The CIA-Bank Robber Con
Here is a really bizzare and brazen con-job from 2013. I first heard of this a while back but didn't know too many details until I did a bit of searching. Posing as a CIA agent, a 26 year old Virginia man named Joshua Brady convinced a 21 year old to rob several Northern Virginia banks under the guise of covert ops training.
Herson Torres was promised $25 grand and a job with the agency for participating in the made-up 'Operation Downstrike', to test the security and response of banks to robberies. Torres was instructed to give the tellers handwritten notes demanding money, and was promised immunity from arrest and prosecution. He was even given a letter with official Defense Dept. letterhead stating as much.
Torres.
Not surprisingly, given that he fell for the scam in the first place, Torres never managed to collect any money from any of the three banks he robbed. Actually, he was instructed to flee if armed security showed up or the wait was too long. Of course, he was soon arrested. Now it gets even stranger. After a confused Torres explained that he was working with law enforcement and there must be a mix-up, Brady called the detectives, posing as Theo the CIA agent and demanded Torres' release.
Torres then managed to convince several lawyers to free his "agent in training", promising them $45 grand in cash. By this time, though, the whole story had unraveled and Brady was arrested. Brady was then diagnosed with a delusional disorder, when he continued to insist he was CIA. For some reason they dropped all robbery and officer impersonation charges and allowed him to plea guilty for forging a judge's signature in a cell phone dispute. He was released after time served (7 months) on court supervision. This all sounds kinda fishy to me. I think Brady was faking being delusional, either because he wanted to get out of jail, or more likely, he actually IS an agent of some kind. I wouldn't put it past the demented and beyond-corrupt CIA to pull something like this just for fun, and why not add bank heists to the growing list of illegal activities they perform to raise black-budget money? The fact that I can't even find a picture of Brady online lends credence to this theory -or just proves I am a lazy researcher, perhaps!
Torres was released with no charges, but I'm sure he will think a little harder next time a good opportunity presents itself.
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What a story... it is just incredible how people can make other people believe in what you are saying, but the question is. But, I keep on asking myself the question about the state of Brady - is he, kind of, incredibly smart and thus able to trick everyone, or is he completely insane and not at all clear about who he really is, and thus he is still able to trick everyone? This could make a great movie someday...