The predicament Matthew Yussman found himself in — pulled from his home by masked men, a dud bomb strapped around him, and ordered to clean out the bank where he worked — is the stuff of movies.
But this whodunit began Monday in a quiet cul-de-sac in Bristol, Connecticut. And two days later, police say they are still searching for the two men who forced their way into Yussman’s home and ordered him to carry out the heist.
The home invasion
It was still dark, when Yussman pulled into his driveway, he told police. As he tried to go inside, the men forced their way in with him. His mother was inside.
The men, who Yussman said wore dark clothes, ski masks and goggles, tied the two of them up and affixed “explosives” to them, Yussman told police.
When the men spoke, their accents made them sound like they weren’t from the area.
The men gave Yussman an order.
He was to drive to the Achieve Financial Credit Union, where he worked as chief financial officer, clean out the vault and return home with the cash, Yussman told authorities.
The foiled heist
As he drove, Yussman didn’t call 911, but instead another bank executive.
The executive called 911, The Bristol Press reported.
The credit union evacuated; police rushed in, and Yussman never made it inside. Officers took no chances and had schools in two towns locked down.
They also shut down a main highway for three hours.
“It was a very scary day,” Mayor Stewart said.
The dud bomb
Police called in a bomb squad to free Yussman from the device, while he sat in his car.
They said the object strapped to him was harmless, The Bristol Press reported. Yussman was led to an ambulance in handcuffs and was checked over at a hospital.
When Yussman told police his home had been invaded, they cordoned off the area around his house. But then his mother came walking out on her own.
She had freed herself, she told police, who found no sign of explosives in the home, The Bristol Press reported.
A different case
Police also said that the suspects in Yussman’s account drove a white 4-door automobile.
A neighbor told The Bristol Press that he had seen a strange vehicle outside Yussman’s house on Monday.
But he declined to give more detail, as the FBI has asked him not to discuss the case.
The plot surrounding Yussman is reminiscent of that of pizza delivery man Brian Wells in 2003.
Wells walked into a bank with a jerry-rigged bomb around his neck, saying if the bank didn’t hand over money, the people behind the scheme would detonate the bomb and kill him.
Wells died, when the bomb exploded on live TV. But investigators later determined that Wells himself was in on the scheme.
Wells’ family still insists he was an innocent victim.
