The Bedford Heist

by Frederick Linden-Wyatt

  Chapter 63. The after effect of the heist

  In the late morning and early afternoon, the traffic in Bedford was still bad and the police were running around like a chicken who had just had its head chopped off. At 11.00am on the dot the duty sergeant at the Greyfriars Police Station had been made aware that six banks had triggered their silent alarm, but he just assumed that this was a fault in the system. Even if he had wanted to check them out, he didn’t have any spare officers to investigate. Several were still helping at the explosion and horrific fire in Clarence Street. Other officers were trying to protect the Environment Secretary George Eustice from an angry crowd in the Harpur centre and his only foot officer was now investigating the jewel robbery at the Baker Brothers Diamonds store in St. Peter’s Street and his detectives were now chasing the gangs as information had linked one of the robbers to the raid at Baker Brothers Diamonds.

  At around 11.30 the lonely community constable who had been sent to the jewellery raid was now told to get back to the town centre to see if he could help at the protest in the Harpur Centre. On his way down the High Street he noticed the Police Do Not Cross tape at the entrance to the Barclays bank. He found it strange that there had been no mention about a bank raid on his police radio, so he thought it best to check with base. He called the duty sergeant and told him what he had found but the sergeant could only say that there had been several of the banks alarms going off, all at 11.00am so he told the community constable to stay in front of the building until he had checked with the detectives to see if they knew anything about it.

  After only a few minutes the duty sergeant was back on to the young community constable telling him to stand guard on the scene and let no one enter or leave until the CID turned up to investigate. About 20 minutes passed and still no sign of the CID but he assumed that with the traffic at a standstill it would take time to get through. Five minutes later DCI Jimmy Mercer arrived and showed his badge to the young officer. He had also brought his partner with him who also showed her card and the young constable made a note of both their names and time of arrival. Both detectives entered the bank and couldn’t see anyone. They progressed to the rear of the bank and passed the room which held the safe and noticed that it had been left open and in the last office they noticed that all the staff were in the one room and it looked as if all their mobiles had been binned outside.

  The lady detective went to open the door, but DCI Jimmy Mercer pulled her hand away from the door handle as he had a gut feeling that something was wrong. One of the captives jumped to his feet and waved his hands shoeing them away. Both detectives stood back, and the man inside then put a finger to his lips which was the universal signal to remain silent. He then got hold of an A4 sheet of paper and wrote on it in big letters that there was a bomb inside. DCI Jimmy Mercer turned to his pretty assistant and told her to go outside the bank and call in the bomb disposal team and then to stay outside and try to cordon off 100 meters either side of the bank. The young detective then called the duty sergeant and broke the good news to him and requested back-up so they could cordon off the high street. He said he would send any available officer to assist.

  As they had already called the bomb disposal team in earlier that morning the duty sergeant already had their number and called them back in. The duty sergeant also contacted his officer who was leading the team trying to protect the Environment Secretary George Eustice that two bombs had now been located in Bedford and the town was now in major alert as he feared that it could be a terrorist threat. The minister was whisked away and headed on foot to the Bedford Blues rugby ground where a helicopter was waiting to take him to safety.

  Back at Barclays bank DCI Jimmy Mercer wrote back a note asking where the bomb was and how did they know that a bomb was placed in the room. The manager wrote back stating it was a timer bomb that was on countdown and couldn’t be made safe until it showed 00.00. This writing took time but after being told to be quiet there was no other way. DCI Jimmy Mercer asked the manager what was showing on the clock now. He wrote back 29.16. The DCI wrote back and asked why they couldn’t leave. The reply said that the device could detect change of pressure in the room, also any loud noise and any mobile signals. Seeing the bucket of mobile phones outside he now understood more. He wrote back to stay calm as the bomb disposal team were on their way and they would be able to defuse it. He also wrote that he needed to check outside but would return in a few minutes.

  At 11.52 he came back in with a bomb disposal officer in his heavy protective gear and asked for all the facts. DCI Jimmy Mercer told him that the manager inside the room had said that it was a bomb placed on top of a cabinet that could be triggered by any loud noise, change in room conditions and any mobile signal. The bomb disposal chap said that he had never heard of a bomb with multi trigger options and he thinks that it would probably turn out to be a dummy. With just 5 minutes to go until the alleged bomb would be made safe it would be best to wait outside. I was told to leave but he would remain. At exactly 12 o’clock there was a shout of joy as the clock hit 00.00. There was a rush for the door, but the bomb disposal officer told them to stay where they were just for a few more minutes until they had the bomb safely within a bomb proof case. This happened within 3 minutes and the staff were let out.

  Some dived for their mobile phone to call their loved ones and to tell them that they were safe, but others rushed for the loo. When the panic was over DCI Jimmy Mercer and his pretty assistant came back in and told staff to sit in their office or the rest room as he would need to take a statement from everyone. Outside the press were already bussing around as many had already been there to cover the plastic protest and the arrival of the Environment Secretary.

  DCI Jimmy Mercer came out of the bank and was surprised to see the media already set up and filming. There were Sky, BBC and ITV recording and the reporter from Sky shouted a question at the DCI “did he think that the robbery at the jewellers and the bank were linked and could he also confirm that there was a bomb also in the bank. He said that he couldn’t comment but they would be informed of a press meeting late in the day.

  The DCI had come out to ask whether the soco team had been called in and his partner confirmed that it had and would be arriving as soon as they can get through the traffic. He told the young constable to guard the entrance to the bank and make sure that no one enters or leaves. He told the constable that the staff had been told not to touch anything and they would all be questioned as soon as he had the manpower to do so. He said that he had been called to the Nat West bank further down the street as it looked as if they had also been hit.

  DCI Jimmy Mercer called his superior and made him aware of the situation and it would be best to call this a major incident as he was going to need more officers on the ground. His boss said that he had already briefed the chief constable and all leave was being cancelled and they were calling in any available officers. The DCI then made a quick call to the duty sergeant at the Greyfriars Police Station and just wanted to get his thoughts on what was happening. The sergeant said that the alarm system had gone off at six large banks in the town but as they all went off at the same time, he thought that it was a technical fault. The DCI said that he had just left the Barclays bank and was on his way to the Nat West but if these were just two of the six banks we need to get an officers to all of the other four banks to ensure that the crime scene wasn’t being contaminated. The sergeant said that he didn’t have any available officers, but he had just heard that the chief constable had announced that this was now a major incident and other officers were being made available. The DCI asked him to get someone to call each of the other four banks and speak to the manager and tell him officers were on their way and that his staff were not to touch anything until they arrive. He also asked the duty sergeant if he could set up a road block on all the main exits from the town as if the robbers were trying to escape by car then they had picked the wrong day and would probably be stuck in traffic somewhere in the town.
The sergeant said he would do what he could. The other banks were a copy-cat of the first two banks and Bedford has come to a standstill as streets were closed until the alleged bomb had been made safe. The bomb disposal unit could only deal with one bank at a time and it wasn’t until 2pm that the all clear had been given and the police could take back control.

  Chapter 64. After the heist

  Once we had all safely got back to the Kempston Hardwick railway station we all presented our suitcases to Doug and he would scan them to see if any of the bundles of notes which had been quickly placed in the suitcases didn’t include any GPS tracker microchips. Doug asked all guest if they had placed their gun, gloves and any disguises used in their suitcase. I gave the team leaders their parking ticket for this morning’s meeting which should only be shown if asked for by the men in blue.

  There were 7 cases that showed that they included a tracking device so these would need to be dealt with quickly. I asked every party guest if they had used the phone, I provided them with at any time other than calling or texting me. Geoff said that he had called 999 to call for an ambulance for the old lady as he didn’t want to leave her without first calling for help. I told him not to worry but to give me the phone so that I could place the Sim card in the microwave and scramble it later. I gave him a new phone so that I could keep up to date. I also asked if anyone else had a problem and Jacob couldn’t wait to tell the others what had happened and to his shock it was a real gun and had bullets in the chamber ready to be used.

  I told the team well done and for not talking on the train back as walls have ears and you couldn’t trust anyone these days. They all laughed out loudly, but it wasn’t my joke but a release of all the pent-up stress and tension they had kept inside during the morning. I finally said to my guest just before leaving, just one more thing before you depart, did anyone get tempted to pocket any cash from the raids or even pocket a nice-looking iPhone. If they had then tell me now as all modern phones could be tracked, and any new bank notes could also be traced. I told them if they come clean now it would be better for everyone as just one mistake could put us all back inside.

  I looked at all the men and could see that Steve Marshal wasn’t making eye contact and I asked Doug and James to search him. He protested but Doug was too strong for him and he soon found a wad of new £20 notes and an Apple iPhone in his pocket. These were both confiscated, and the iPhone was given to Geoff Laxly to wipe it and place it in any rubbish bin he found at the service station but to make sure he took the battery and the sim card out first. I told Steve that I was extremely disappointed with him, but he would still get paid, but I would not be inviting him to any other heist. I didn’t want him to think that he wouldn’t get paid as I didn’t want to give him a reason to grass us up.

  I didn’t want to hold back all of the guests and told everyone apart from my A team and Geoff Laxly’ s D team to leave and that I would be in contact with them once the money had been cleaned and we knew what everyone would be getting for their mornings work. It took quite a few minutes to find the chips and when they were I handed them to Geoff Laxly and told him to stop at the first service station on the M1 and slip them in to the small magnetic boxes I had supplied and place them under seven different heavy trucks. It would also be better if one of his team crossed over the bridge and placed some of them so that they would track going north up the M1.

  Once Geoff and his team were on their way the remaining A team and I headed back to the workshop. Doug had set up some trellis tables so that we could break down the notes and split up the various currencies we had also stolen. It would take the rest of the day to sort and count and in the end we had over £800,000 in sterling and around £90,000 in various currencies. Of the £800,000 around half were used notes so we didn’t need to send these to the cleaner. Once finished we loaded the notes back into 4 suitcases ready for delivery by me and Doug to our chosen money laundering bloke. If we were prepared to wait two weeks, we could look to get around 45% back in clean notes but if we wanted it cleaned quickly then we would only get 29% back. We had already spoken about this and had told all guest that we would be going for the 45% but they would have to wait a few weeks to get their rewards. This wouldn’t be a bad thing as if the police didn’t accept that they had been in a meeting they would keep a close eye out to see if they were spending above their means.

  Chapter 65. Post heist in Bedford

  The national media were having a field day and eventually a press conference was called to be held at the Greyfriars police station at 4pm. At the conference, the Chief Constable started to explain what had happened to his beloved town during the day. He explained that the trigger event had been the explosion in Clarence Street at around 10am. There had been an explosion in a derelict house which had set the first house in Clarence Street alight and the fire soon spread along the street as there wasn’t anything to stop it. The fire crews were struggling to get to the street due to traffic congestion it was nearly 50 minutes before they arrived.

  What had delayed them was a gridlock of traffic in the town as there were several sets of traffic lights controlling the three main routes in and out of the town centre. The police were investigating why these had been set up without notifying either the police or the town council. One reporter from Sky News asked if there had been any loss of life in the Clarence Street fire and the Chief Constable said that he believed that there were two lives lost but as many of the houses being sublet it would take time to check things out. He continued to explain that at around 9.30am all the town’s CCTV cameras went down and they were still investigating what had caused the problem.

  A reporter from the BBC asked how long the cameras would be down and he said that he didn’t know but hoped that it wouldn’t take long to find and fix the problem. The Chief Constable continued to state that at around 10.45am both jewellers in St. Peters Street were raided and valuable watches and jewellery had been stolen. Due to underfunding we were short on officers on the ground and couldn’t reach the jewellers until after 11.00am which by that time robbers had left the area. At 11am six sets of alarms were triggered but as they all were set off at the same time the Duty Sergeant assumed that it was a fault on the system as it had never been known that six banks could be robbed at exactly the same time.

  It wasn’t until around noon that they realised that the Nat West bank had been raided. Just after 11am my officers decided to evacuate the Environment Secretary George Eustice as we now knew that two bombs had been located and we were unsure if it wasn’t a terrorist threat on one of our cabinet ministers, so we arrange for the minister to be escorted on foot to a near-by rugby pitch to a waiting helicopter. I’m glad to say that the minister made it back to parliament safely. The Prime Minister had been kept informed of the situation at all stages.

  The Chief Constable went on to state that he was sad to report that the total now dead from this morning’s nightmare was at least three as it looks as if a lady had had an heart attack when in the Lloyds Bank and although we assume that it was one of the robbers calling for an ambulance due to the traffic grid lock it didn’t arrive on time. We will release further details when known and once we have contacted relatives. A reporter from Bedford Independent asked the Chief Constable if the explosion in Clarence Street, the two jewel robberies and the six bank robberies were part of the same criminal group and had the police made any progress on the jewellery robbery as we understand that one of the employees felt that she had recognised one of the robbers as being a young Asian male from Bedford.

  The Chief replied that an armed response team had been sent to a known address in the town and that the investigation was ongoing. A reporter from the Daily Mirror asked if the attack on Bedford was down to the Chief Constable continuing message that he couldn’t answer all 999 calls as he didn’t have the manpower. The Chief hesitated before answering but couldn’t miss this opportunity to get his message over, yet again. He said “He knew of no town in the UK that isn’t s
hort of officers and we are all falling right into the criminals grasp when a major incident takes place. By the time the Chief Constable ended his press conference myself and all my men were safely on their way home. What I didn’t realise was that after the hectic day in Bedford the CCTV system and the traffic grid log continued. The gangs and anyone who wanted a new TV raided the large stores in the town centre as soon as it got dark. Some stores were set alight and havoc took over. I hadn’t planned for this to happen but with social media making it easy for the word to get about criminals from all over the Midlands and the Home Counties started to loot and the police were powerless to stop them. It was turning out to be a heist to be remembered. I hope you enjoyed your time with me in Bedford and will join me later in 2020 with the launch of The Bedford retribution.

  Chapter 66. Spreading the word

  Bedford’s chief Constable had said at his press conference that they would try and find out who was behind today’s events. He didn’t have to wait long for an answer as all media received an untraceable email during late afternoon which would be on every front page and news bulletin. The email read. Bedford at war. Today saw a chain of events that were set up by a group of my friends who were sick to their back teeth of having their conditions ignored by the powers that be. Any problem in the free world usually finds it way inside and due to overcrowding and under-staffing HMP service is doing little to solve the problems. Our group of highly trained robbers will continue to hit the rich and funnel the money to the poor. The only time we will stop is when these top ten problems have been rectified.