Martin Pedersen
Appearances
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I spent very much money. On this trip, I spent what would be half a million Norwegian crowns on 14 days.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
So the money, and then I said, geez, must I do this again? So, okay then, once more, but not more.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
What is the thing about a revolver? You have to see the barrels. So I had to put in the bullets.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I ordered him into the back room because I knew the money was there. The girl, she went straight in, but he was little, what the fuck is happening? His brain didn't manage this. And then he attacked me. And the man was much stronger than me. Big guy.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
In this fight, I had to have it far away from him, from me, from anyone. Because if it goes, it was a .357 Magnum. It could blow anyone's head off.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And he did, but he also took my wig off. Wig! And then he saw me, I said, who was? And he got shocked. And I don't recall why he got up or something, but he did. And then I said, now you must go away or I'll shoot you in your legs. And he didn't. He attacked me again.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And then it's the biggest explosion I've ever heard. It was not like you see in the movies, bang. It was an explosion, like it was dynamite.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I had to think how to get out of this. Now I just forget the money. I always think of myself. But the door was locked and the key was not there. I couldn't get out there. And then I said to the man, boom! Just a boom! To frighten him. And then he didn't touch me. Now we understood the situation.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I had to fire twice up in the air. And then I moved away. And then I went to this old car. It was an old green Audi. And I sat in and... Not very funny. But then Sunday started, and then whoosh, and then I was home free. So this was a total fiasco. And I didn't have so much money then, so what should I do?
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Now I have to be a traveling man in bank robberies. I will go now, rob a bank every second month. Quick in, quick out. Quick in, quick out. I cannot take the control of a big bank. So I drove around southern Norway, then on the other side of the fjord and everywhere. And I did this quick in, quick out of five, six, seven banks.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
During his robbery, one minute he was a criminal, the next... And suddenly was an English fisherman with fishing gear and dressed more as an Englishman, you know, less as the upper-class Englishman. Can you please tell me where I can find a nice fishing spot, sir? Such things, you know. I was in the theater.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I had to be smart. And the smartest thing was to vanish. Where is he? And then nobody can find you. Some bank robbers, they drive and drive and they meet the police. I would not do that. Never. So that was the way I used psychology as much as I could. And they believed it every time.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I wanted them to get out of it, really out of it. And I began to get bad conscience. I even went to the police to report myself. But when I came in there, I lost my courage. And it was not a good time, really. It was a very bad time. Why? Because I couldn't get out of it. I was the biggest bank robber at the first bank robbery. Two was even bigger. And I was a nice man.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
So I thought, if he can be with me, if he can come with me, we can take a really big bank because then we can control. No one will attack. You know, I was afraid to be attacked again.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
There was this man with a gun, the police in the door, but there were no cameras or nothing. And the vault was quite open. It's true. And there were these shelves there with not books, but hundreds of millions. And I nearly broke my problem breathing. This was up the second floor and there was no windows there. No one could see what happened. And I thought, that is the ideal bank to rob.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
when it was day before pensions. You know, lots of pensions were paid out in cash. And I saw that the police, they picked up lots of sacks with money.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Everything had to be perfect. This was in the middle of a big city. The police, they had guns. They could shoot us down any way they wanted. If we got in too early, perhaps the police car was still going with the motor on. And then they could just give gas and drive us down. If you take the key out, they could throw the key to the car. Anything was possible. So it has to be perfect.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I loved my father very much. He was the nicest man you can imagine.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
So I had, like in the theater, theater, tried it out. Rehearsal. Rehearsal, yes, just to see that it worked. And I was the boss, and I was the architect. So we cut it off twice. I said, forget it. It's not perfect now. We cannot do it. So we robbed some banks in between, small banks, just to have something to do.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I came in and I shouted then that this was a bank robbery. We had these American stars and stripes hats on. Yeah, we wanted to blame the Americans. No, no, I'm kidding. I love the Americans. I promise you. Martin's .357 is loaded this time. I would not shoot at them whatever happens. That was sacred. But I had planned to shoot up in the wall.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
The concrete will fall down on them, and they will be afraid, and they will not dare to use their guns. We were acting, but they couldn't believe that. Martin fired one round into the wall. That was frightening. So they did what we said.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Then I took the car and put on the siren and everything, and the blue lights, and I drove out into the street very quick. And he followed me in the other car, this Bjorn.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And then we loaded all the money, the sacks, over to the other car. And I also dressed out as a beautiful woman, with long dress, blonde hair, makeup. I did the best I could. Then he lied down on the floor with little fur over him so he looked like a dog. And then I drove back as a woman, little feminine, you know. And we drove exactly the same way back.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I wanted more to be an actor. I wanted to go to the actor school in Oslo. Did your father support that? He supported me in everything. Every year when the school ends, we make a show in the school, big, so thousands of people come, and I was ahead of that. And he was there every day looking, oh, that's my son, I'm so proud.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And after a while, we come to this police thing and I waved to them. Maybe a little over the top, but it worked.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I remember I was very eager to see how much money we've got. So I took this note off one of the sacks, only one sack. Each sack has a tag on it that said where it was supposed to go and how much was in it. And when I was in the train, I went to the toilet and I took this up and it says Kongsberg Post Office, 1.4 million. Hoo-ah!
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I was so happy you won't believe it. Finally, finally I can get out of this. End of story. And I was so happy.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
KJ19, they started all of them. And Jesus, I couldn't come to terms where I could spend them. So... What should I do?
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I asked him if he wanted to come with me. No, Martin, I have enough money. Now, where do we spend the used money, no? He said, I don't want you to do it yourself. Yeah, okay then. I'll do it myself.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I'm very fond of classical music, so I had Mozart and Beethoven, whatever, and I had champagne. I was happy to have that at home. I, whoo, so nice. It went so okay, you know, when my wife was at work. And I was the only one who knew this. So your wife was at work, and you have giant stacks of brand new bills. Yeah, but I didn't, it was, 35,000 is a lot of money, a lot of bills.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And you put them all in your swimming pool. Not all, not all, little by little, you know, because it was so much.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
So I disguised as a priest, look as innocent as possible. But what I did also was I had to take a new passport picture because my passport picture was very old. I looked like a fresh new passport picture when I went away as the priest. I had a Bible and some Christian magazines. I was a priest all the time, and I was stopped at the border. They looked at me, talked with me.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
They didn't look at the car. They didn't examine the car, but it was very well hidden indoors and everywhere, you know.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
So I felt like a businessman in a way. And it went very well. So when I had gone down to many, many, many banks, I said to myself, okay, they don't care at all. And then I was back to Ceres, to a hotel, and I had all this money. And I thought to myself, what should I do now? The inflation is 10%. So in the next year, I will lose 10% of all this. So I have to do something smart now.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And I was so happy. And you've gone legit. You've gone legitimate. You're straight. Yeah, then I'm straight. And then the money comes. It was so nice. I had a big Mercedes. I parked it outside my property. My people said, good morning, Mr. Peterson. Nice to see you, Mr. Peterson. Hello. And I smiled at everybody, the actor. And, you know, it was crazy.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And I felt like, I felt in the clouds, really, because I was out of it. So how did you get caught? I didn't know that they didn't need all those 35,000 bills in Switzerland. They didn't buy those bills to sit on them. It was a business deal for them, you know, so they bought it from me for a certain price and they sold it. To whom? The Central Bank of Norway. Okay, I should have thought of that.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Just to have security. And instead of then going to Oslo to become an actor, she got me to start a teacher school in Thunberg. Did your mother want you to be a teacher? No, definitely not. That wasn't good enough for her. She wanted me at least to be a lawyer. But she accepted that.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And then the people working in the Central Bank of Norway, they recognized the bills and
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Two policemen went to Switzerland, and they went from bank to bank. They asked, how does it look?
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And they made these phantom drawings. It didn't look so much like me, but my nose was there in a way. And they described the man as very polite and all that, you know. And then they put this drawing out in the newspapers in Norway, the television. Who is this? There was this woman in Tönsberg. And she was the one who thought, oh, Martin Peterson, he has spent a lot of money.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Mine was brand new. Uh-oh. And then, one day, the police turned out to my house.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
They were not hard. They were not violent. They didn't have guns even. They said, we have to take you to Drummond to question you about the robbery there. Oof, it was one of the worst moments of my life. I couldn't believe it. Like my brain didn't accept this. What did you say? No, then when I came there. No, before then, when the police are standing at your door saying, we have to take you.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Yeah, I said, what is it? I don't know anything about that. But yeah, but anyway, you have to come with us. And they put me in the back seat of an ordinary car. I think it was a Volvo. And the two policemen in civil and without any uniform sitting in front. They drove me to police in Drummond. And then I had made up my mind to tell them the truth straight away. I said that to the police.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
There were six, seven policemen there. And I told them I robbed 19 banks. They smiled and they laughed. So I had to prove it. They didn't believe it at all. Because 19 banks is a lot of banks. So I told them about what happened down to the smallest detail.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I had put false clues, you know. I put cigarettes in the cars. I put beer empty. I put a ring. That was bought in Copenhagen. That has not been in the newspapers, you know. Such things.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And I had to show them the roots I had been driving and such. And then they understood, Jesus Christ, it's true. The business guard came one day and said, you have to come with me. And I did. And there was this library there. But in the middle, there was this long table, at least 10 meters long. And it was white linen. There was Coca-Cola, nice food.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I was sitting with a couple of guys, and they were talking about this thing that was in TV. It was a series about a gentleman, and he was stealing paintings. But he did it with style. He had white gloves. He was in Saint-Dupin. It's a French series.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
The head of the police all around, nowhere here. They came to me and said, thank you so much, Mr. Peterson, for telling us the truth. We are so happy now. And then we sat down and they laughed a little that I had dressed up as a woman and such. And then the head of them said, what are you going to do now? No, I have to do my time, of course, but I'll become a jurist, lawyer.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
They smiled all of them, I can promise you, from one ear to the other, because this they don't believe.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
No, I was some sort of a hero in a way then also. Why? Because I did it a little gentlemanly. Even some of the bank managers that I had robbed came to visit me in prison. And I said I'm so sorry. And I hugged them. Did you consider yourself a criminal? Not really. No. It's... Of course, I was a criminal. I was a super criminal. But I wanted to get out of it. I planned it only once.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I threw the gun away, you know, out into the sea. But I was very weak. Weak for beautiful things, for having parties, for being a good man, you know. And then I was, I feel that I was in a way forced on, forced on, forced on. But then, at the end, I decided to sell my house and then invest in real business.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Then I got an idea. What if I make that into a restaurant, a coffee shop, and call it the Munch's Café? Because Edvard Munch is famous all over Norway, and he has been living here in Oslo.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
That would be smart to use the name Edvard Munch. I had to ask the Munch family for Munch. They said you have to say Munch. That is to pronounce it. And you have to buy all the paintings from us. All the work, and also originals, of course. And I did. And then I gave him permission to call it Munch's Café.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Welcome to my humble restaurants. And then I said, who are you? I know you.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Even though we had paintings and many things, we didn't have Edvard Munch. That was very rare. And then suddenly I woke up one night and I thought, ah-ha. Should I take those pictures? It would be a challenge. It was just a fantasy in the beginning, and I found out where this sheep owner lived, and he was dead, but his widow was living there.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I was so proud of myself because I got the window up. It was no alarms, no nothing, you know. And in I go. Suddenly I was in a house that was even much, much bigger and more beautiful than my mother and father's. They also had Picasso things there. But I should be a gentleman, you know? So I took only five pictures of it with Munch, and I let the rest be.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
When I went out, the door was then open. Anyone could come in. And I didn't want real thieves to come there, you know? I was a real thief myself. But I didn't want thieves to come in and do something bad to the property. So I just wondered, what do I do? Someone has to close the door. So I thought about calling the police in Tønsberg, but I was afraid that they had a tape recorder.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
So I called the newspaper, Tønsbergsplan, and I told them with a different voice that the door was open, it had been a break-in there, and they had to close the door, and they did. I got away with it. I took them out of the frames, and I put them out behind a very big painting that I had inherited from my father. They were hanging there for years. How did you feel about it? I felt a little proud.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
It was me against the society, in a way, and the police. And the newspaper said, this was a masterpiece because they had stolen that and that. It must be someone who had wanted that. Why didn't they take all? And it was little me, just these teachers, students.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
But I felt not good about my life. So I said to myself then, no other person knew this. Why don't I rob a bank? So I could buy a house like the house my mother had sold. Not the same house, but something like it. But you know, you need a gun to rob a bank. You cannot come in with a pen or a finger. I didn't have a gun.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Yeah. But one thing I just wanted to say, as a mess with your interview, but what I did a little wrong, these people that made this documentary about me, not once did I say 19 bank robberies. That is a very essential point, you know, that I robbed 19 banks.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Where did rob a bank come from? You know, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, you remember 1969? Robert Redford and those, you know, charming guys. I'm okay charming myself. And I saw also Norway, which was going to be a very rich society because of oil. And then I said to myself, why don't I steal from the rich, the banks?
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I don't give it to the poor, but I give it to myself and my family at least.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And I just saluted in the gate, and I saluted back. And then I went to this barrack, and it was a little late, so there was no one there. And it was very simple to take that machine gun, put it under my coat, and then I went out again. Then I had a gun.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
So four or five days before, I called the bank, telephone. And I've been acting a lot since I was a young boy, you know? So I made my voice old. And I said in Norwegian then, my name is John, I don't know where, Hansen from... Oslo, you know, I have a little cabin down there, not so very far from your little sweet town.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And my wife and I, we've been so lucky now to win 250,000 kroner in a lottery. And we're going to go there on Friday. Can you please order 250,000 extra from the Norwegian Central Bank so we can come and get it? Oh, yes, please do that, the woman said. We're glad to order money for you, sir. So I ordered money for my own bank robbery.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I went there in the railway station into the toilet and changed. And when I came out, I was a totally different guy. I had a wig, I had this, I had that. I don't recall if I had beer at that time, but I also had a long coat.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Many people saw me. They didn't see Martin Peterson. They saw a totally different guy. And then suddenly I saw a car and I jumped in and started it and I drove away.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I waited and waited, but the time went, and it was closed at four o'clock. And I hoped he could go, but he didn't, and then I had to go.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And I also had decided to talk Swedish. He said, in Swedish then? Hello, I'm a Swede. Can you please let me change some money? I don't have any Norwegian money. I need to change Swedish money. Yes, sir. Come in, she said. And we went in. And then when we come in, she got the shock of her life, I think, because suddenly this man took out this machine gun.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I yelled out in Swedish then, don't do anything, I'll shoot you if you try. And they automatically fell to the floor, all of them. And it was very strange because I never had such power before. I nearly looked around, who has got this power? And it was me. It was very strange.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
But I couldn't stay there for so long. I could not know if they had pushed a button, an alarm to the police or something.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
Yeah, it's a little difficult to answer that question. My name is Martin Pedersen, and I come from a wealthy family in Tønsberg, a little city in Norway, south of Norway. And I grew up with a very good father and mother, and I had a very, very good life.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And when I met somebody, I was smiling and happy. It was sunshine and everything. And then I got away with it. But then a couple of days later, I picked up these things again, and then I was rich. But it wasn't so much money as I had hoped.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
It was a shipowner's house. Beautiful house with a big property. And we moved in. But it needed a lot of decorations, new things, because it was old. And what did I do? I called this one and that one and do this, do that, and the garden and everything, you know. The money went away like birds. What did your wife say?
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I told everybody that because they knew that I was into art and such, that I sold art, but I didn't make any money, you know. It was more a dream that I should be that.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I thought to myself, okay, I have to rob one more then, but that should be the last one.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
And I was so happy. I felt like... I cannot tell how happy I felt because I fooled him totally, you know? And, uh... And I have lots of money now. So then I was the ordinary family man again. And nobody knew what I was doing.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
There were rumors about me importing things, drugs and such, but nobody believed it. Because I was a good-looking man with short hair, perfect behavior, always smiling, being good to people, you know. But I was not acting. That is me. But then after a while, I wanted to get out of Norway because it was a little narrow for me, small.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
I drove down to south of France, a very beautiful area, you know, part of the world. And of course, I knew a lot about Monaco, south of France. I love that, you know, a little upper class and all that because that's where I come from, anyway. You have yachts and all that.
Big Time
Norway’s Most Wanted | 5
When I went to the casino in Monte Carlo, because I was in a black suit with a tie and I was drinking gin, tonic or martini, stirred nuts. I'm not crazy or anything, but I liked that life. I liked it. And I wasn't quite happy. I married this girl that I didn't love. And at that time, you know, there were no AIDS. So I was together with lots of girls.