This police officer is so bored with his job that on his lunch break he's going to go rob a bank and then return to work as if nothing happened. Now, the guy—his name is Andre—and Andre is kind of a thrill seeker. He's a police captain at Kton Park in South Africa, and unfortunately, he's not happy with his life.
He starts looking for a bigger thrill, and then one day, kaboom! He decides he's going to rob a bank. So he catches an early flight from Johannesburg to Durban, and there he rents a car, drives to a bank in town, puts on a wig and fake beard, and he walks into the bank.
He points his pew pew at the teller and asks, "Will you please fill this bag with cash? " Then he takes the cash and leaves. He catches the next flight back to Johannesburg, and so boom!
The robbery is a success, and it's a thrill for Andre. So he decides to rob another bank, and another bank, and another bank. Soon enough, every time he gets a day off from work, he flies to Durban and robs another bank.
He even starts robbing local banks in Johannesburg on his lunch break. Like, he'll rob a bank, and then later on that same day, he'll go back to the scene of the crime to investigate the robbery because he's the police. He disguises himself so well that none of the witnesses ever recognize him.
He's really good at this bank robbery thing. He knows exactly how the bank security systems work, so he knows how to avoid getting caught every time. This goes on for three years.
Andre robs around 30 banks during this time, and this is a huge thrill for him. But then one night, he screws up. He's at this party one night, and he's getting a little tipsy.
He starts talking and having a conversation with his friend, this guy Core, and Andre's bragging to Core that he's been robbing all these banks and that he's so good at it. Here's the thing about Core, though: Core just happens to work for the Bureau of State Security, which is kind of like the FBI. Core feels like, because of his job, he just can't keep a secret like this, and eventually, he tells his supervisor.
So the next time Andre flies back from Durban, having just robbed another bank, police are waiting for him at the baggage claim. And so bam! They arrest him, and he's supposed to spend about 17 years in prison.
But that's not going to happen, 'cause he's going to bust himself out. Now, while Andre is in prison, he meets this guy Mall and he meets this other guy, Hale, both of whom are in prison for robbery. Pretty quickly, all three of them become friends, and after about three years in prison, Andre, Mall, and Hale come up with this wild plan to bust them all out.
First, Andre and Mall— the two of them—fake injuries so that the prison guards will escort them to an outside physiotherapist for treatment. Then, once they're at the physiotherapist, bam! They overpower the guards, grab the guards' pew pews, steal the physiotherapist's car, and use it as a getaway vehicle.
Once they've escaped, they lay low for a while. Three months later, they go back to where Hale is, guns ablazing, and they bust him out too. So now the three of them are together on the run, hiding out.
And so what does Andre want to do? He wants to start robbing banks again; he wants that thrill back. So then kaboom!
The three of them hit up a bank, and then kaboom! They hit up another bank, and then kaboom! They hit up a third bank.
These guys just keep going—robbing bank after bank after bank. They always wear ridiculous disguises: sunglasses, fake mustaches, fake beards. They almost look comical, but despite that, they're a good team.
They can execute a full bank robbery in under five minutes; sometimes, they're able to rob four banks in the same day without getting caught. Because of all this success, soon enough, word starts to get out. The local people start hearing about this gang of bank robbers on the news, and strangely, a lot of the public are cheering them on because they're making the police look like fools, and it's funny to them.
So, Andre, Mall, and Hale become like folk heroes, and people start calling them the Stander Gang after Andre's last name. This crime spree goes on for several months. The Stander Gang is hiding out at safe houses, hitting up banks when they can, collecting a lot of cash, and hanging out with lots and lots of escorts in their spare time.
Now, before you start cheering these guys on too, just know that during this time on the run, Andre was known to approach random young women, pretending to be a professional photographer. He would then lure them back to his hotel room, pretending he was going to take professional pictures of them, and then he would assault them. At least two of these women end up reporting him to the police for this, and this will come up again later.
Eventually, the Stander Gang is named South Africa's most wanted, and their photos are suddenly everywhere—all over the media. Everyone's talking about them, and the three guys know it's just a matter of time before they get caught. So they come up with a plan to flee the country.
First, they decide they're going to buy a small yacht, and they're going to leave the country that way. Guess it's supposed to be safer than all three of them flying commercial. So then, Andre uses a fake passport; he flies to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and there he's going to finish negotiations on the sale of this yacht.
The next day, back in South Africa, police show up to one of the safe houses the gang had been hiding in. Apparently, police had been tipped off by some of the escorts the gang used to hang out with, so police are suddenly outside of the safe house, and it's 5:00 a. m.
Mall is the only one home, and police are like, "Standard gang, come out with your hands up! " Mall, he's butt naked because I guess he sleeps naked, and he gets his pew pew, and he gets into a crazy butt-naked shootout with police. They storm the place, and they're shooting at him, and he's running from room to room, shooting back.
Then finally, once they have him cornered, he turns the pew pew on himself and he unives himself. Meanwhile, there's Hail. As soon as Hail gets a tip that police are onto them, he bounces.
He uses a fake passport and hops on a flight to Greece, so he's long gone while police raid all the gang safe houses. In one of those safe houses, they find photos of one of the women that Andre had Saed a few months back, and this not only confirms her story about being SA'd, but it also confirms that this safe house belongs to him. That safe house leads police to the yacht they bought, and that yacht leads them to a crew member they had hired to sail it.
That crew member tells them that Andre is supposed to deliver the yacht to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, so now police know that Andre is in Florida. Then newspapers in Florida get word of this, and they start publishing Andre's picture in the paper. Now people in Florida are on high alert looking for Andre.
One morning, it all starts to fall apart for him because Andre is at a used car dealership trying to get his car painted a different color because he had just stolen it. There, the salesman recognizes him because his picture had just been in the local paper. That salesman doesn't say anything then, but he later calls the police.
Then later that night, police show up to Andre's apartment and surround it because they're about to bust in, but Andre is actually not home. However, crazy enough, one of the officers just happens to spot him riding by on a bicycle, and the officer knows it's him. So he runs over and confronts him.
Andre realizes what's going on, jumps off his bike, and makes a run for it. The officer chases after him, catches up, and Andre stops, pretending he's going to give up. Then he grabs the officer's shotgun, and thinking quickly, the officer pulls out his other pew pew.
Then, bang! He shoots Andre four times and unives him. Here's what Andre looked like in real life.
That only leaves Hail. Hail ultimately ends up in London, where he tries to commit another robbery and ultimately gets caught. They throw him in prison for almost 20 years.
Later, he does his time, gets out, becomes a better person, and starts public speaking. He actually dedicates himself to educating people about the horrible consequences of living a life of crime. The major regret, actually, is the fact that I've wasted talents and abilities and I've achieved nothing.
That's wild. Shout out to South Africa!
