On this day, March 19, in 1831, Edward Smith committed the first recorded bank heist in the United States in New York City.
Smith, who ran a shoe shop, used a duplicated set of keys to enter the City Bank on Wall Street — now known as Citibank after the establishment closed. He made off with $245,000 and spent $60,000 before he was caught a week later.
Smith was sentenced to five years of hard labor.
Today, the most common method to making unauthorized withdrawals from banks is to simply step up to a teller with a note demanding cash, according to the FBI.
– Scott McCabe
