Man quietly steals bags of cash from Auchan store in Russia

A Hollywood-style act of robbery was committed in Russia's Chelyabinsk. A thief, acting alone, took several bags of cash worth 5 million rubles ($167,000) from Auchan hypermarket. The money had been prepared for collectors.

On March 8^th, at around 23:00, after the store closed, an unidentified individual entered office premises of the store. He showed the ID of an employee of a computer firm that serviced Auchan's security software. It turned out later that the ID was fake. Other employees of the hypermarket did not pay any attention to the perpetrator. He calmly walked to the computer room and set to work. The robber was acting confidently. He deactivated the video cameras and electromagnetic locks not to have any obstacles on his way out.

Then the man went to the hatch, through which bags of cash would be  thrown into a special storage that only collectors could access. The perpetrator filed off the hatch lock, and used a stick with a hook to fish out the bags of money from the storage.

The collectors arrived while the man was still inside. They called the security post, but security guards did not see any bank employees on the surveillance cameras. While they were trying to find out what was going on, the thief escaped.

The Moscow office of Auchan Russia confirmed the robbery. It was the first robbery like that, officials noted. The robber was acting very professionally. It is possible that he had worked at the store before.