Thieves Tunnel into Buenos Aires Bank, Empty Safe Deposit Boxes

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CBS/AP) It sounds like a scene from a Hollywood movie: thieves dig a 100-foot-long tunnel - with lights and ventilation - from a neighboring building into a bank and empty out dozens of safety deposit boxes.

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But according to officials in Argentina, it's no movie.

Three thieves entered a Banco Provincia branch in the Buenos Aires district of Belgrano when it was closed on New Year's Eve and spent the weekend opening and emptying between 130 and 140 of the branch's 1,408 boxes, according to authorities.

The robbery wasn't discovered until the bank opened Monday.

Bank executives didn't say how much the thieves got away with because clients are not obliged to tell authorities what was in their safety deposit boxes.

The thieves rented a building next to the bank in June and spent months digging the tunnel, which emerged in an area where safety deposit boxes are located, prosecutor Martin Niklison said.

According to UPI, the thieves were captured on video and left with their loot by car on Monday.

"It was a really impressive job," Niklison said of the tunnel, adding that officials had not ruled out that the thieves had an accomplice on the bank's staff.

Anti-seismic alarms sounded various times but police couldn't get into the bank to check out their cause, the prosecutor said.

Hundreds of bank clients gathered in front of the state bank Monday to demand their savings and blocked a nearby street to protest the slow pace at which authorities were confirming whose boxes had been robbed.

"The message we want to give [clients] is that we are going to protect their interests after this incident," Banco Provincia Vice President Gustavo Marangoni told channel C5N.

Many Argentines began putting their savings in bank safety deposit boxes instead of bank accounts following the country's 2001 financial crisis, when many depositors lost savings.