Bank worker who stole $215,000 in 1969 and never came back to work, found in 2021

Meet Bank worker, Theodore John Conrad who stole $215,000 in 1969

The man, Theodore John Conrad reportedly stole the money whose value in today’s dispensation is around $1.7m after he pulled one of the biggest heists in bank robbery history.

 

More than 50 years later, the police revealed on Friday, November 12, that they have finally been able to locate the man, CTV News reports.

 

One of the main reasons why he was never caught is the fact that he relocated to another city, Boston, and changed his name to Thoman Randele.

 

Despite the man’s picture going on popular American popular crime fighters series, nothing led to his whereabouts. He succeeded during his lifetime.

Meet Bank worker, Theodore John Conrad who stole $215,000 in 1969
Theodore John Conrad, meet Bank worker, who stole $215,000 in 1969

Another twist is that Conrad was never caught alive as he died of lung cancer in May 2021 at the age of 71.



THE STORY

Conrad was born in Denver, Colorado, the son of Edward and Ruthabeth Conrad. His parents divorced while Conrad was in elementary school. He moved with his mother and sister to Lakewood, Ohio after the divorce[3] and attended Lakewood High School, graduating in 1967. He was popular in high school and was elected to the student council, and was very bright, with an IQ of 135. He went on to attend New England College, where his father, a retired captain in the Navy, was an assistant professor of political science. He left the college after one semester and attended Cuyahoga Community College.

 

In early 1969, Conrad went to work at the Society National Bank headquarters at 127 Public Square in Cleveland. He worked in the cash vault as a teller, and his job involved “packaging money to be delivered to Society branches around town. It was a position for a trusted employee.” According to a summary report compiled years later by the U.S. Marshals Service, “To all appearances, Conrad was that All-American boy whose character was not questioned and seemed to be a model of responsibility during a turbulent time.”

 

On Friday, July 11, 1969, Conrad, then 20 years old, went to the vault and stuffed $215,000 in cash (equivalent to $1.52 million in 2020) into a paper bag and walked off with it. The loss was discovered only the following Monday, giving him a two-day head start to hide. There was little security at the bank, and Conrad had never been fingerprinted. Immediately after his disappearance was discovered, a warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of embezzlement and misappropriating funds. In September 1969, Conrad was indicted in federal court on charges of embezzlement and making a false entry in the records of the bank.

Theodore John Conrad: One of America's most-wanted men finally tracked down 52 years after bank heist | US News | Sky News
Theodore John Conrad, meet Bank worker, who stole $215,000 in 1969

According to the Marshals Service, Conrad reportedly watched the film “The Thomas Crown Affair” from Steve McQueen in 1968, which is based on a bank robbery, more than a half a dozen times a year before the notorious heist. Conrad allegedly told his friends about his plans to rob the bank and bragged about how easy it would be to do so.



Conrad’s case was featured on “America’s Most Wanted” and “Unsolved Mysteries.” Investigators searched for leads across the country. The case remained cold for 52 years, until this past week.

 

Investigators said they were able to match documents from Conrad in the 1960s with documents from Randele, who in 2014 filed for bankruptcy. The Marshals Service this week identified Conrad and Randele as the same person.

 

Randele had moved to Lynnfield, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb, in 1970, near where the McQueen movie he obsessed over was filmed. He lived an unassuming life, the Marshals Service said. He was 71 when he died in May. No other details about his life were included in the Marshals Service announcement.

 

John K. Elliott helped investigate the case, uncovering documents from Conrad’s college days that led to Randele’s identification.

 

His son, one of the investigators, Peter J Elliott, revealed that his father was on the case and never made any headway. He added that now that the case is solved, he hopes his father would be happy in his grave.

 

“I hope my father is resting a little easier today knowing his investigation and his United States Marshals Service brought closure to this decades-long mystery,” Peter said in a statement. “Everything in real life doesn’t always end like in the movies.”

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