“Could Be a Netflix Series”: Cape Town Gent Shares Crazy SA Bank Robbery Story

• A Cape Town content creator shared the story of South Africa's most famous bank robbery, which took place in 1977 and remains unsolved to this day
• The robbers rented a shop near the bank, pretended to run a business, and secretly dug a 35-metre tunnel over three months
• South Africans flooded the comments with reactions, with some claiming to know who the robbers were and others joking about where they might be living now

A Cape Town content creator has left South Africans stunned after sharing the story of one of the craziest bank robberies in the country's history. The video, posted on 9 October 2025, quickly went viral on Facebook, racking up over 7 000 reactions, hundreds of comments, and countless shares from people who couldn't believe what they were hearing.

The video tells the story of a group of friends who pulled off an insane robbery back in 1977. The content creator explained that the robbers stole R400 000 from the Standard Bank in Krugersdorp, which is equal to around R20 million today. But it's not just the amount of money that makes this story wild—it's how they did it.

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"Have you ever heard of South Africa's most famous bank robbers? And no, I'm not talking about the government. This is the insane true story of the craziest bank heist in South African history, and honestly, this could be a Netflix series," the man said in the video.

He went on to explain that the robbers rented a shop near the bank using a fake name and pretended to run a business there. But behind the scenes, they were digging a 35-metre-long tunnel that went underneath four other shops and led straight to the bank's safe.

The whole operation took three months to complete. Once they reached the vault, they looted it without anyone knowing. The bank staff only discovered the empty vaults a few days later, and by then, the robbers had disappeared. To this day, nobody knows who they are, and the case remains unsolved.

"I mean, they're probably watching this video right now from a mansion in Camps Bay," the content creator joked at the end of the clip.

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Mzansi reacts to wild robbery story

South Africans had plenty to say about the story, with many people sharing their theories about who the robbers might have been. Some even claimed to know the people involved.

@theresa_roux wrote:

"The engineer was my neighbour. It was his brother and friends."

@tebogo_matima said:

"They were identified; one served time here in SA and turned into a 'motivational speaker'. The leader was killed in a shootout with police in Fort Lauderdale after escaping from SA. A movie was made based on their story."

@natembea_king_mulati added:

"The owner of the shop they rented from knows them."

@max_the_shadow joked:

"I was about to ask why the description of the robber looks like that, then I remembered they said 1977 😪."

@bubele_nkosi wrote:

"Word of the day: Keep your money for 48 years because R1=R50. Be smart people 🥹🤣."

@ian_pillay said:

"There was a movie starring Keanu Reeves called 'Henry's Crime' with a similar mode of theft. Might have been based on this."

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@sipho_madonsela added:

"Mastermind was a European. He confessed after some years."

Details of the Krugersdorp bank heist

Content creator @cool_story_bru, known for sharing entertaining stories about South Africa on his social media pages, shared the wild story on his Facebook page.

According to Wikipedia, the robbery happened over the four-day Easter weekend in 1977. The thieves got into the bank vault by digging a 35-metre tunnel underneath the building. They started from an empty shop rented by a man calling himself Mr Nightingale, who said he wanted to open a photo studio. He covered the shop windows with newspaper so no one could see what was happening inside.

The tunnel ran under four shops before reaching the bank. The robbers stored the dug-up soil in 20 kg bags and worked at night, using wooden poles to keep the tunnel from collapsing. After breaking through a brick wall, they opened the safe with an oxyacetylene torch, and evidence later showed they even ate meals inside the vault while carrying out the heist.

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Watch the Facebook clip below:

3 Other stories about crime in SA

• Briefly News recently reported on a high-speed chase in Gauteng that ended in a shootout, with four house robbery suspects fatally wounded, and South Africans applauded the police for their quick response.
• A European hiker named Dave shared his weird encounter with a polite thief after trying to watch the sunset on Signal Hill, and the puzzling robbery story left many people online sharing similar experiences.
• The Hawks busted and shut down a fake store in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga, arresting five people for running an unregistered clinical store and selling fake prescription drugs.

Source: Briefly News