'Impressive Job': Thieves Tunnel Into Bank

Gang spent months digging after renting neighboring building, officials say

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Thieves dug a 100-foot-long ventilated and lit tunnel from a neighboring building into a bank and emptied the contents of up to 140 safety deposit boxes, officials said Monday.

Authorities said three thieves entered a Banco Provincia branch in the Buenos Aires district of Belgrano on New Year's Eve when it was closed and spent the weekend opening and emptying between 130 and 140 of the branch's 1,408 boxes.

The robbery wasn't discovered until the bank opened Monday.

Bank executives didn't say how much the thieves got away with because clients are not obliged to tell authorities what was in their safety deposit boxes. InfoBAE reported that the contents of each safety deposit box were valued at at 50,000 Argentine pesos (about $12,600).

The thieves rented a building next to the bank in June and spent months digging the tunnel, which emerged in an area where safety deposit boxes are located, prosecutor Martin Niklison said.

The bank's cameras filmed the robbers, thought to have been at least three, loading bags into a car before fleeing, Argentine news agency Telam quoted Niklison as saying.

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