More Heroic Failures

The Worst Bank Robbers 
In August 1975 three robbers were going through the 
doors of the Royal Bank of Scotland at Rothesay. The 
doors were the kind that went round in a circle. Suddenly 
the doors stopped moving when the robbers were half 
way through so that they could not move. Bank workers 
had to help them to get out. Looking uncomfortable, the 
robbers thanked everyone and left the building. 
A few minutes later they returned and tried to rob the 
bank but nobody thought that they were real bank 
robbers. When they asked a woman for £5,000 she 
laughed at them. Then they tried again and asked for 
£500, then £50 and finally 50 pence. By this time the 
woman couldn’t stop laughing. 
Then one of the robbers jumped over the desk and fell 
on the floor, hurting his foot. The other two men ran to 
the doors but the doors caught them for a second time: 
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The Worst Bank Robbers 

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the two robbers were pushing them hard the wrong way. 
The Most Unsuccessful Photograph 
Mr Monte Shoemaker did something truly great in 1978. 
He planned to photograph an important rich man when 
he was doing something that people usually want to keep 
secret. He planned this so that the man had to pay him to 
keep the photograph a secret. 
He hid in a bedroom cupboard. His girlfriend brought 
the man into the room. Mr Shoemaker waited a few 
minutes, then jumped out of the cupboard and photo-
graphed them. Then he asked for money. 
When the photograph was ready, it did not show the 
rich man without his clothes on. Instead, it showed a 
refrigerator in the corner of the room. 
The Thief Who Was Not Good At Climbing