Ready, Set, Go to Jail

Using careful planning to cut out wasted time, Patrick Mitchell and his “Stopwatch Gang” may be the U.S.’s most successful bank robbers. At least, until now. Never satisfied with small takes in more than 100 robberies since 1980, Mitchell looked for hauls of “over $100,000, and if we thought it would be less, we didn’t go.” Recently, Mitchell spent weeks preparing for a robbery in Southaven, Tenn. “This bank my sister could have robbed,” he said. “It was an easy, easy bank. There was nothing to it.” To throw police off before going in, Mitchell phoned in a bomb threat to city hall — but the police chief knew that trick. “There’s only nine banks in the whole town and the police chief sent a police car to every one of them,” Mitchell said. They were in and out of the bank in 45 seconds with their loot, but the police were outside waiting. (AP) ...Never underestimate small town cops. They have the time to think.