The great heist of '58

By:Dennis Stein

  On a cool May night in 1958, a small group of people went up the steps to 4 court house terrace, carrying plenty of gear with them. Whether they had been in Brockville long is not known, but on that particular night, while the city slept, they had a job to do...
 The Brockville Trust and Savings Co. robbery still stands as Canada's largest bank heist, netting $10 million, without using a gun... The burglars used picks and drills to break through two feet of solid brick wall, exposing the steel wall of the vault. Using Acetylene torches, the bandits made their way in, prying open most of the safe deposit boxes and leaving with bonds, negotiable securities, cash, and jewellery. The thieves had time to wash up, leaving a couple of trivial items behind - a cheap wristwatch worth about $100, a raincoat, and a woman' s scarf. One of the robbers made a huge blunder though, he dropped his bankbook of all things... Less than 48 hours later, police in a Montreal suburb arrested 23 year old Rene Martin, who had keys to an apartment, and a locker at Central Station. The locker contained suitcases holding a fortune in loot, more being found at the apartment. Martin testified that there were five people involved, but he was "not in a position to give their names".
  Some information found mentions that police believe the thieves rented a safe deposit box, allowing them to see the layout of the job prior to the robbery. However, other articles on the subject later say that the group first entered an accountants office above and beside the vault, cutting through the floor and descending to the area of the job using a ladder from the basement. In addition, although there was no alarm in the bank at the time, a meeting between officials there had determined the need for one, which was to be installed a couple of weeks later - just after the time of the heist. All of these things beg the question : Was someone from the bank, or from Brockville involved, giving information to the group in return for a cut?
 Who was behind the theft of all this money? Well, it is believed that it was the work of a man named Peter Stepanoff, one of the many lieutenants of a montreal crime boss in the Canadian arm of the mafia. Stepanoff had been involved in other similar robberies, including one In St. Catherines, where he was arrested more than a year after the heist in Brockville...
 As for the rest of the missing money, The Ottawa Citizen ran an article in 1981, revealing that stolen bonds were still surfacing from around the globe, in Switzerland, Central and South America, and in various North American cities like New York, Miami, and Toronto. At the time, and probably even now, the Brockville Police Services kept the case open...
 So the next time you have the urge for an evening cocktail downtown, head on in to what is now the Keystorm Pub, and have a look at the back wall near the bar. The immense steel door of the vault is polished, but these days it probably makes a better cooler!

Photo: The Steel door of the Vault seen at the Keystorm Pub...