Traces how the author, a Navy veteran, committed five bank robberies and spent years in prison before he rallied with the support of family and friends and learned savvy legal skills, allowing him to build a promising life as a free man.

An American History, 1831-1999

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the landmark book Freakonomics comes this curated collection from the most readable economics blog in the universe. It’s the perfect solution for the millions of readers who love all things Freakonomics. Surprising and erudite, eloquent and witty, When to Rob a Bank demonstrates the brilliance that has made the Freakonomics guys an international sensation, with more than 7 million books sold in 40 languages, and 150 million downloads of their Freakonomics Radio podcast. When Freakonomics was first published, the authors started a blog—and they’ve kept it up. The writing is more casual, more personal, even more outlandish than in their books. In When to Rob a Bank, they ask a host of typically off-center questions: Why don’t flight attendants get tipped? If you were a terrorist, how would you attack? And why does KFC always run out of fried chicken? Over the past decade, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have published more than 8,000 blog posts on the Freakonomics website. Many of them, they freely admit, were rubbish. But now they’ve gone through and picked the best of the best. You’ll discover what people lie about, and why; the best way to cut gun deaths; why it might be time for a sex tax; and, yes, when to rob a bank. (Short answer: never; the ROI is terrible.) You’ll also learn a great deal about Levitt and Dubner’s own quirks and passions, from gambling and golf to backgammon and the abolition of the penny.

Follow FC as he steals from the world’s most secure banks and government facilities—without breaking a single law In How I Rob Banks: And Other Such Places, renowned ethical hacker and social engineer FC delivers a gripping and often hilarious discussion of his work: testing the limits of physical bank security by trying to “steal” money, data, and anything else he can get his hands on. In the book, you’ll explore the secretive world of physical assessments and follow FC as he breaks into banks and secure government locations to identify security flaws and loopholes. The author explains how banks and other secure facilities operate, both digitally and physically, and shows you the tools and techniques he uses to gain access to some of the world’s most locked-down buildings. You’ll also find: Strategies you can implement immediately to better secure your own company, home, and data against malicious actors Detailed photos, maps, and drawings to bring to life the unbelievable true stories contained inside An inside and candid look at a rarely examined industry through the eyes of one of its most respected penetration testers A can’t-miss account of real-life security exploits perfect for infosec pros, including red and blue teamers, pentesters, CIOs, CISSPs, and social engineers, How I Rob Banks also belongs in the hands of anyone who loves a great Ocean’s 11-style story pulled straight from the real world.

"With the style and pacing of a good novel...should become a standard in the genre."—Publishers Weekly FBI Special Agent William J. Rehder, the man CBS News once described as "America's secret weapon in the war against bank robbers," chronicles the lives and crimes of bank robbers in today's Los Angeles who are as colorful and exciting as the legends of long ago. The mild-mannered antiques dealer who robbed more banks than anyone else in history. The modern Fagin who took a page out of Dickens and had children rob banks for him. The misfit bodybuilders who used a movie as a blueprint for a spree of violent robberies. In a fast-paced, hard-edged style that reads like a novel, Where the Money Is carries us through these stories and more—all within a pistol shot of Hollywood, all true-life tales as vivid as anything on the big screen.

A funny, filmic and fast-paced crime-caper by a hilarious new voice in middle-grade fiction, ideal for readers aged 10 and up.

On a sunny May morning in 1990, a bank courier strode out of the Bank of England and, minutes later, was robbed at knifepoint of 301 bearer bonds valued at £292 million. It was the biggest theft in British history. The thing is... when Keith Cheeseman received a call from a disbarred lawyer connected to London's underworld and attended a meeting on the night of the robbery, he counted £427 million in bonds - £135 million more than the Bank of England had reported. As Keith set out to launder the bonds, Scotland Yard and the FBI were always one step ahead in tracking them down. Over the next eighteen months, two gangland figures were shot dead and more than eighty people were arrested. Keith was the only man ever jailed for the crime. Keith Cheeseman is the last of the old-time gangsters, a con man who detests violence, wears Savile Row suits and gold watches, and loves classic cars and good dining. He bought non-league Dunstable football club and signed Manchester United star George Best to play for the team. He knew the legendary Kray twins and killer Frankie Fraser once threatened to snuff him out him over a game of chess. So what happened to the missing £135 million? In this breathtaking adventure, featuring colourful characters from showbusiness alongside royalty, the IRA and even Pablo Escobar, Clifford Thurlow reveals Keith Cheeseman's incredible true story for the first time.

They were tagged Dumb and Dumber by the US media in a story that made headlines - and jokes - around the world. Two Australian boys on a working holiday in the snowfields of the American Rocky Mountains decided to rob a bank. Their plan was so hopelessly inept that although they escaped with over US$130,000 after threatening bank staff with a replica pistol, the trail of clues they left ensured they were identified almost immediately. Among the many things they did wrong was to rob a bank where they were regular customers (staff instantly recognised them and their impossible-to-disguise Australian accents), to tip a taxi driver $20,000, and then to photograph themselves holding up bundles of the stolen money, all before attempting to buy one way tickets to Mexico in cash. From the moment the alarm was raised, it took the Vail Police department all of eight minutes to identify the two boys as the culprits. But what started as two young larrikins planning something stupid soon became deadly serious as both Anthony Prince and his partner Luke Carroll faced life imprisonment for armed robbery. Their youth, previous good behaviour and obvious remorse persuaded the US court to give them a reduced sentence but they were still to serve almost five years in some of America's most violent penitentiaries.

An award-wining and "outrageously entertaining" true crime story (San Francisco Chronicle) about the professional hockey player-turned-bank robber whose bizarre and audacious crime spree galvanized Hungary in the decade after the fall of the Iron Curtain. During the 1990s, while playing for the biggest hockey team in Budapest, Attila Ambrus took up bank robbery to make ends meet. Arrayed against him was perhaps the most incompetent team of crime investigators the Eastern Bloc had ever seen: a robbery chief who had learned how to be a detective by watching dubbed Columbo episodes; a forensics man who wore top hat and tails on the job; and a driver so inept he was known only by a Hungarian word that translates to Mound of Ass-Head. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is the completely bizarre and hysterical story of the crime spree that made a nobody into a somebody, and told a forlorn nation that sometimes the brightest stars come from the blackest holes. Like The Professor and the Madman and The Orchid Thief, Julian Rubinstein's bizarre crime story is so odd and so wicked that it is completely irresistible. "A whiz-bang read...Hilarious and oddly touching...Rubinstein writes in a guns-ablazing style that perfectly fits the whiskey robber's tale." --Salon