Hovering Up!!

Vacuum heist gang suck up cash from supermarket tills

The gang has found a way of plugging into the pneumatic tubes used to transport notes from tills to safes, then sucking out the money with a modified vacuum cleaner.

‘These are sophisticated, hi-tech criminals who know exactly what they are doing,’ said police.

The thieves, who have stolen about £750,000 in at least 15 raids across Paris since 2006, last struck on Monday, when they took £100,000 from a Monoprix store in the Paris suburb of Saint-Ouen.

‘We are certain there are at least two men involved and they have exploited a weakness in supermarket cash systems,’ officers added.

'Effectively they find a quiet place in store, drill a hole in the pneumatic tubes which transport money around the store, and then suck money out using their own vacuum cleaner. The cash is neatly rolled in tubes which makes it very easy to get out.'