Crew of five men detained by the NYPD reportedly admit they picked up heist tips watching Ben Affleck’s 2010 Boston-set drama
A crew of alleged burglars arrested in New York say they learned tricks from the Ben Affleck film The Town to help carry out 62 robberies, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
It was reported that the five men, who were arrested by the NYPD last weekend, told detectives that they had splashed bleach on ATMs and cash drawers, cut the power to robbery locations and used miners’ headlamps to see in the dark after watching Affleck and his fictional crew do the same in the 2010 crime thriller.
The Town, which pitted a gang of Boston criminals against a FBI agent (played by Mad Men’s Jon Hamm), also saw Affleck’s gang dress up as skeletons, nuns and policemen during their heists. The real-life crew, who police say made a total of $217,000 robbing discount stores, pizza restaurants and delis in Brooklyn and Queens, dressed in street clothes. However, another criminal duo, who held up a Chicago bank dressed in the same type of nun costumes used in the film, were arrested and charged in May.
Four of the suspects from the latest case are awaiting arraignment. The fifth is in prison due to an unrelated weapons charge.
