The Great Craiglist Heist

In an elaborate robbery scheme that was one part "The Thomas Crowne Affair" and one part "Pineapple Express", a criminal robbed an armoured van outside a Bank of America branch in Monroe, Washington, by hiring decoys through Craigslist, a popular US advertising website.

He then escaped in a creek, headed for the Skykomish River, in an inner tube, and the police are still looking for him.
"A great amount of money" was taken, the Monroe police said, but did not provide the actual sum.

It appears that around 11 a.m. the robber - wearing a yellow day-glow vest, safety goggles, a blue shirt and a respirator mask - went over to a guard who was overseeing the unloading of cash to the bank from the van. He sprayed the guard with pepper spray, grabbed his bag of money, and fled the scene.

But here's the hilarious twist. The robber had previously put out an ad on Craigslist for "road maintenance workers", promising wages of $ 28.50 per hour.
Willing recruits were asked to wait near the Bank of America in Monroe right around the time of the robbery, wearing yellow day-glow vests, safety goggles, a respirator mask, and preferably a blue shirt. At least a dozen of them turned up after responding to the ad.

"I came across this ad that was for a job for $ 28.50 an hour," one of the unwitting decoys told NBC. As it turns out, he and his "colleagues" were simply placed there to confuse the police, who were looking for a man wearing an identical outfit.

They eventually found the getaway inner tube (a getaway inner tube - hilarious!) and suspect that accomplices may have picked up the robber in a boat.
According to NBC, police hope to track him down by finding out who posted the ad in the first place. Good luck with that...

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was - surprise, surprise - not available for comment.