A thread on a popular Rangers forum about Johnny Ramensky (Pre-WW2 safe-blower, WW2 Commando and back to safe-blowing) opened up about how criminal skills can have positive use in military (especially wartime) and vice versa, including tales of robberies by serving Royal Marines that couldn't be proven.
Quite a few interesting tales
Have added a couple of the tales as some people can't access the link thread.
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Not an uncommon path, some of the training given by the army or the more specialized forces lends itself beautifully to crime.
Have an old mate who i have sadly lost contact with over the years. A Marine who eventually was based at Poole before heading to the middle east.
Whilst in Poole at one point the Police were constantly round at the base as there was a string of robberies from large out of town supermarkets throughout the South and South East of England and the only people the Police could think of with the skill set was either lads in the forces or ex forces.
These thieves were going into the large utility area above the actual shop which had minimum security, setting themselves up on abseiling gear above the false ceiling on the cash rooms, doing surveillance on the cash rooms then dropping in when the take was high enough, filling carrier bags with cash then walking straight out the shop with what looked like big bags of shopping.
Baseball caps and sunglasses meant they couldn't be identified by cctv. No one ever hurt, just walking out with the cash nice and easy whilst everyone went about their daily shopping.
With no proof the Police were politely told to bolt.
No idea if that is actually true and it was Army / ex Army lads, a story 25 years old. But i have always kinda hoped it was.
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My favourite story along these lines was on London East End criminal Eddie Chapman who was in jail in Jersey when the Germans invaded. The Abwehr, recruited him and parachuted him back into England, however he turned himself in and started working for M15 as a double agent. He was so successful that he was awarded the Iron Cross, principally for blowing up a Vickers factory where the damage was faked. An excellent film was made starring Christopher Plummer as Chapman and Yul Brynner as his German handler
Quite a few interesting tales
Have added a couple of the tales as some people can't access the link thread.
----—----------—-----
Not an uncommon path, some of the training given by the army or the more specialized forces lends itself beautifully to crime.
Have an old mate who i have sadly lost contact with over the years. A Marine who eventually was based at Poole before heading to the middle east.
Whilst in Poole at one point the Police were constantly round at the base as there was a string of robberies from large out of town supermarkets throughout the South and South East of England and the only people the Police could think of with the skill set was either lads in the forces or ex forces.
These thieves were going into the large utility area above the actual shop which had minimum security, setting themselves up on abseiling gear above the false ceiling on the cash rooms, doing surveillance on the cash rooms then dropping in when the take was high enough, filling carrier bags with cash then walking straight out the shop with what looked like big bags of shopping.
Baseball caps and sunglasses meant they couldn't be identified by cctv. No one ever hurt, just walking out with the cash nice and easy whilst everyone went about their daily shopping.
With no proof the Police were politely told to bolt.
No idea if that is actually true and it was Army / ex Army lads, a story 25 years old. But i have always kinda hoped it was.
--------------------------
My favourite story along these lines was on London East End criminal Eddie Chapman who was in jail in Jersey when the Germans invaded. The Abwehr, recruited him and parachuted him back into England, however he turned himself in and started working for M15 as a double agent. He was so successful that he was awarded the Iron Cross, principally for blowing up a Vickers factory where the damage was faked. An excellent film was made starring Christopher Plummer as Chapman and Yul Brynner as his German handler
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