What are the odds? Bungling bookie robbers lose cash in escape

“Armed Raid On Bookie’s,” read the headline on the front page.

The story continued: “Armed men raided a bookmaker’s in Bishopbriggs, yesterday. Staff and clients were held at gunpoint as the raiders snatched about £1,000. As the men left the premises, they dropped most of the money. Police think they got away with about £160. The raiders were in a light-coloured car. They were armed with a shotgun and a rifle.”

The biggest bookmaker robbery in history occurred just three years later, in 1976, in Australia when a gang of six stole somewhere in the region of $14-16 million from a bookmaker in the Victoria Club in Melbourne.