Jack Recider

So if they started after 5 p.m., everyone at the banks would be going home for the weekend.

And they'd have the ATMs to themselves.

Barely anyone around to watch.

But that wasn't all.

The week after would be Christmas.

So many bank employees were taking their Christmas breaks and holiday vacations.

They'd be understaffed, which would make it easier to not get noticed.

I imagine the excitement that everyone must have had leading up to this, thinking about their route through the city, the plan, the money they could get from all this.

It was starting to feel real.

Alberto, Elvis, they all went back to their jobs, driving buses or working at Kmart, doing deliveries, waiting and worrying, daydreaming at the register or staring blankly at the road, thinking over the plan again and again, knowing that soon, if they really could pull it off, they might have enough money to live the life they really wanted.

I wonder how Alberta woke up on that day of December 21st.

When you know you're going to commit a bank heist that night, do you just roll out of bed like a normal day?

The plan was for everyone to get into Manhattan alone.

They wanted to be clever and not be seen together, just in case.

Everyone would stay in communication by text.

Alberto and his guys got into town one by one.

Elvis had to leave work early in order to make it in time, and he was still wearing his Domino's pizza hat by the time he got to his starting point in midtown Manhattan.

Alberto was checking his phone, waiting for the signal from his supplier.

Everyone was ready.

The guy who gave him the cards would tell him when to start.