Aussie 'gangstas' caught posing on film By Nick Papps March 29, 2005 From: THE New South Wales teenagers who robbed $171,000 from a US bank photographed themselves in a toilet cubicle with the stolen cash.
Police have seized a digital camera from Luke Carroll and Anthony Prince containing 10 photographs of the smiling teens doing "gangsta" poses with bundles of stolen notes in a Denver McDonald's just hours after their heist. The damning camera evidence was just one of several bizarre facts uncovered by a The Daily Telegraph investigation into the bungled robbery, which could send the teenagers, who are from the Byron Bay area, to jail for the next 25 years.
Advertisement: Other facts to be uncovered include:
* CARROLL and Prince, both 19, used the stolen cash to hire a limousine as their "getaway" vehicle to take them to Denver airport where they were planning to fly to Mexico;
* THE duo told police they committed the robbery because "they thought it was a cool idea";
* BOTH men are also being investigated for credit card fraud at the sports shop where they worked;
* US police intercepted a parcel with $11,000 from the robbery that Carroll and Prince had posted to their home in Australia;
* THE two used television crime shows as their inspiration for the robbery; and
* PRINCE collapsed in tears during his police interview after realising he could face 25 years in prison and a $US250,000 ($325,000) fine.
The details emerged on the eve of Carroll and Prince's expected appearance today at the US District Court in Denver for a hearing to decide whether they will be released on bail until their trial in the next six months.
Yesterday Vail detective Ryan Millbern said the two men were identified as the offenders within 90 minutes of stealing $US130,000 from the WestStar bank, Vail, at 10.10am last Monday.
The men were identified by a teller named Kym who recognised Carroll's Australian voice as he put a slug gun to her head.
The men were regular customers at the bank.
Police sources said after committing the robbery, the men then raced up a ski lift and snowboarded several kilometres to a car park where they changed clothes, took a bus to McDonald's and photographed themselves with the bundled notes.
The following day they hired a limousine to take them to the airport where they were arrested after a security guard recognised them from a warning bulletin.
After police found the incriminating photos on a camera they were carrying, the men made full confessions.
The men's neighbour in Vail said the first he knew about the robbery was when he saw a SWAT team swarming over the duo's house last Monday, the day of the robbery.
"I was playing my Xbox killing SWAT guys and then I went outside and there were SWAT guys all over the place," John Donovan said.
He said the teenagers had rented their modest $US770 a month apartment since November and had largely kept to themselves except one night last month when they started shooting at houses across the road with paintball guns and air pistols.
"I rang the cops about it and they were done for that," Mr Donovan said. "They later said they didn't know it was illegal to fire their guns. I think these guys have seen too many Ned Kelly films."
