‘Scream’ mask bank robber fails

A would-be robber did a runner after he found a bank shut.

The felon – caught by surveillance cameras wearing a “Scream” horror movie mask tried to enter a branch in Vestenthal, Lower Austria, around midday on Tuesday. He ran away as the glass door failed to open. The bank opens only at 2pm for afternoon business, local police said yesterday (Weds). Officials are investigating. The wannabe robber wore a dark-blue jacket, jeans and sneakers. He carried a brown shoebox, they said.

Police in Salzburg said a man aged between 45 and 55 escaped with “a very small amount of money” after a bank robbery on Monday afternoon. He threatened two staff with a gun before making his escape on a bicycle.

Viennese police forces arrested a serial bank robber last week. The jobless resident of Vienna is accused of having robbed five bank branches in the past one and a half years. He was caught while gambling in a casino in Leopoldstadt district.

In related news, traffic police arrested suspected Serbian thieves on the A4 eastern motorway near Nickelsdorf, Burgenland, on Tuesday. Officers discovered building machinery reported stolen in Switzerland in the duo’s minivan. The devices are worth 11,500 Euros, according to investigators.

Winter tyres worth around 35,000 Euros were stolen from a company in Fürnitz, Carinthia, at the weekend. Regular car tyres and expensive specialised truck tyres went missing. Investigations appear to be difficult as the theft may not have been witnessed by anyone. The company property is situated nowhere near housing estates, police in the district of Villach explained.

Police in the western province of Vorarlberg arrested a 43-year-old man from Nüziders accused of clearing out offertory boxes of three churches in Bludenz. He was put in custody.