PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — Police in Trinidad and Tobago said Wednesday they are looking for a group of thieves caught on camera who used a backhoe to try to rob an ATM, but pulled off the movie-style heist so badly that it ended up becoming a meme.
Security camera footage shows at least four suspects searching the crime scene.
One of them looked strikingly like Batman, wearing black clothing, a black ski mask, and what looked like a black poncho blowing in the wind like the superhero’s cape.
This person is seen tripping over debris and falling to the ground while trying to steer the backhoe.
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service said “efforts by the suspects to remove the vault were futile, after the arm of the backhoe was damaged” during the incident early Wednesday.
The suspects were able to move the ATM to the sidewalk with the backhoe, which police said they stole from a nearby beach.
But after the backhoe arm stopped working, and their combined efforts to lift the ATM onto a small truck also failed, the suspects gave up and sped away in what police said was a stolen vehicle.
The ATM remained uncovered, and authorities later responded to the scene in Tobago, the smallest of the twin island nation.
According to the timestamp of the security video, the failed attempt lasted more than 10 minutes, all while the state of emergency remains in effect.
The video of the attempted robbery quickly went viral. Memes appeared on social media, callers to morning radio shows poked fun at the failed robbers, and a local newspaper headlined their story, “‘Batman’ and Robbery.”
Trinidad and Tobago recently extended its state of emergency by three months, until September, as authorities battle violent crime.
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