Thief nets a gold rush

Strathcona RCMP may have to think like James Bond if they're going to catch a real-life Goldfinger who walked out of an Edmonton bank with over $200,000 in gold bars.

"This strikes me not so much as someone who's going to move it, but someone that just wants it. This is a gold fetishist," criminologist Bill Pitt said of the unusual crime.

"It's too particular, it's too targeted," he added.

It all started on June 23 when the culprit, a man believed to be in his 50s, entered a Toronto-Dominion Bank at 139 Ordze Road in Sherwood Park, police said.

Soon, after flashing some stolen identification, he allegedly walked out with a bank draft for $226,400.

Police said he then took the loot, headed to Edmonton and bought six one-kilogram bars of gold worth just over $211,000 at the Bank of Nova Scotia at 10050 Jasper Ave. The rest, over $15,000, he took in cash.

The following day, possibly emboldened by his recent successes, the man returned to the Sherwood Park TD bank and obtained another bank draft from his victim's account, this time for $262,844.

As before, he allegedly then set course for the Bank of Nova Scotia in downtown Edmonton, where he attempted to cash the bank draft.

Cops said his luck ran out, however, when bank employees began to suspect the man presenting them with the valuable bank drafts may not be the rightful owner of the cash.

The man fled the bank before cops got there.

The next day, he went back to the TD bank in Sherwood Park and asked to have the payee altered on the bank draft.

When staff questioned him as to the reasons for the request, he once again took off, this time leaving the bank draft behind.

"It's audacious, it's really ballsy, but that's only half of his trouble," Pitt said of the crime which he described as a one-off.

"This stuff's got serial numbers on it and not all of us are set up with high-temperature kilns to melt this stuff down and to reshape it into some sort of salable commodity."

Still, he said if the culprit knows his way around the underworld, he could find buyers who would pay over $100,000 for the pile of shiny stuff, serial numbers and all.

But part of the blame lies with banks, which should have better screening processes before handing over around half a million dollars and better security systems for tracking down the bad guys when things go wrong, said Pitt.

"Places like banks should know better," he said yesterday.

"You can certainly get better cameras with better resolution, if you choose to pay for it. What are the chances of this guy getting away? 50-50. I think they're that good."

Police say the man they are looking for is in his 50s, about five-foot-nine with a thin build.

He is described as having greying hair and wore large glasses at the time of the crimes. He has one tooth protruding from his upper gums, police said.

Cops say he may also have an accomplice, described as a dark-skinned man in his 40s.

He is believed to be about five-foot-six with a thin build and short, black hair.

The gold bars the man made off with are imprinted with the brand name JM and are about 7.5 cm wide, 11 cm long and about 5 mm thick. They have the serial numbers G269305, G269306, G269307, G269308, G269309 and G269310.

Anyone with information is asked to call Strathcona County RCMP at (780) 467-7741 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

TAMAS.VIRAG@SUNMEDIA.CA