WEBVTT - The $7 Million Man 0:00:01.240 --> 0:00:04.920 Somewhere tonight, a Wells Fargo guard and acts Wells Fargo 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:11.240 guard is on the run with seven million dollars in cash. 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:15.560 On the night of the robbery, I had chased a 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.919 burglar from Flatwish Avenue all around Charter rope Terrace and 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:22.600 was frustrated that he got away with like a bike 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:29.200 and maybe a VCR. It's September twelve. Jack Casey is 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.160 two years into a thirty year career with the West 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:36.520 Harford Police Department in central Connecticut. On this night, he's 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.880 looking for a robbery suspect and a local housing project 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.040 when he takes a call for a robbery in progress. 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.440 It comes in and then we gave the code for 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.040 a robbery, and then they gave the address, and I said, oh, 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:52.519 I'm right down the street. I'll be there within seconds. 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:57.640 So of course I jumped back in my cruiser. I 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.120 drive up the street. I'm probably here in half an it, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:01.920 so I'm thinking, okay, I got a good shot of 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.200 getting these guys. Casey rolls up to what is an 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.720 unmarked Wells Fargo depot near the Hartford town line. To 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:14.280 an outsider, the one story building appears empty, no signs, 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:19.200 nobody around. When he arrives. There's no clear or obvious 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.959 indication of trouble either. The steel overhead garage doors are closed. 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.639 Everything appears to be quiet, But Casey is the first 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:32.200 officer on the scene and knows better than to go rogue. Plus, 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.160 he understands, if you've got the guts to rob a 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:40.600 secured warehouse full of money, chances are your arm to 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.840 the teeth. Telling them on the radio, hey have then 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.240 come out, they said, we're trying. By then a couple 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.440 of other officers started showing ups, and now we're setting 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:51.880 up a perimeter because as far as we're concerned as 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.040 the active robbery, and there's a lot of cash on 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:59.200 the line. Inside that nondescript window list building, there is 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.960 over thirty million dollars on any given day, a good 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.680 portion of which is brand new money banded bills consecutive 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:12.880 numbers wrapped in plastic fresh from the Federal reserve, ready 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.880 to be distributed into the population. Dispatch tells Casey to 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:21.920 make his way towards the building's rear entrance, so he does. 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:27.799 Then a door swings open to reveal a visibly shaken guard. 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:30.720 You can tell he had some marks on his face 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.200 from the tape or whatever. I think he had a 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.560 handcuffed angling off of them, and he was really really 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.519 upset and he saw I've been robbed. We've been robbed. 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.600 Turns out there were two security guards held hostage during 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.760 the robbery. One appears to have a swollen upper lip. 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.440 The other still has some tape stuck to his hair 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:54.560 from being tied up. Their clothes are ruffled, and then 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.520 they start telling me a story. The guard they worked 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.160 with put a gun to their head, retinum, hand coffed on, 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:04.320 tied them off, put him on the floor, loaded up 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:06.079 a bunch of money, and left. So I said how 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:10.320 much let He said five million? And I'm like, what now, 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.880 I'm aggravated because some guy just stole a bike. For 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:15.880 two hours, I can't find a guy, and at the 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.200 same time, this guy is stealing five million dollars. That 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.800 was the initial thought in a frenzy to report every 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.239 detail of the crime scene during those crucial first hours. 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:31.760 Early police reports listed the monetary loss at five million dollars, 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.840 but as it turns out, the amount of money was 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:40.120 far greater. The thief actually got away with a total 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:45.080 of seven million, seventeen thousand one hundred and fifty one dollars, 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:50.320 an amount equivalent today to nearly nineteen point six million. 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.000 At the time, it was one of the largest cash 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:59.320 heists in US history. But stealing seven million dollars, well, 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:05.760 that was just the beginning. My name is em William Phelps. 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.840 I'm an investigative journalist and author of more than forty 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:13.400 true crime books. What you were about to hear is 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.440 the true story of a heist, one that funded an 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:22.640 international independence movement and sparked an investigation spanning nearly four decades. 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:35.120 This is White Eagle. It was a Monday night in 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:39.479 mid September. Two Wells Fargo guards, twenty five year old 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.320 Victor Harraina and twenty one year old Tim Girard. We're 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.280 getting ready to call it a day. They were en 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.760 route from Bridgeport, Connecticut to the smugglers in a bar 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.479 and restaurant in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, the last stop of 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.240 their long day before heading back to the Wells Fargo 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.320 depot in West Harford, Connecticut and clocking out. It's a 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.200 repetitive job, with grueling hours on the road, driving to 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:08.440 various banks and businesses around Connecticut and Massachusetts to pick 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:12.440 up money and loaded into an armored vehicle, one stop 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.040 after another, pick up load, pick up load, and at 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:19.680 the end of the day the reverse unload count unload count. 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:22.920 Victor Harraine had been at it for a little over 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.920 a year, Tim Gerard just six months. Guards made just 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.800 four dollars and seventy five cents an hour, which was 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.679 about a dollar higher than minimum wage at the time, 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.240 but a fraction of the millions of dollars in cash 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:41.440 they collected and handled each day. For whatever reason, they 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:45.400 were shorthanded, probably because it was a lousy job and 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.280 Ed mahoney has been a reporter for thirty years, many 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:53.960 of which have been spent at the Hartford Current. He 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:55.760 was part of the team that want to pull a 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.240 Surprise in the late nineties for coverage of what was 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.200 at the time a rare occurrence, a shooting rampage in 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:07.080 which a Connecticut State Lottery employee killed four senior supervisors 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:12.200 and then himself. Mahoney's covered politics, local news and is 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:17.640 no stranger to complex investigative crime stories. He explains that 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.000 the two guards that night were in a rush to 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.799 get back to the depot Monday night football was on TV, 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:27.279 and their boss twenty five year old Jim McKean wanted 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.120 to go home and watch the San Diego Chargers play 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:34.880 the Kansas City Chiefs, but being understaffed, everything was already 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.080 behind schedule, and there was a half a ton of 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:41.440 cash that still needed to be counted and stacked. According 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.240 to police reports, when the guards got back to the 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:48.359 depot around nine o'clock, Victor offered to unload the money 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.280 by himself. His partner Tim refused because he'd gotten into 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.159 trouble in the past for leaving early. He decided to 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.080 stick her out, so Victor thought it would be he 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.359 and one of a person in the view pub. It 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.960 turns out it's Heat and two others. Boss Jim McKean 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.440 was waiting inside the dispatch office, sitting at a desk 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.280 to the left of the vault where the money collected 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:15.200 by the guards was to be kept. He had one 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.360 half of the vaults combination, Victor had the other. After 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.280 Victor helped open the vault, he went back to the 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:27.600 truck and began unloading the cash they'd collected that day. 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:32.120 Bags of coins which stayed unload later, and twenty six 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.520 bags of currency, which was brought into the vault on 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:39.520 a wheeled cart. There are two ways to enter the 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.440 building's dispatch office. The main way is via a keypad 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:48.120 entrance through double steel doors and an observation port. The 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:50.680 other is through a bolted door that opens into the 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:54.560 garage area, though it can only be unlocked from inside 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:59.040 the dispatch office. Basically, the only way to gain access 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:03.880 to all that cash was to already be inside. They're 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.400 sitting there and they're counting these millions of dollars and 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.720 stacking it up and making notes and writing up paperwork 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.720 and running it through adding machines and stuff like that, 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.400 and Victor kind of manivorous himself behind this boss is 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.760 sitting at the table and slips out the boss's pistol 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.600 province holster and says, okay, guys, I'm not fooling around. 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:26.840 I'm gonna shoot you if you don't do what i'm 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.640 gonna tell you to do. He slapped the other card 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.000 and said, hey, this is no joke. And they hear 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.400 him loading a shotgun and a handgun. So you know 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.079 what you're thinking in your mind, you're gonna be executed. 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.840 Boss Jim McKean would later tell police that he thought 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.160 he was going to be killed. Quote all I said 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:49.800 was Vic, and he said, Jim, I've got nothing against you. 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:54.760 I'm just tired of working for other people. It looks 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:59.160 like he had everything with him. He needed to restrain 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:04.040 one person, but there were two people, so for example, 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:07.960 had one pair of handcuffs, so he had to, you know, 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.959 use the handcuffs and conversation with some tape and some 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.600 rope and stuff like that. Both men were gagged in 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.640 order to lie on the floor. Jim McKeon's hands were 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.480 handcuffed behind his back. Tim Gerard was hog tied with 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:27.559 white adhesive tape and nylon twine. Police Chief Francis Reynolds 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:31.720 spoke to reporters the following day. Coach were then placed 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.120 over their heads, at which time Greena advised the men 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.000 that he was going to give them a shot that 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:43.319 would put him to sleep. It looks like he injected 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.200 them both, but neither one of them got knocked out, 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.880 So maybe it's because he divided at those for one 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:54.840 person among two people. That solution doctors would later analyze 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:59.120 through tests was allegedly a mixture of aspirin and water. 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:03.720 The two guards later told police Victor appeared highly agitated. 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.360 He turned on the intercom to hear if anyone was outside. 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.280 Tim Gerard said, when he started to wriggle around, Victor 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.400 hit him a few times and warned both men that 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.480 they had accidentally choked themselves if they tried to break 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.719 free their incapacity of their tape. They're tied up to 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:24.240 their light on the ground, and they just hear him 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.439 going back and forth, and they hear zippers like somebody's 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.880 filling up great big, huge gym bags or sleeping bags 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.839 with cash. It's actually hard to believe someone pulled it off. 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.880 Victor Haraina emptied the steel vault of all currency with 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.320 the exception of one and two dollar bills. He then 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:46.520 loaded approximately between nine hundred and twelve pounds of cash 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.360 into a buic less saber parked in one of the 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:54.480 deposed loading bays, conveniently out of public view. All this 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.480 within just ninety minutes. What he was doing was he 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:01.440 was loading up the cash into bags and stuffing it 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.480 into the car, and it got to the point where 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:06.880 there is so much I mean, there was barely off 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:08.680 room for him to get into the car. There was 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:12.920 so much cash in it. So much. In fact, Victor 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.640 not only had to take out the car, spare tire 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.560 and bumper jack to make room for the money. He 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:22.480 also left behind a few currency bags worth hundreds of 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:27.360 thousands of dollars. Victor then got into the buick, beat 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.760 the horn twice, and drove out of the Deepot parking lot. 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.400 Of course, there's a national alert again Jack Casey, that 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.120 goes out all across the country. So when we enter it, 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:42.040 we say, you know, arm robbery, West Hartford seven million, 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:44.560 that's going to catch the eye of most police departments, 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:50.080 especially along the corridor. By that point, Victor Harraina already 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:55.640 had a solid lead ahead of law enforcement, we thought 0:11:55.679 --> 0:12:00.800 that night because they're heat accustomed tight up. He probably 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.800 figured he's got a lot of time because he's thinking, 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:05.840 all these guys are probably gonna get found in the morning. 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.760 So the fact that they were able to wiggle free. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.439 Did the alarm have helped yet there? But we figured, okay, 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.559 that he doesn't have as much time as he thought. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.199 He's not that far ahead of us now. But as 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:29.360 it turns out, he was far enough ahead to get away. 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.560 The search for Victor Harraina began almost immediately after police 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:39.000 responded to the scene. Today, they might have found him 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:43.680 within hours, but in it was far easier to vanish. 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:49.000 GPS tracking wasn't available to civilians yet three nine eleven, 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.920 people traveled more freely and could pay with cash, and 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:55.440 it would be another twenty years before the majority of 0:12:55.480 --> 0:13:00.880 the population carried cell phones in their pockets. Was also 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:04.280 a chaotic time in the nation. Less than two weeks 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.560 before the robbery, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:12.240 Airlines flight, killing everyone on board, including a U. S congressman. 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.160 At the time, there was concern about what it all 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.960 meant for the US and whether the Cold War would 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:23.319 heat back up. President Reagan called the attack barbaric. Our 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:29.320 first emotions are angered, disbelief and profound sadness. While events 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:33.480 in Afghanistan and elsewhere have left few illusions about the 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:37.280 willingness of the Soviet Union to advance its interest through 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.960 violence and intimidation, all of us had hoped that certain 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:48.599 irreducible standards of civilized behavior nonetheless obtained. In West Harford, 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.720 police were busy and rattled. The town had recently been 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.680 terrorized by a serial arsonist who had been sending fires 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:01.440 to local synagogues. We're having a series so arson's in 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:05.280 town that appeared to be targeting the Jewish neighborhood. They 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.600 were high profile cases. We were getting a lot of 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:12.120 heat with them, and it was a lot of hours 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:15.280 beginning put into it. We were flat out. Steve Luby 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.560 was a detective with the West Tarford Police Department. He 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:22.280 worked in the Special Investigations Division, a small team mainly 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:27.480 focused on narcotics cases, internal affairs, and arson's the ladder 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:31.960 of which wholly occupied Luby's time that summer. He says, 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.200 up until then, West Tarford was a fairly quiet place 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:40.400 to work. It was primarily a sleepier suburb of Harvard. 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.400 A lot of people would work in Harford that lived there, 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:45.960 and they would commute back and forth. We had some 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.960 murders periodically, not not nothing like Hartford, you know, the 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:55.240 arson cases that became like national news overnight. Within one week, 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.360 the arsonists torched two local synagogues, and less than a 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.960 month later, a state representatives house was set on fire 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:07.400 as she and her family slept. Thankfully, no one was hurt, 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:09.880 and the cops eventually caught the guy who did it, 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.920 a seventeen year old kid who was a member of 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:17.480 the first synagogue. Targeted everyone I've spoken to from the area, 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.840 has said it was a terrifying few months with lots 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:25.040 of national attention. By the time the Wells Fargo Heights happened, 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.320 law enforcement was spent. I was home in bed, trying 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:32.040 to catch up on some sleep. I got a call 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:36.480 from dispatch indicating that they wanted me to return to duty. 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:38.720 When the phone rang, I figured it was another arson 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:42.520 fire or something that I was going in for. And 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:45.640 who recalled me? I asked him, you know, what's what's 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:47.760 this all about? They said, getting her right away. We 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.960 just had a robbery at Wells Fargo and it's a 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.920 huge robbery. You want to address these things earlier she can, 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:59.840 because you're losing information the longer you go. So we 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.360 have really a sitdown. Was more or less you do this, 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:07.040 you go here, you do that. Police had a slight advantage. 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:12.400 Unlike most cases, they already had a suspect, Victor Manuel 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:20.040 Harrena a five ft six sixty pounds, brown hair, green eyes. 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.360 They had a description of the car he drove away in, 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:29.000 a green three four door Buick Le Saber, and he 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:33.440 knew where he lived Warner Street, downtown Hartford, just a 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:38.560 fifteen minute drive from the Wells Fargo depot, plus they 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:43.080 learned one critical piece of information about his personal life. 0:16:44.240 --> 0:17:04.520 Victor Harrana was due to get married four days At 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.840 approximately twelve fifteen am, nearly an hour after the Wells 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.879 Fargo guards freed themselves and called for help, law enforcement 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.800 approached the multi family building in Hartford where Victor Harraina 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:20.679 shared an apartment with his fiance. An armed robber in 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.920 possession of seven million dollars in cash was on the lamp. 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:28.000 There was no risk too small to take. The police 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:32.280 were armed in the perimeter of the building secured. Jack 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:37.280 Casey was among those present. We're outside, saying, hey, we 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.200 could steel and get a search warrant if you want 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.000 to consent to a search. Save everybody, about of time. 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.000 If he's not in there, it'll be quick. We'll go in, 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:48.360 we'll get out. Victor's fiancee, Anna Soto, poked her head 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.199 out from the third floor porch. She seemed upset, but 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:56.800 also cooperative. According to police reports, She allowed the officers 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.639 inside to search the home. I remember the shotgun and 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:02.840 I was searching the room, and I think it was 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:07.280 a dover started coming and growling, and I leveled the 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.280 gun and I said, hey, you have to get the 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.160 get the dog, and she said okay, okay, which turns 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.280 out later on it's like she felt threatened by the 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.360 shotgun or whatever. But in any event, at that time 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.600 I opened the closet and nurse big, huge duffle bag. 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.720 So in my mind I'm thinking, wow, it's here. Here's 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.199 the money. So now I'm thinking, okay, he's in here somewhere. 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:30.960 So now we're looking for him, looking for him because 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:35.240 we're thinking that's the money. Eventually, after we clear the house, 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:43.119 we unzipped the baggage shoes, it shoots. The search for 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:46.680 Victor proof fruitless. Neither he nor the money was inside 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.439 that apartment, though the police did seize a number of 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:55.399 Victor's belongings, including his bank book and telephone records, an 0:18:55.440 --> 0:19:00.120 address book with directions written inside, a letter written in Spanish, 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:05.640 a road map, a postcard, and most importantly, his passport, 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.560 leaving Victor with even less of a chance a flee 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:14.080 in the country. His fiance, Anna, said she didn't know 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.400 where he was. She agreed to go to the station, 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.080 even riding in the passenger seat of one of the 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:24.840 patrol cars, to voluntarily give a statement. Regarding Victor and 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:29.679 what she knew. Back at the station, Detective Steve Luby 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.480 was waiting for her arrival. I got a sign to 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:35.680 see if I could talk her into a written statement 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.879 and find out what she knew. Luby was tasked to 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:41.760 follow up on their two biggest leads at the time, 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:46.200 what if anything Victor herain A's fiance might know about 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.080 the robbery, and how police could find a getaway car 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:54.280 with Victor and the seven million in cash tucked away inside. 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.159 She was a personal kid. She was scared before he 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.960 even got into the background stuff. Guy remember her saying 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.280 she was freezing cold and the office was cold at 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.480 the time, But oftentimes when people are nervous, they kind 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:09.359 of come across really cold too. So I tried to 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:11.720 manipulate the heat in the office by putting the paper 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.400 clip in the thermostat and driving it up and got 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.119 her got herself. I wanted to get her comfortable with 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:20.960 me and see if I could get her relax a little. 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:24.119 Before he even started his statement, Luby took his time, 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.840 hoping to of course, went over her trust. I don't 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:30.840 go right to paper. I sit down trying to have 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:34.520 a conversation because she was frightened, and when you look 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:38.080 at someone being frightened, you don't often know are they 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.600 frightened because they're part of this? Are they just frightened 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:45.320 to be now in the police station addressing a crime 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.640 that either they were a victim of or a witness 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.400 to try to get that report on and and I, 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.640 I think I was pretty good at getting her comfortable. 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.040 She seemed comfortable, and she calmed down. She greeted a statement. 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:02.080 Luby knew how how important Anna could be within the 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:05.359 scope of the investigation. He needed to know if she 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.639 was telling the truth, and says after a while he 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.679 got the impression that she wasn't being up front, so 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:14.760 he took a more aggressive approach. And I told her 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:17.560 he's got he's got guns. He's out there now. Every 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:20.040 cop in New England, it's going out over the country 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.439 has his description. If you love him, you don't want 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:25.800 him to get stopped in the middle of the night, 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.280 some dark corner, some cop panics, he goes for a gun, 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.640 The cop goes for a gun, and in your boyfriend 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.480 ends up getting killed. You know, I tried to use 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:39.239 that angle to have her be more concerned about, you know, 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:43.440 not so much protecting him but getting him safe and 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:46.240 making sure he didn't get hurt when he got apprehended. 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.120 It seemed like a scare tactic. But I'm not sure 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:52.679 that's what Loubi thought. He says, Anna didn't know what 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:57.280 she was stepping into because remember, Victor was dangerous. The 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:00.600 guy was on the run with two loaded guns and 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:04.480 millions of dollars. I wanted to put down on paper 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:07.840 that they lived together and that they were engaged to 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.560 be married. And I think the day before she had 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:14.320 actually gotten the marriage license certificate or something to get 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:17.879 married or whatever it was from city hall. This was true. 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.560 The couple had planned to marry days after the heist, 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:26.760 her first marriage Victor's third. It's unclear whether Victor intended 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:29.560 to go through with the wedding. Still, as far as 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.280 Detective Luby was concerned, Anna Soto had been under the 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:36.000 impression that they would be married by the end of 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:39.120 that weekend. He used to call her before he get home. 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:41.880 They'd be in voice contact a lot during the night, 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:44.199 you know, like two love birds there. You know, he 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:46.280 was on the phone, she was on the phone, and 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:49.520 she didn't hear from him. That night. Apparently, according to her, 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:54.760 we were over relatives of his that, uh, you know, 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:57.480 he's Apparently, according to her, he was very devoted to 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:01.119 his mother, who lived in a aim general area in 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:04.760 the south end of Harvard. He had some brothers that 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:08.080 were not local that he was not close to. So 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:11.200 the statement was basically a chance to get get information 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:15.639 on the family, his routines, any close friends. Surprisingly, she 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:18.520 he didn't, according to her, didn't have a lot of 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:22.440 male friends or friends even on the job. He didn't 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:24.680 get warm with people on job. They didn't go out 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:29.119 socialize with people that much. And so I'm thinking, my 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:32.560 cynical minds, thinking that she's covering for some friend that 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:34.480 might be involved by telling me he doesn't have a 0:23:34.520 --> 0:23:37.719 lot of friends. So it went from me feeling that 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:42.360 she was probably the fiance that's all upset, that knows 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:45.199 nothing about this, And now as I went on with her, 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:49.160 I'm thinking, she's not giving me everything here he was right. 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:52.680 For the record, here's what Anna said in her statements 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:55.800 during the first few days of the investigation that on 0:23:55.840 --> 0:23:58.800 the day of the robbery, Victor left home between ten 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:01.720 fifteen and ten thirty in the morning and caught the 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:04.840 bus to work. She said, she went with her cousin 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:08.479 to get the marriage license at city hall, took her 0:24:08.560 --> 0:24:11.600 dogs to the park, and then went home alone. One 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:15.040 specific detail Louby took note of was that Annac claim 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:18.040 she had never seen the green Buick Victor used in 0:24:18.040 --> 0:24:21.360 the robbery, and that Victor didn't have any friends who 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:25.439 owned that type of car. At some point I asked 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:29.600 her does he drive a Buick at all? This described 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:33.200 the car involved, and she said absolutely no. We knew 0:24:33.280 --> 0:24:36.720 Victor had used that night, had driven a car that 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:40.360 was not normally his car. The car itself, the Buick, 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:43.879 It was linked back to the Ugly Duckling or a 0:24:43.960 --> 0:24:46.959 rental wreckt or one of those used car beat up 0:24:47.119 --> 0:24:50.719 rental places, and you know we were. They were searching 0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:55.840 everywhere for the car. Victor in fact, had driven several 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:59.040 different rental cars over the past few weeks, all of 0:24:59.040 --> 0:25:02.440 which were from the nearby Ugly Duckling rent a car 0:25:02.760 --> 0:25:05.960 and now defunct rental car company that was once considered 0:25:06.000 --> 0:25:11.040 competition to brands like Budget and Hurts. In August, two 0:25:11.080 --> 0:25:15.000 weeks before the robbery, Victor deposited two cash for a 0:25:15.119 --> 0:25:19.040 nineteen seventy seven Chevy Malibu, only to return it the 0:25:19.080 --> 0:25:23.920 following morning because his quote plans hadn't worked out. Ten 0:25:24.000 --> 0:25:27.480