The first armed robbery in a bank from Constanta (photo gallery)

Armed robbery in the centre of Constanţa city. Early in the morning, one of the subsidiaries of Carpatica Commercial Bank was broken in by two masked and armed persons who succeeded in running away from the bank after having stolen almost 700 million old lei.

Terror in the Carpatica Commercial Bank subsidiary, next to the park of the Culture House. At the opening, two masked people broke in, pointed the gun at the guard and robbed the treasurer. Everything lasted less than 40 seconds. Ironically, in February the bank had been checked by the police and the result had been a very good one with respect to the security systems.  The alarm was triggered at 8.56 hrs, as this was the moment when the treasurer managed to push the panic button. Meantime, the guard which was immobilised during the robbery called 112 for the police. The intervention squads of NEI Guard, and also the police officers and the gendarmes reached the crime scene in a record time. Unfortunately, the two masked armed robbers were already gone. According to the police representatives, right after the opening, two masked persons broke in the bank. One of them, carrying a revolver, managed to immobilise the almost 50 year old guard, while the second robber, holding a bag, set to the one of the treasurers. While being threatened, the woman was told to throw the money into the bag. Due to the very deep state of shock, she was not able to follow the orders, so the thief helped himself. In less than 40 second, the masked men left the bank, having taken almost 70,000.00 lei. At the moment of the attack, there was also a client inside the bank. "In less than two minutes, my people were there", declared Vasile Buzate, the manager of Nei Guard, the company in charge of the monitoring of the robbed bank. "We actioned very quickly, but the men were already gone when we got there", Buzatu added. He also mentioned that the reason for which there was not an intervention squad within the bank was that they were in charge with monitoring and intervention on demand only. According to official data, Nei Guard is a commercial company heaving headquarters in Ilfov, and Florentina Norocica Neicu, age 41 and Mihai Neicu, age 46, as shareholders, both from Bucharest. Out of the balance sheet for year 2007, the security company has a 6,869,255 lei turnover and 584 employees.

The thieves made mistakes

According to the policemen, the two masked robbers pointed the gun at the guard, immobilised him, so the man was able to do nothing and could not intervene in any way. Only one of them had a gun, and so far nobody knows if it was a toy or not. "When the police squads got here, all the people were scared, all the women working there were crying", declared the agent Anda Drăgulescu, spokesperson of Constanţa Police Inspectorate. She also mentioned that all the people got special care. One of the girls, thinking that her parents might worry when learning about the robbery of the bank she was working in, sent them a message, and let them know what happened and that she was all right. The modus operandi of those two thieves is very similar to that of the criminals who robbed the bank in Cluj, back in February, which was even more puzzling. The investigators declared that the two robbers in Constanţa made a lot of mistakes, so it would be only a matter of time until they were caught. Policemen said that the thieves left a lot of marks at the crime scene, which suggested that the attackers might be some inexperienced young people.

The bank is not making any statements

On the opposite side, the bank representatives showed discretion when it came to this subject, in spite of the fact that the robbery took place under their roof. When called by phone, Constantin Gherlan, the manager of Constanţa subsidiary did not wish to talk to the press. "The central headquarter issued a press release. I don't wish to tell you anything. They will make public statements" and sent us to the press office in Sibiu. Indeed, the bank issued a press release which said almost nothing. An armed robbery has taken place, no injured persons, and the amount of stolen money is 69,682.00 lei. "We should mention that the unit is endowed with a video surveillance system and also one security guard, and the team of the company insuring the monitoring and intervention arrived within the time specified by the contractual terms, once the alarm of the bank was triggered. (...) Taking into account the actual economical and social context and also previous events experienced by other banking institutions, we need to emphasise the fact that the due state organs should take the required measurements to protect the population and reduce the criminality", said the representatives of Carpatica Commercial Bank. About the manager of the subsidiary, Constantin Gherlan, we may say that he is no stranger to the business world, which is quite normal for a banker. According to the Trade Register, Gherlan is associate, censor or  legal representative for several companies, some of them being in the process of dissolution, closeout or insolvency. The manager of the bank robbed yesterday morning is unique owner of Ghemaco Ltd, company located in Medgidia. From the ORC [Trade Register Office], we have also found out that Constantin Gherlan is also censor for Nuclear Construct JSC (the company is insolvent), Pesco Peştera JSC (judicial closeout) and alternate censor with Agromec Castelu JSC. The manager of the robbed bank is also the legal representative of Maxim Niral, company being in judicial dissolution.