My name's Cain Vincent Dyer,
and I robbed over 100 banks
between 1999 and 2001.
This is how crime works.
For anyone out there that is watching this
and you think you're going to go
commit bank robberies the way I did
or I'm telling you in here,
you are going to find yourself in jail.
Leave bank robbery alone.
So, one of the things that I would do initially
when I walk into a bank
is walk in and go straight to the merchant teller.
Because I always knew that the merchant teller
would more than likely have the most amount of currency.
We've watched so many movies where people are like,
"Hey, put your hands in the air!"
I think people naturally go to do that when they hear,
"Hey, this is a robbery!"
The reasoning for me asking them to put their hands down
or telling them to put their hands down
is because you didn't want someone walking past the bank
and seeing someone standing in a bank
with their hands up or laying on the floor.
So it was always just,
"Put your head down, keep looking forward."
That way, if someone did walk into the bank,
they wouldn't even really realize what was going on
until they were already in it.
And what that would kind of do
is it would let me read the temperature of the room.
It would let me see if the people
were either very compliant
or very slow to move
or if they seem nervous and scared.
Then I would kind of tailor
how I would express myself after that,
trying to be more calming.
And, unfortunately,
if things were moving kind of slower,
I would probably be a little bit more aggressive
to the overall crowd.
Checking the temperature, doing that one teller,
that one merchant teller,
I knew if I decided not to go in the vault,
that I would still have
a reasonable outcome for the payday.
That merchant teller along with the manager
is the person I would have walk me into a vault.
And like I said,
if they were just a little too afraid or anything,
then there were times where I wouldn't go into the vault.
Typically, I picked banks
that were close to merchants.
That way, I knew that that bank
would more than likely be the banker
for all those merchants that were there.
And that would mean that that bank
would more than likely have more cash on hand.
The other thing was it always had to be a bank
that was relatively close
to multiple interstates.
And one of the other things was how the bank was set up.
Were there multiple ways
that I could enter or exit?
Like, casing the bank would consist of me
watching the employees.
And I would always watch to see
who looked like they were in the most control.
So, sometimes, I'd case a bank for a day,
for a day and a half, and then go.
That's if it was a bigger bank.
And I would watch the flow.
I'd watch the timing of the flow,
I'd watch the pickup.
I took probably, I don't know,
a few weeks, a month off,
and just taught myself everything about banks.
At that time,
got in a hole of all different types of bank manuals,
employee manuals, employee guides, everything.
Safes, lock safes, time vaults.
During my bank robberies,
as far as attire would go,
I would just always try and fit in
in whatever element was present.
It was always pretty much just dressing down, you know,
jeans, a jacket, trying not to stand out too much.
I definitely used the Krazy Glue
to protect my fingertips and my palms.
I would always wear a pair of glasses,
always a baseball cap,
and that seemed to cover enough.
The mascara would be,
basically, it depended where I was.
If I was in a place where there are more ethnic people,
I would typically do a beard.
If I was in a place where there were less ethnic people,
I would more so sometimes go in clean-shaven
or a really light shave.
I would actually look at weather conditions.
Because, of course, in an area
where it's going to be raining or overcast,
you can layer more.
If it was sunny outside,
there are a lot more people out,
so there's probably more chances for me
even to blend in.
On a rainy day, though you get to bundle up,
you still get to know that there aren't a lot of people out.
So people are going to probably be looking at you.
In certain cities,
you had to account for different times
that I would be going into a bank
and not getting stuck in a rush-hour traffic.
Though there were banks
that I absolutely would do it at rush hour,
just because it would take longer for law enforcement
to get to me if there was a lot of traffic out.
So, we've seen in movies that cops
have this response time
of about three to five minutes.
And that's pretty accurate.
That is not just Hollywood.
So I would park across the street
or in some direction where I wasn't alone,
standing out by myself,
my car wasn't the only one.
And I always used a car that would fit in.
Something that was really typical,
that you would just see a lot of.
What I would always try and do is
make sure that wherever I was parked,
that it would not be in view of anyone
that would be standing in a bank
or immediately outside of a bank.
So I always gave myself enough space
to get away and then kind of disappear.
So, when exiting a bank,
once I felt I was out of sight,
I would turn a corner or something,
then I would trot a little bit further
once I wasn't in front of a bank trotting.
As soon as I'm in my car
and my mascara's off,
I turn on my radio, roll down my windows,
take off my hat, and I'm singing.
I've got music on.
Cops pass me.
I'm looking at them, they're looking at me,
because what they're actually looking for
is the guy that's not looking at them.
Listen, when a bunch of cops roll past you,
or even firetrucks, what do we all do?
We all look.
So the one guy they're looking for
is the guy who won't look at them. [laughs]
As they're driving to it,
they're looking to see if anybody's
trying to ignore them, typically.
How I would end up checking for dye packs
is different depending on what type of money I took.
If it was just the merchant teller,
then of course that money is loose.
Even though it's in stacks, it's still loose.
So what I would do is once I got all my mascara
and things off and I was set and ready to drive,
I would literally put a bag of money next to me
and go through it,
and then throw that money on the floor.
I would get back to my stakeout,
and I would go through all the money,
taking my clothes, making sure they were burned,
putting my fingers in solution
so I could get the Krazy Glue off.
I would hide the money
in several different places,
but to be a little bit more specific,
there was this one place
that I had opened up the floor of it.
I don't know, at one point there had to be
just millions of dollars in this floor.
There were a couple of times
I actually put money in, like, a bank vault.
In, like, a safety deposit box.
Wouldn't that've been ironic, had it gotten ...
had there been a bank robbery and it'd gotten stolen, huh?
The way I ended up getting into bank robbery,
a very, very close person to me,
a relative, a sibling had gotten involved
with a criminal organization.
There was just no way he was going to get around this debt.
You know, it would have been a matter of life or death.
Had this debt not been paid, taken care of,
the person would have lost their life.
Those first set of banks,
that paid off that debt.
Those six, though, were a lot less preparation
and more desperation.
Initially, I felt bank robbery
was this victimless crime.
I thought it would just be a better crime to commit.
I felt like I was taking from an institution
versus a person, which I wouldn't have done.
My first bank, I was literally just looking for any bank.
I was going down the freeway
and actually had to use the restroom.
So I pull off the freeway.
It was at this Calabasas exit.
I pulled in there to go to the restroom.
I ended up parking,
and right in front of me were two banks.
There was a Chase and there was a Wells Fargo.
And I sat there for a time period
trying to determine which one I should go in,
just watching the flow of people.
Had this baseball cap and stuff,
and I kind of pumped myself up.
Had this firearm with me,
and I'm heading towards the bank.
And as I get towards the bank, two things happen.
One, there is this lady
who is at the bank that seemed pregnant to me.
And it was just like,
"Ah, I can't go in there while pregnant lady's in there."
She gets scared and the baby's harmed,
so I was like, "Whoa." I kind of turned back.
And as I went to turn back,
there was this car window right there.
And I look in the car window, and I notice,
"Oh, my God, I can totally see myself."
Like, I can make myself out.
So I went to this store that was miles down the road.
I end up getting this backpack.
And I also got some mascara
and some Krazy Glue to put on my fingertips,
as not to leave any fingerprints.
Because I didn't want to walk up to the bank with gloves on,
which is, to me, pretty obvious.
It was a sunny afternoon.
There was that chord while I was at this store
that just kind of struck me like,
"What if someone tries to stop me?"
It made me
purchase a replica,
like a air gun or something like that.
But it looked very, very authentic.
So I purchased that and decided to use that
in the robbery instead.
Realizing that I probably needed a bigger bag,
so I end up grabbing this backpack.
I realized that the backpack had these double zippers
that I could partially open that would make it
like a perfect sack.
That I would be able to put things in
and still have another hand free.
Hence the name, Kangaroo Bandit.
When my consciousness
started to awaken again,
I think I can no longer hide
behind the life and death,
imminent danger that was there before.
I know if I would have kept doing it,
I would have got caught.
When I decided to turn myself in,
of course I let my family know first.
And then, my attorney and I,
we contacted the FBI.
And at first they were like,
"Yeah, oh, absolutely, absolutely."
What I did not know at that time
was someone had already kind of given them my name.
I contacted them on a Wednesday,
and I plan on meeting them on a Thursday,
excuse me, a Friday.
And instead, they were like,
"No, we're not waiting on you to come in."
They did this huge raid on my home
on a Thursday night.
But the only way they were able to take me in
was if they found something on that search warrant,
which they weren't able to find.
Before he left, though,
he and I had this conversation,
he being the FBI agent.
So I told him, "I'm going to take some time
to go spend with my family.
And then, when I'm ready,
I'm going to turn myself in."
And I was letting him know,
"Don't worry, I'm not going to run.
I'm not going to bolt, man.
I'm going to keep my word.
I told you I'd keep my word and turn myself in."
And I end up doing that.
So when he saw me and I saw him
after I had greeted my family,
I actually walked up to him
and we kind of embraced,
we actually hugged each other.
I surrendered. It was like,
"OK, now I begin my life."
Well, I did not understand back in that time,
the psychological tolls that the victims suffered.
The heavy cost I was having others pay
to get out of the situation I was in.
And so what I've done
in an attempt to rectify that,
or to make right,
I've worked with victims.
I've worked with ex-offenders.
And, hopefully, any victim
that suffered at my hands
and because of my actions,
you know, maybe they can take some comfort
in knowing that today, I actually,
you know, I've tried to wrong that.
I didn't try,
I like to think I am righting those wrongs.
Volunteered for years.
For almost four years straight,
I volunteered four days a week, four hours a day
to help people get their lives back.
Whether it's an inmate or,
excuse me, a former inmate or a victim
or other people that are moving through lives
that don't have criminal aspects
but just get stuck in life.