By David Lohr
February 20, 2007
ERIE, Penn. (Crime Library ) — Last week the Associated Press reported that federal authorities in Pittsburgh were going to announce that they had unraveled the mystery behind the Erie "Collarbomber," a bizarre bank robbery that captured the nation's attention back in 2003. Two hours later, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan held a press conference to answer media questions about the report. While she did not specifically say the case had been solved, she did address the current status of the investigation.
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| Brian Wells caputred |
On August 8, 2003, pizza deliveryman Brian Wells walked into a PNC Bank branch with a sophisticated homemade shotgun that had been disguised as a cane, and demanded a quarter of a million dollars in cash. Wells collected the money and rushed out the door toward his getaway car. He did not make it far. Alerted by a silent alarm, troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police quickly surrounded Wells' green Chevrolet Metro, and ordered him to the ground. As troopers handcuffed him, Wells said that a group of men had forced him to commit the robbery and that they had placed a bomb around his neck.
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| Collar with Locking Mechanism |
State police troopers made no attempts to disarm the bomb, and, for reasons that are unknown, the bomb squad was not called for 32 minutes. Just three minutes prior to the squad's arrival, the collar bomb exploded, and killed Wells. A WJET news camera filmed the entire event, and, within hours, television stations all over the world were broadcasting parts of it. In the days that followed, investigators announced the discovery of a note found on Wells that gave instructions on the tasks he was supposed to complete in order to get the bomb diffused.
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