Handan, China, October 10th, 2006
Ren Xiaofeng, the vault manager of the Handan branch of the Agricultural Bank of China was on edge. It was near the end of the day, and he made one final sweep of the building to make sure that everything was ok. All the offices were empty and the employees had already gone home. Only the security guards were left patrolling the outside of the bank, which made him feel a little bit safer. He felt that this was the moment to go check on the vault.
He enters the vault and starts counting the money, but he has to be quick, the paranoia was starting to get to him. He fills up his duffel bag full of cash, and quickly makes his getaway.
The vault manager wasn't protecting the bank, he was robbing it!
What better person to rob a bank, than the person in charge? Beforehand he had disabled the security systems, and made sure the bank was empty. He leaves the building to go to his car, and as he is putting away the cash, two flashlights shine on him. Did you get money? Asks one of the guards.
The two security guards were also a part of the plot, the manager felt that it was safer to enlist their help, than risk doing it alone. He puts the bag in his car, but doesn't make a getaway, he still has an hour left on his shift.
The next day the wakes up feeling relieved, everything had gone smoothly and he was now in posession of ¥200.000 Yuan or $26.000 at the time. You're probably thinking, why didn't he take more? Well this wasn't the end of the plan, this was done intentionally as part of the next step in the heist.
He went from shop to shop, all across Handan to buy as many lottery tickets as he could. The idea was to win a large enough lottery prize, then return the missing money to the bank, and pocket the rest. This needed to be done quickly, before anyone noticed that the money was missing.
This was his grand plan, but that is also a very risky and stupid plan!
Buying lottery tickets is gambling, and the chance of you winning any large prize is extremely small. If it was as easy as buying $26k of lottery tickets to get rich, we would all be doing it! But for some reason, Ren the vault manager, who is a banker, didn't do his math on this.
But this wouldn't be a heist if Ren had only taken $26k and lost it all to gambling.
Despite the odds, Ren actually wins! He is able to return the stolen money, and is able to keep a large amount for himself. He had pulled of one of the most daring and risky heists ever, and no one would ever know.
And this is where the story should have ended, but it's only just getting started.
Five months later in March 2007, Ren decides it is time for another round, but this time he is more greedy. The Agricultural Bank of China is one of the four largest banks in China, and their vaults were holding millions! In China cash is still heavily used, which is why banks there tend to hold so much in their reserves.
Ren this time wants to empty 50% of the vault, but he can't take that much and do it alone. He still has the guards, but they are only lookouts. He approaches the other vault manager at the bank, Ma Xiangjing, and fortunately for Ren, instead of Ma calling his idea crazy and reporting him, he actually joins him!
During the months of March and April, Ren and Ma secretly smuggle out ¥33 million Yuan, or $4.3 million!
But the inconsitencies were starting to add up, and despite bringing Ma in, some of the staff were starting to notice. They were so suspicious of them that they eventually called the police. Things were starting to look very bad for Ren and Ma.
As vault managers Ren and Ma were able to come up with temporary excuses that everyone believed. They claimed it was a misplacement error that happens from time to time, and that the money would turn up soon. This of course was just a lie to buy enough time, because they hadn't been able to scratch all their lottery tickets yet. Over the next two weeks they kept buying as many lottery tickets as they could, since $4.3 million buys a crazy amount of tickets!
But this time the lottery did what it normally does, and they lost all of the money!
The police was now becoming increasingly suspicious of Ren and Ma, as the errors in the vault persisted and the problem never fixed itself. The duo was so desperate, that they came up with a brilliant solution to fix everything, a third round of the heist!
They decided to take all the remaining cash in the vault and try again. They stole ¥18 million/$2.3 million and went and bought even more tickets. This time though they didn't have the luxury of time to buy and scratch their tickets. In one single day they spent all the money and scratched all of the tickets, until their fingers were bleeding!
Out of the total ¥51 million/$6.7 million that they had stolen, they were only able to recoup ¥98.000/ $12.700! They were done and they knew it.
On April 16th the bank finally realizes what has been going on, as the bank managers couldn't stall them anymore. The police was called once again, to arrest the duo in what was soon confirmed to be the largest bank heist in Chinese history, but by this time they had already fled the city. They did however arrest a different duo, the two guards that had been supporting them in their plot, and they weren't exactly happy that they hadn't been given a warning by their partners.
Seven days before the arrest of the guards Ren and Ma had bought fake ID's and disappeared. Chinese law enforcement launched a nationwide manhunt, with the Chinese Public Security Ministry putting them on their most wanted list, and a bounty was put on their heads.
Ma fled north to the capital Beijing, while Ren made his way down to the Jiangsu province. Their faces were now all over the news, which for Ma being in one of the largest cities in the world, wasn't so great. Unsuprisingly two days later they caught and arrested him.
Then there was one, the mastermind of the whole operation. Ren had made his way from Handan to the coastal city of Lianyungang by taxi. As one of the most wanted people in China, traveling 650km by taxi probably wasn't the smartest idea.
He eventually realizes this and swaps the taxi for a black Honda, which he purchased from a car salesman. Now he just had to find a place to lay low. Using his fake ID he rents a high end apartment from his new landlord near the waterfront, which together with the car had taken a large bite out of his cash reserves. Math like long term planning apparently wasn't one his things. But at least for now it was time to kick back and relax until all of this died down.
Except it was already over, because the police knew exactly where he was. It turned out that looking disheveled and unshaven for days, and paying for everything out of a large bag of cash, was supicious behavior. Not just one, but three people had reported Ren to the police. The taxi driver, the car salesman, and the landlord. Since all three had helped to arrest Ren, they shared the ¥200k/$26k reward that was put on Ren's head. Ironically the same amount that Ren had stolen the first time from the bank.
The two guards both received five year sentences for misappropriating public funds, and Ren and Ma were charged with embezzelment. In court the prosecutor pushed for the harshest sentence to be given to the duo. Ren in particular admitted his guilt and offered his help to law enforcement, so that they could prevent this kind of theft in the future. But unfortunately this is where things get a little darker, it was already too late for them, they were given the death penalty, and a year later they were executed.
The bank itself afterwards felt extremely embarrased and took action by firing five bank officials, including the vice president of the province branch for allowing three heists to occur under their watch. It was later revealed that the bank had never taken a cash inventory and that nobody had ever checked the cameras.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this story!
