Toy guns, a tunnel and a poetic message: Why Argentinas Heist of the Century still fascinates 20 years on

“In a filthy rich neighborhood, without weapons or grudges, it’s just money and not love.” Twenty years ago, a gang of five thieves left that poem, which rhymes in Spanish, stuck on the empty vaults of a bank in one of Buenos Aires’s most affluent neighborhoods, having left with an estimated US$19 million. By the time the police found the message — along with the toy weapons they had used to commit the robbery — the thieves had long escaped following a plan they had put together months before. Over 200 police officers were left dumbfounded, trying to make sense of a situation they had never seen before. Despite the fact that 23 people had been held hostage during the heist, it seemed the police’s egos were the only ones hurt during the holdup.  The case instantly turned the thieves into living legends, and was quickly dubbed the “robo del siglo,” the heist of the century.  Twenty years on, only a handful of the bounty was recovered, and every one of the gang members is free after serving their time. They’ve since featured in their own documentary on the theft, written books about it and even appeared in and helped to write the script of a mainstream film.  So how does a robbery become a beloved cultural milestone?  A privileged guy Leaving a poem after carrying out a massive heist sounds a bit surreal, but the thieves weren’t exaggerating when they referred to the wealthy area they had chosen as a target. Acassuso, in the north Buenos Aires metro area, is one of the most affluent and privileged areas around the Argentine capital.  The bank was located on Libertador Avenue, one of the most important and exclusive arteries in the north of the city, less than fifteen minutes by car from the Quinta de Olivos, the official residence of the president of Argentina. One of Acassuso’s residents was Fernando Araujo. Accounts differ on who actually led the band, but nobody disputes it all started with him. An artist and martial arts teacher, he decided in 2004 he wanted to rob a bank, but to generate the least amount of damage possible. “I was born in a wealthy family, and my teachers called me an ‘exemplary student’. I could’ve been an accountant, an engineer, an architect […],” he told Infobae in 2021. “But I got bored and started dabbling in that winding path.” He had no background or knowledge of the world of crime, so he started recruiting experts.  First was Sebastián García Bolster, an old acquaintance who knew about mechanical works. Then joined Alberto de la Torre, a member of a former gang who robbed armored trucks in the 1990s, and Luis Mario Vitette Sellanes, an experienced thief from Uruguay.  Julián Zalloechevarría, who drove the getaway car, was the last known member to join, although Vitette claims there were two further members who were never identified. The masterplan The plan was to shock the police by running away with the goods through a tunnel in the ground connecting the bank to the sewers, while simultaneously holding hostages to divert the security forces and give them time inside the vaults. The gang spent a year digging an 18-meter tunnel that connected the bank’s vault to a storm drain. They had also secured the equipment, funds and everything necessary, including the construction of a dam in the sewage which allowed the water level to rise enough to navigate two inflatable boats to the exit. Vitette Sellanes was the most experienced and would lead the hostage situation and negotiations with the police. He later admitted he took acting classes to fool the negotiator into thinking it was simply a break-in gone wrong. The man in the grey suit On January 13, 2006 at around 12 p.m., the gang entered the bank using different disguises and subdued customers and employees, although they weren’t able to prevent the security manager from alerting the police. The break-in instantly became hot news and over 200 police officers flocked to the bank, including Miguel Sileo, a negotiator from the Grupo Halcón, the Argentine Federal Police’s special operations unit. Vitette Sellanes delayed Sileo, hinting at an eventual surrender, while the rest of the gang broke open and emptied over 140 safety deposit boxes from the underground vault. His image, wearing a full suit near the windows of the bank, gave him the now iconic nickname of “the man in the grey suit.” The police’s top priority was to prevent any harm to the hostages, so they waited for the surrender. September 1999’s Masacre de Ramallo (Ramallo massacre), when police attempted to gun down two escaping bank robbers, causing the death of two hostages, was still fresh in most people’s minds. At 4:30 p.m., Vitette Sellanes requested Sileo send food and drinks and ended communication. The police finally decided to break into the bank at 7 p.m. after a hostage managed to break loose and escape, but all they found was the message, the toy guns they had used for the heist and the opening to the tunnel they had used to escape, long before. The aftermath The robbery made every national headline and turned the robbers into legends overnight.  In those days, neither banks nor the police were particularly popular, as Argentina was just starting to recover from the 2001 crisis, when the government froze bank deposits to prevent capital flight, and thousands of protesters clashed with the security forces on the streets. In that context, the “Robin Hood” nature of the crime — robbing the privileged clientele of the bank, without hurting anybody — struck a chord with many less well-to-do Argentines. “Many people said that they were geniuses for planning the entire thing,” Rolando Weder, an employee from a nearby store, told Clarín in 2020. “Sixteen years later, you still hear the same thing: that they were geniuses.” The way it all came apart wasn’t as thought out, though. Alicia Di Tullio, De La Torre’s wife, snitched on the gang when she realized her husband was cheating on her, spending his share of the hit with a younger woman.  The five identified gang members were all tried and sentenced to between seven and 12 years in prison. They have already served their sentences and are now free. Their spot in Argentina’s popular imagination has been a life sentence, however. A full-length movie, two documentaries and a stockpile of books were produced on the robbery and its protagonists.  Twenty years on, all live very quiet lives. Vitette said he spent all his share “on lawyers, quick women and slow horses,” and now owns a jewelry store in Uruguay, which he claims is completely legit. Zalloechevarría became a lawyer; García Bolster went back to his workshop. Araujo and De la Torre are perhaps the two who have remained closer to the spotlight. Araujo became a screenwriter, contributing to the 2020 Robo del siglo (Heist of the century) movie script, while De la Torre got into acting, and featured in the movie about the heist and the HBO series Un gallo para Esculapio (A Rooster for Esculapio). Ironically, he plays a law enforcement officer in both. The bank repaid its clients for all that was stolen, but investigators claim only 20% of the bounty was ever recovered. To this day, the heist remains the most famous robbery in Argentine history.