Darth Vader Robs Bank: Pictures


Darth Vader Robs Bank: A surveillance photo shows a man in a Darth Vader mask holding up a Chase Bank in Long Island on Thursday, July 22. (Suffolk County Police Department)


It sounds like a joke. It looks like a joke. But when Darth Vader robs a bank, it is most assuredly no joke.

A man dressed in a Darth Vader mask and chestplate with a full-length cape (and camouflage pants that seemed to clash with the rest of the outfit) walked into a Chase bank in Setauket, NY, on Long Island Thursday brandishing a hand gun and demanding cash. At least one customer thought it was a joke, but when he went to put his arms around the Star Wars villain, he was shoved to the ground and Lord Vader promptly shoved a hand gun, not a light saber, in his face.

"I'll shoot you in the face," he told the man. "This isn't a joke." Suffolk County police Detective Sgt. William Lamb told reporters Friday that the man, who can be seen in one of the surveillance photos, didn't think the robbery was legit. "The customer thought it might have been a joke and not a serious attempt at a robbery," Lamb told the New York Daily News.

Vader held up the bank and got away with an undisclosed amount of cash though several witnesses at area businesses report seeing him flee on foot.

"All of a sudden, I saw this guy with a mask, and he was running very fast by the window," said Louie Lin, a worker at a nearby Chinese restaurant told the New York Post. "It was pretty crazy. He had the whole outfit on."



Understandably, the jokes have been fast and furious. The Vader heist got a mention in the LA Times' Comic-Con coverage with the headline: "'Star Wars' day and 'The Empire Strikes Bank'." Ever the arbitor of responsible journalism, the Post quipped: "Luuuuuke, I am your robber!" in its lead. They also couldn't help themselves from referencing a waiting TIE fighter and Princess Leia's homeworld, Alderaan.

It sounds like the boys in the precinct are getting their yuks in, too. An unnamed police source told the Post that the jokes have already started with officers giggling at the prospect of tracking down the Death Star.

lmao