Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today
A driver of a G4S armoured cash transport van started the workday on Thursday morning with a typical highway job: to transport money from the southwestern city of Turku to Helsinki, when the gig turned into a scene resembling Michael Mann’s classic flick, Heat – a tale of professional money robbers.
Around 8:40, in Suomusjärvi, at the proximity of the city of Salo, a truck drove in front of the money van. At the same time men in blue overalls stood in the middle of the highway and gestured the traffic to pass by.
The police had received an alarm.
A passer-by said later to the police that “he thought the scene was weird and absurd.” “I mean, who the hell stands in the middle of high traffic, messing around in blue overalls. It’s not exactly safe!”
A moment later, a passenger car drove to the side of the lane. The robbers lit the vehicle in flames, creating a wall of hellfire and stopping all the traffic from passing.
A group of five to six robbers approached the van of the British multinational security firm. They carried machine guns. They fired a few shots to the windshield, and forced out the driver. They threatened the driver with explosives. But the driver was not hurt.
According to G4S, the robbers were not able to access the money because of the strong security of the van.
The robbers took off with the truck and a van but after the police arrived to the scene, they found them empty and deserted from around 200 metres from the location. The truck, belonging to a company, was stolen from a parking lot in Espoo during the weekend. The thieves had continued their escape to an unknown location in unknown cars.
The investigation is now continued under the authority of the National Bureau of Investigation because of a strong suspicion that organised crime is involved.
The police are inspecting the area for explosives, so the traffic at the scene remains cut but is redirected to a detour.
The search is continued across southern Finland but as the time passes, the search will be extended further in the country.
Source: The police.
