Russian man goes on robbing spree armed with Snickers bar, sentenced to 6 years
A Snickers bar was apparently enough of a weapon for a Russian ex-con who used it to rob several stores and a woman. He has now been sentenced to six years in jail, local prosecutors report.
The man in question committed his crimes in the Russian city of Tomsk, Siberia in March. He held the bar wrapped in a plastic bag as if it were a handgun, threatening his victims.
The 26-year-old managed to rob a woman, three flower shops, and a grocery store before his crime spree was stopped by the police, the report said. The man told the court he needed the money to travel from Tomsk to his home 5,000km away and pled guilty to five counts of robbery. He failed to gather the necessary amount, however.
Russia’s criminal code allows relatively mild punishment for a robbery involving fake weapons, such as five years of compulsory labor without incarceration, but the court passed a harsher sentence, considering the man’s previous criminal record.
The new felonies were committed just five months after his release from prison. The court’s verdict has not come into force yet.
In June, video of a failed robbery attempt at a Russian supermarket emerged and went viral. CCTV footage showed a cashier nonchalantly scanning groceries while being held at gunpoint, before the perpetrator leaves the store empty-handed like a guilty schoolboy.
