40-Year-Old Woman Gets Locked Inside Bank For 3 Days After Failed Robbery Attempt

A 40-year-old woman, who was reported missing Friday by her family, was found three days later locked up inside a bank she was planning to rob.

The woman, who was found Monday by the bank manager, was starving and in a dehydrated state, East Mojo reported. The incident took place in the northeast state of Meghalaya.

During one of her previous visits to the bank, Isabella Marboh had noticed no one went into the server room. She then hatched a plan to steal money from the bank by hiding in this room overnight, and later going to the other room where all the cash was stored.

Marboh left her home Friday after telling her family she was stepping out to buy vegetables. Instead of going to the market, she reached Meghalaya Rural Bank with a bank robbery plan in her mind.

She entered the bank under the pretext of depositing some money, went to the server room, and hid there until all the staff left. When the bank closed, she went straight for the room where she thought the cash was kept. However, she did not have the requisite tools to break open the room. She made several attempts to open it with a pair of scissors, but failed, East Mojo reported.

A police officer, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, told Hindustan Times the authorities found some tools in her handbag, but it was unclear how she would have succeeded in the attempt. The officer said Marboh figured out the CCTV camera would have recorded her, so she broke it.

But, she did not realize that the previous footage would still be in the memory.

Marboh planned to leave the bank the following morning when it opened, but June 26 was a bank holiday. In most states in India, all second and fourth Saturdays are bank holidays. Marboh somehow managed to stay alive with the stock of chocolate bars and electrolyte drinks she had brought with herself to survive the overnight stay in the bank.

On Monday, when the bank manager opened the branch, Marboh was found inside “dehydrated and weak.” The manager immediately called the police, who later informed her family members who had been desperately searching for her for three days.

Shillong city superintendent of police Vivek Syiem told Hindustan Times the woman has been sent to the Shillong Youth Centre quarantine centre where she is awaiting her Covid test report. Syiem said when he had been looking at all the angles of the woman's disappearance, but he did not think an attempted bank robbery could be the reason.

“She has been booked under various offences which include criminal trespass, burglary, breaking and entry amongst others and we are awaiting the test report before producing her in court," Syiem said.