Armored Truck Heist Shuts Down Italian Highway With Shootout And Explosion

"The Italian Job" was a good movie (both the original and the remake), but neither compares to what actually took place on Italy's State Road 613. A Sky TG24 video of an armored truck robbery in broad daylight has all the elements of a Hollywood blockbuster, including masked men, a shootout, and an explosion that even Michael Bay would probably approve.

Exactly how the attempted heist played out isn't quite clear due to conflicting reports, but here's what we know. On Monday morning, an armored van belonging to the security company BTV was forcibly stopped on the highway in Italy's Puglia region, according to The Mirror. Some reports say the perpetrators stopped traffic by parking a truck across the highway and setting it on fire in front of the scene. However, the video shows thick smoke behind armored van, not in front of it. Instead, Sky TG24 reports that the bandits drove an Alfa Romeo with a flashing blue light to impersonate police and stop the van on the highway. Masked men with automatic weapons crouch in front of this car in the video.

What is clear is that a massive explosion blasted the side of the van open, sending debris flying through the air and into traffic on the other side of the highway. While Wanted In Rome reports the thieves got away with "a significant haul," other sources including News 18 report that the attempted robbery failed. A Sky TG24 photo shows the side of the van blasted open, but the armored compartment inside mostly intact. It appears that Michael Caine was not on the scene to tell them, "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off."

When the Carabinieri (Italian military police) arrived, a firefight ensued, with one of their cars taking a bullet. Miraculously, no one was reportedly hurt in the shootout or the blast. Eventually, the perpetrators fled the scene, both in the Alfa and by carjacking nearby vehicles. We don't know if any of them were Mini Coopers. Police later recovered the Alfa and arrested two suspects found nearby. 

Anywhere from four to ten suspects are believed to have been involved, possibly connected to organized crime. Wanted In Rome reports that this is the latest of multiple armored vehicle attacks in recent months. Thieves got away with over $2.3 million inside a tunnel in Calabria in December, and about $476,000 during a highway heist in in Abruzzo in January.