MOSCOW, February 13 (RIA Novosti) – Four masked thieves made off with $4.3 million from a bank in St. Petersburg after beating up a security guard and stealing the keys to the vault, police said Thursday.
Police cited the lender’s chief security specialist as saying the guard at a branch of Russky Standard Bank was found handcuffed at about 11 a.m. on Wednesday with 150 million rubles missing from the vault.
The guard told police the robbers attacked him while he was patrolling the bank’s premises on Tuesday night, and beat and bound him before stuffing him into a car.
After driving around the city for 15 minutes, the gang returned to the bank and pepper-sprayed the guard in the face before stealing his keys to the vault and locking him inside the bathroom, police said.
The Interior Ministry said the guard has been hospitalized and that the robbery was filmed on the bank’s surveillance cameras.
