 and depending on the location of the bank,
06:01 they're probably not leaving with a big dollar amount.
06:06 But, I think their thing is quantity.
06:09 Do a lot of these things, get in, get out,
06:11 versus spending too much time trying to take on the vault.
06:15 But for the most part, whenever you have
06:18 a group-style bank robbery, it seems to be the method
06:21 that they prefer, the overwhelming,
06:24 the yelling, and things like that.
06:26 So, point break, gotta give it a 10.
06:29 ♪ Don't you hear ♪
06:33 - I don't know any of those petitions that exist,
06:37 but I've definitely seen preventative devices like that.
06:42 A lot of the bulletproof windows.
06:45 There's this double door that was created.
06:49 Well, the way it's set up now,
06:50 and a lot of banks that have been robbed a lot,
06:53 is once you go through that first door on the way out,
06:57 they have a mechanism that can lock the door to outside,
07:01 where you actually get stuck in the middle there.
07:04 (yelling)
07:06 Me, personally, I never put my hands on anyone.
07:12 I just always felt like the minute
07:16 you start assaulting people, you really add
07:20 a whole 'nother layer of fear,
07:22 which just completely can shut someone down.
07:25 The biggest regret that I actually have is,
07:29 though I never physically harm someone,
07:31 in any of the banks I did,
07:33 there's still a psychological toll of trauma
07:38 that people absolutely can take on
07:42 that I didn't account for.
07:44 So, for me, part of my penance wasn't just turning myself in
07:48 and doing a prison sentence voluntarily.
07:52 It was also immersing myself in victim impact,
07:56 which I've done over the years, over the last 10 years.
07:59 Worked with a lot of victims of violent crime.
08:03 - Come on, what about him?
08:04 - Come on!
08:05 - Let's go!
08:05 - What about him?
08:06 - I have definitely aborted several bank robbery attempts.
08:11 One was purely instinct, and sure enough,
08:17 within two minutes of me sitting there,
08:20 an unmarked Fed car pulled out, two federal agents got out.
08:24 Another time is, I did have an individual
08:27 aggress towards me, and since I did know
08:31 that the only way around this was gonna be
08:33 through a confrontation, I aborted immediately.
08:37 There was just some inconsistencies there,
08:39 so I'm gonna give it a four.
08:41 (dramatic music)
08:44 We see them going into the bank during a rainstorm.
08:49 To be quite honest, those were my favorite times
08:54 to do a bank robbery.
08:56 Why?
08:57 Because you don't stand out when you have on a big jacket,
09:01 you don't stand out if you have a hood over your head,
09:04 and there's less people paying attention to things.
09:09 - Cell phone!
09:11 - Cell phone!
09:12 - Stay down!
09:13 - Stay down!
09:14 - Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick!
09:15 - I used to believe that taking everybody's cell phone
09:18 and things like that was kind of a waste of time,
09:21 just because it would add a significant layer
09:24 of timing for me.
09:26 By the time they make the call,
09:27 you should be in and out already,
09:28 and just disguising yourself properly
09:32 so they weren't capturing images of you.
09:35 - Take a deep breath and relax.
09:37 We're here to rob the bank, not you.
09:40 - We do hear him telling the customers,
09:43 "Hey, this is the bank's money, not your money."
09:46 I absolutely thought robbing banks was a victimless crime,
09:51 because I was stealing the institution's money,
09:53 not a mom and pop or a store or an individual.
09:57 Unfortunately, it's not correct thinking,
10:00 just because of what I've mentioned in the past,
10:02 because you don't include someone's trauma.
10:05 ♪ Instead of this ♪
10:06 (gunshots)
10:08 I personally never attempted to knock out a security system,
10:15 solely because what I was doing was hitting a vault
10:20 and getting out really quick, right?
10:22 In and out.
10:23 With that said, I have done interview views on groups
10:28 that have absolutely severed security systems,
10:34 built tunnels up under the bank.
10:38 The guys that do those things are typically going
10:41 for banks that have multi-millions of dollars.
10:44 I can absolutely see a crew going about it this way,
10:48 even making some of the mistakes that they're making.
10:50 I'm gonna give it about a seven.
10:52 (gunshots)
10:54 - All right, give me a gun now.
10:56 Everybody sit down, everybody sit down on the floor.
10:58 - Deciding to hit a bank with or without a security guard
11:02 is interesting to me.
11:03 A lot of security guards are also trained
11:06 not to react aggressively.
11:09 Most security guards are there as a deterrent,
11:11 as a visual deterrent, and others are there simply
11:16 to be a professional witness
11:18 versus stopping a bank robbery.
11:20 - Ladies behind the counter, keep your hands visible,
11:23 not on the alarms, okay?
11:24 - We see him tell the bank employees
11:28 not to sound the silent alarm.
11:31 It actually differs with different banks
11:34 and different branches, but for the most part,
11:37 those devices are usually reserved for head tellers,
11:40 managers, assistant managers,
11:42 maybe if someone in an administrative role at a desk.
11:45 They will hit the silent alarm when they notice
11:49 you are almost on your way out
11:50 versus creating a hostage situation, so it makes sense.
11:55 - Open the gate.
11:56 - I don't have a key.
11:58 - What'd you say?
11:59 - Each time I've instructed a bank manager
12:05 or a head teller to take me into the vault,
12:09 they usually comply.
12:10 I always try to take my tone down.
12:14 - What I was able to experience early on,
12:17 the more you're yelling at a person,
12:19 the more you're kind of flustering them.
12:20 When they're under a certain amount of pressure, they break.
12:24 Was he hiding the key intentionally, or did he just forget?
12:28 It's hard to say.
12:29 It's hard to say if they're just flustered.
12:31 I'd give it around a six.
12:32 - Max and I will take the vaults
12:33 'cause we know how to use the tools.
12:35 - You two are on crowd control.
12:36 Make it clear you're in charge or things could get messy.
12:39 - In this clip, we get to see them doing a little planning
12:42 of what they're gonna be doing within this bank robbery.
12:45 I would go over every entry route, every exit.
12:50 I made it my job to know all the different routes
12:56 that would get me back to my safe area.
12:59 (whistles)
13:00 - They're almost done with the vault.
13:01 - I'd always wanna be in and out of the vault
13:04 in three minutes, give or take.
13:07 In a situation where you have a group bank heist
13:10 or bank robbery, it would probably be a lot easier
13:14 to make entry into a vault as long as it was open
13:17 and they knew what they were doing.
13:18 But if you're a lone robber like I was,
13:21 it can be quite risky, but it is a method that I used.
13:25 (sirens blare)
13:28 - Peralta, cops.
13:29 - Yes.
13:30 - I mean, oh no, what a bummer, the police.
13:32 - There was a situation back in '97
13:34 where two off-duty officers working in a Los Angeles bank,
13:39 not in a uniform, just posing as a customer
13:44 within the bank actually confronted
13:46 two bank robbery suspects, which ended up
13:50 in one of the suspects dying.
13:53 But a lot of banks won't hire armed security
13:56 solely for that matter because they know
14:00 that another person inside the bank with a firearm
14:04 is just more of a chance of engagement.
14:07 Don't be mad at me, Brooklyn fans out there.
14:09 I'm gonna give them a two.
14:11 - Slow down. - I ain't speeding.
14:14 - The first thing people would think,
14:17 well, why are you speeding off?
14:19 That is just absolute adrenaline.
14:21 Once a guy told him to slow down,
14:23 they rolled down both windows.
14:25 That is something that I actually intentionally did.
14:28 Typically, you would assume someone trying
14:31 to get away from something, they'd be trying
14:33 to be as much incognito as possible.
14:36 - That's it, come on.
14:37 No bundles, just loose cash.
14:40 - One of the bank robbers demanding only loose cash,
14:44 no bundles, there's this belief amongst bank robbers
14:48 that so much of the money that come in bundles
14:52 either have die packs that will explode
14:55 once you get a certain feet away from the bank
14:57 or they'll have tracers in them, which is true.
15:01 I've come across a tracer before.
15:05 If it's a bundle, typically be right in the middle.
15:07 They believe that grabbing just loose currency
15:12 would prevent them from coming across a die pack
15:16 or a tracer, pretty smart,
15:18 but it does limit the money you get.
15:21 - Keep up with the circumstances, okay?
15:23 - Yeah, I got it.
15:24 So y'all are gonna steal my gun too?
15:26 - In this scene, we see that the customer has a firearm.
15:30 That is a huge concern amongst bank robbers.
15:34 Well, at least it was for me,
15:36 which is one of the reasons why before I went into the bank,
15:40 I absolutely would do my homework.
15:43 I would monitor citizens coming in and out of the bank,
15:46 how they walked, if they seemed aggressive,
15:49 if they seemed like they just go more with the program.
15:52 And it's safe to say that's why I probably only had one guy
15:56 come at me within all of those robberies.
15:59 Fortunately, they didn't have a weapon.
16:01 It's very real with the exception of them
16:03 letting the guy keep the gun,
16:05 just sitting the gun on the counter.
16:06 - Run, go, run, go!
16:08 - Maybe we should hit that bridge, Jake.
16:11 - No, we ain't.
16:12 We hit those banks first thing in the [beep] morning.
16:14 - They robbed two banks in the same morning.
16:17 I'm guilty of that.
16:18 I knew one bank probably carried a certain amount
16:20 during that morning,
16:21 and there was another bank that was in the area.
16:25 They did it for a different reason.
16:27 It was clear their first robbery, they didn't get a lot.
16:29 So their desperation drove them to do a second one
16:33 within the same day.
16:34 That was very real.
16:36 We'll give it an eight.
16:37 - Finally, something good.
16:39 [dramatic music]
16:41 - Oh, nice.
16:45 - Most people, whenever you've seen someone
16:48 trying to rob an ATM,
16:50 they usually have a chain around it,
16:53 attached to a truck,
16:55 and them trying to pull it out of some place.
16:57 Other thing, as you can see,
16:58 it's very difficult getting into those things.
17:01 I personally have never thought about robbing an ATM,
17:05 but they do hold a lot of currency.
17:08 So I could see why it would be tempting.
17:10 - Spider-Man is fighting the Avengers
17:12 in a bank on 21st Street.
17:14 - Typically, if a bank has a lot of glass,
17:18 once it gets dark,
17:19 it's easy to see inside of those banks.
17:23 All that glass, it's gonna prevent people
17:26 from actually seeing in,
17:28 due to the glass reflection.
17:30 Marvel fans, DC fans,
17:32 please do not send me hate mail for rating this a one.
17:36 My favorite bank robbery scene
17:38 in the movies that we watched today,
17:40 definitely the town.
17:41 The town is just on it.
17:43 I don't think you get any more real
17:45 than what these guys did here.
17:47 [dramatic music]
17:50 ♪♪
18:00 (upbeat music)