Armored Car Heist With B-Movie Possibilities

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 31 July 2019)


Ekinci had visions of silver screen fame.


In Adana, armored car security guard Burak Ekinci (29) stole 4.795
Euros (about 31.5 million TL) during a money transfer on 25 June
but he was captured in his hideout the day before yesterday. The
incident occurred on Karataş Avenue in the Yüreğir neighborhood
of Adana.

Ekinci, the security director (!) for a logistics and security firm that
transfers money for banks and businesses, was in the process of
transferring 9 million Euros with his team when he said to the others
with regard to two of the nine bags they were getting ready to load
onto an armored car: "It seems there's some money missing in these
ttwo bags. You go ahead and get the others while I check these."

Returning to the armored car with the 7 other bags, the team saw
that Ekinci wasn't there.  After waiting a bit, they realized that
the money had been stolen and called police, who then reviewed
video footage that showed Ekinci absconding with the money in
a luxury automobile.


          Casting call.  Leading man Ekinci in front.

Police mounted an investigation and arrested Atilla Can Ö, Mehmet
G., Ahmet K., Engin K., Tuncay B. and Abdulsamet B., the first
three of whom were jailed after interrogation, while the others were
released under judicial supervision.  Brothers Gökhan B. and Sercan
B. were captured at their hideout, where police found 73,000 Euros
and 19,500 TL.

Ekinci, however, remained at large for 33 days until he was caught
at his hideout in Sarıçam district of Adana.  Under questioning,
Ekinci said that he had given 4.645 Euros of the stolen money to
Mehmet G. and Hasan B.  Of the remaining money, through a cousin,
Ekinci gave 20,000 Euros to his relative Jale E., 22,000 Euros to
Berkay E., 34,000 Euros to his neighborhood friend Serdal K.,
22,000 Euros to Tolga Y. and 5,000 Euros to Hasan Y., in whose
home Ekinci was hiding out.

Ekinci told the recipients that "I'm giving you this money but if I
get caught and need money for lawyers and legal fees I want you
to give it back to me." (!)  At first, while Ekinci was holed-up in
a shack in the woods, he was too scared to leave and had someone
leave stale bread at the door, which sustained him.  Subsequently,
he went to the home of a relative.

The suspects had originally planned to conduct the heist on 28 June,
the last work-day of the week, and then flee Turkey over the
weekend.  Because of internal company accounting actions, though,
they moved up the date of the heist to 25 June. 

Ekinci, Jale E. and Serdal K. were jailed, while Berkay E., Ayhan Ö.,
Tolga Y. and Hasan Y. were released under judicial supervision.


The heist occurred in Yüreğir, just southeast of downtown
Adana.  Ekinci hid out for a while in the woods of nearby 
Sarıçam district.