The Great Buenos Aires Bank Heist
The article recounts the 2006 Robbery of the Century at [[Banco Río]] in a wealthy suburb of [[Buenos Aires]], where a crew led by [[Fernando Araujo]] and engineered by [[Sebastián García Bolster]] staged a fake daytime holdup to distract police while accessing hundreds of safe‑deposit boxes via a tunnel from the city’s storm drains. Combining theatrical bluff—pizza orders, freed hostages, a charismatic negotiator dubbed the “Man in the Gray Suit”—with technical ingenuity (a custom “power cannon,” inflatable Zodiacs, a dam to raise canal depth), the thieves cleared 143 boxes and escaped through the sewers, embarrassing authorities and captivating the nation. The subsequent arrests, betrayals, books, and films transformed the burglars into folk figures, while much of the loot remained unaccounted for, and the caper redefined public distrust of banks.