When to Rob a Bank

Author: Steven D. Levitt
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062218328
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the landmark book Freakonomics comes this curated collection from the most readable economics blog in the universe. It’s the perfect solution for the millions of readers who love all things Freakonomics. Surprising and erudite, eloquent and witty, When to Rob a Bank demonstrates the brilliance that has made the Freakonomics guys an international sensation, with more than 7 million books sold in 40 languages, and 150 million downloads of their Freakonomics Radio podcast. When Freakonomics was first published, the authors started a blog—and they’ve kept it up. The writing is more casual, more personal, even more outlandish than in their books. In When to Rob a Bank, they ask a host of typically off-center questions: Why don’t flight attendants get tipped? If you were a terrorist, how would you attack? And why does KFC always run out of fried chicken? Over the past decade, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have published more than 8,000 blog posts on the Freakonomics website. Many of them, they freely admit, were rubbish. But now they’ve gone through and picked the best of the best. You’ll discover what people lie about, and why; the best way to cut gun deaths; why it might be time for a sex tax; and, yes, when to rob a bank. (Short answer: never; the ROI is terrible.) You’ll also learn a great deal about Levitt and Dubner’s own quirks and passions, from gambling and golf to backgammon and the abolition of the penny.

How to Rob a Bank

Author: Tom Mitchell
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 000827651X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
A funny, filmic and fast-paced crime-caper by a hilarious new voice in middle-grade fiction, ideal for readers aged 10 and up.

The Summer I Robbed A Bank

Author: David O'Doherty
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241362245
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 174

Book Description
*Winner of the Irish Children's Book Award* 'Funny, warm as toast and packed full of ideas that fill up your head and burst in your brain like fizzy magic!' Noel Fielding 'A totally fun, madcap adventure that ends up robbing your heart' Stewart Foster, award-winning author of The Bubble Boy There's a feeling of relief that comes just after you've robbed a bank... Rex's parents have split up and, to make matters worse, he has to spend his summer holiday on a remote and rainy Irish island - with only unruly sheep for company. The only upside: he'll be staying with his strange and brilliant Uncle Derm. Then Rex discovers Uncle Derm is about to execute his most hair-brained plan yet . . . To rob the island's travelling bank! Like the local legend of medieval Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley, Uncle Derm plans to redistribute the money to local needy causes on the island. And he needs Rex's help . . . A chaotic robbery, plenty of sheep and a summer of discoveries come together in this hilarious and heart-warming novel from comedian, actor and author of Danger is Everywhere, David O'Doherty. A perfect adventure for fans of Frank Cottrell Boyce, Ross Welford and David Walliams. ---------- Praise for David O'Doherty's Danger is Everywhere series: 'I dislocated my jaw laughing' Eoin Colfer 'Imagine the Mighty Boosh crashed into the Wimpy Kid' The Times 'Brilliantly funny' Gransnet

Just Robbed a Bank

Author: Tim Scott
Publisher: Tim Scott
ISBN: 9781087957265
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
The hardest thing to remember when you are a bank robber is that you look like everybody else. The most important choice I made wasn't to be a bank robber; it just put me on the path to being everything I ever wanted to be.

Norco '80

Author: Peter Houlahan
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1640092129
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Book Description
5 young men. 32 destroyed police vehicles. 1 spectacular bank robbery. This “cinematic” true crime story transports readers to the scene of one of the most shocking bank heists in U.S. history—a crime that’s almost too wild to be real (The New York Times Book Review). Norco ’80 tells the story of how five heavily armed young men—led by an apocalyptic born–again Christian—attempted a bank robbery that turned into one of the most violent criminal events in U.S. history, forever changing the face of American law enforcement. Part action thriller and part courtroom drama, this Edgar Award finalist for Best Fact Crime transports the reader back to the Southern California of the 1970s, an era of predatory evangelical gurus, doomsday predictions, megachurches, and soaring crime rates, with the threat of nuclear obliteration looming over it all. In this riveting true story, a group of landscapers transforms into a murderous gang of bank robbers armed to the teeth with military–grade weapons. Their desperate getaway turns the surrounding towns into war zones. And when it’s over, three are dead and close to twenty wounded; a police helicopter has been forced down from the sky, and thirty–two police vehicles have been completely demolished by thousands of rounds of ammo. The resulting trial shakes the community to the core, raising many issues that continue to plague society today: from the epidemic of post–traumatic stress disorder within law enforcement to religious extremism and the militarization of local police forces.

Law Man

Author: Shon Hopwood
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307887839
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 643

Book Description
Traces how the author, a Navy veteran, committed five bank robberies and spent years in prison before he rallied with the support of family and friends and learned savvy legal skills, allowing him to build a promising life as a free man.

The Digested Read

Author: John Crace
Publisher: RDR Books
ISBN: 9781571431592
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
Literary ombudsman John Crace never met an important book he didn't like to deconstruct. From Salman Rushdie to John Grisham, Crace retells the big books in just 500 bitingly satirical words, pointing his pen at the clunky plots, stylistic tics and pretensions of Big Ideas, as he turns publishers' golden dream books into dross.

Bank Robbery for Beginners

Author: Anthony Prince
Publisher: Pan Australia
ISBN: 1742624189
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Book Description
They were tagged Dumb and Dumber by the US media in a story that made headlines - and jokes - around the world. Two Australian boys on a working holiday in the snowfields of the American Rocky Mountains decided to rob a bank. Their plan was so hopelessly inept that although they escaped with over US$130,000 after threatening bank staff with a replica pistol, the trail of clues they left ensured they were identified almost immediately. Among the many things they did wrong was to rob a bank where they were regular customers (staff instantly recognised them and their impossible-to-disguise Australian accents), to tip a taxi driver $20,000, and then to photograph themselves holding up bundles of the stolen money, all before attempting to buy one way tickets to Mexico in cash. From the moment the alarm was raised, it took the Vail Police department all of eight minutes to identify the two boys as the culprits. But what started as two young larrikins planning something stupid soon became deadly serious as both Anthony Prince and his partner Luke Carroll faced life imprisonment for armed robbery. Their youth, previous good behaviour and obvious remorse persuaded the US court to give them a reduced sentence but they were still to serve almost five years in some of America's most violent penitentiaries.

The Santa Claus Bank Robbery

Author: A. C. Greene
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 9781574410716
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Book Description
Master storyteller A. C. Greene re-creates one of America's most bizarre holdups -- one that began as a lark. On Christmas Eve 1927, four men set off to rob the First National Bank of Cisco, Texas. Soon the lark turned into a tragedy -- and at times a comedy -- of errors. The robbers did not realize the car they had stolen for their get-away was running on empty. The leader did not anticipate the attention his disguise would draw, even though it was a bright red Santa Claus suit. And they could not have known that all of Cisco would have guns at hand because the Bankers Association had offered a reward of $5000 for any dead bank robber, no questions asked. The Santa Claus bank robbery set off a chain of events that would lead to violence and the death of six men and launch the largest manhunt Texas had ever seen. A. C. Greene's factual account of the unusual crime reads like a novel -- fast paced, full of unexpected turns, and rich with the flavor of life in Texas at the beginning of the end of the Old West. This new edition contains an Afterword with photographs, some of them never before published, and follow-up information on the lives of the participants, including the surviving robber, witnesses and kidnap victims.

The Great Mars Hill Bank Robbery

Author: Ronald Chase
Publisher: Down East Books
ISBN: 1608933628
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
On November 12, 1971, Bernard Patterson, a much decorated Vietnam War hero, turned a real-life version of Don Quixote, Butch Cassidy, and Robin Hood all rolled into one package, robbed the Northern National Bank in Mars Hill, Maine. He escaped with $110,000; at the time, the largest bank robbery in the history of the state. A tunnel rat and paratrooper in Vietnam who rose to the rank of Sergeant, he was awarded four bronze stars and recommended for a silver star for valor. He returned home to northern Maine broke and disillusioned. Wearing dark glasses, dressed in a Marx Brother’s ankle length coat and wearing a blue wig, he robbed the bank, even though he was recognized by the elderly teller. He initially escaped by paddling a rubber raft down the Prestile Stream. This was the beginning of a comic, outrageous, implausible journey that took him across the United States, then to Europe and North Africa before finally surrendering to authorities in Scotland Yard after he had spent most of the money. Along the way, he lived a raucous life of wine and women while hobnobbing in aristocratic hangouts and giving money to those he perceived to be in need; all the time staying just a heartbeat ahead of law enforcement officials. He motor biked across Europe, hoodwinked border officials, bought a camel and got lost in the North African desert. Returned to the United States for prosecution, he was convicted and imprisoned. Released several years later, he moved back to northern Maine, where he continued to lead a reckless life that included running a “pot farm,” until he died at age 56 in 2003. When asked by a friend why he had robbed the bank, he responded, “the VA wouldn’t give me a loan, so I decided to take one out on my own.”