7 News Belize

How To Clean Out The Credit Union Using the “Jack and Chak" Technique
posted (July 25, 2017)
In the early morning hours of June 9th, a pair of persistent thieves broke into the safe at the Toledo Teachers Credit Union in Bella Vista Village, and stole $116,575.00 Belize dollars, and seven thousand US dollars, along with a Glock pistol and a 12 gauge shotgun.

Since then, no arrests have been made. The last time we reported on it, police had one man detained and were waiting to see if his fingerprints would match those found on the scene. They didn't, and so the investigation remains opened.

The problem is really that police have been unable to identify the two men seen in a security video trying to break open the safe. But it's not like most security videos of crimes where the criminals just appear briefly in frame and are then gone for good. These guys worked on the door to the safe-room for hours in plain view of a security camera - which Jules Vasquez looked at today:...

Jules Vasquez reporting
At around 1:00 am, the men with hats and shirts over their faces can be seen entering with their safe breaking tools. Crude instruments, really, just a 10 ton hydraulic jack, a crowbar and a few pieces of wood

A few minutes later they returned with flashlights to carry out their plan, which is basically to prop up the jack horizontally, and use that to force the metal door open.

This goes on literally for over an hour, as they place the jack at different points on the door and slow pry it open. It is the type of slow progress that can only be done by persons who are completely sure no one will come and they will not be caught.

It's a very crude brute force opening.

There's no elegance or glamour, or pyrotechnics just "chak and jack" basically. Two sweaty men giving it to the door until it gives in.

Sometimes leaving the jack loaded, hoping it will do some magic, only to have it spring off - but, undeterred, they returned time and time again knowing that hundreds of thousands of dollars await them inside.

At one point they even positioned the jack diagonally against the door's deadlock, but with little success.

And then over an hour later at 2:15 AM - they suddenly became very aware of the camera that has been recording them for an hour. And that's when they start prowing around looking for the camera's power source. At 2:17 AM before they opened the safe, they cut the wire to the camera, and that's all we saw.

POLICE SAY the men had a drill, a five, not ten tonne jack, and a crowbar.

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