By Rasheed Abou-Alsamh
Special to Saudi Gazette


SAO PAULO — A Brazilian man took his 8-year-old son along with him when he went to rob a bank in the town of Guaratinguet?, 187 kilometers from Sao Paulo, by using dynamite to blow up the bank’s automated teller machines (ATMs).

 The attempted robbery happened on the night of May 11, but the man was only arrested this week after he was tracked down by police who used video recordings from the bank to identify him, according to the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. The paper said it was withholding the identity of the man in order to safeguard the interests of the child.

The video recordings showed the man driving up to the bank with his son, and another two men arriving to help him. Then thick smoke was seen billowing from the bank building after the robbers set off the explosives, but they apparently fled the scene, scared by the sound of the explosions, according to the police. The man said he took his son with him on the robbery attempt because his wife worked at night in a restaurant, and he had no one to leave the boy with.