Nature
PUBLISHED
There will be some disgruntled would-be criminals in Florida today. When what first appeared to be a sinkhole emerged in Pembroke Pines, a city to the north of Miami, it revealed a secret underground passageway – that was directed straight towards the local bank.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Local police were called in to investigate a possible sinkhole that had opened under the entrance to the city's Flamingo Pines shopping plaza on Wednesday morning. Inside was a power cord that ran towards a forested area, where the police found an entrance to the tunnel covered by a wooden pallet.
The tunnel appears to be newly excavated. Police say it is roughly 15 meters (50 feet) long and just 0.6 to 1.2 meters (2-4 feet) in diameter, making for a very snug commute.
Using a remote-controlled rover, the police investigated the direction of the tunnel and found it was heading towards the drive-up window of a nearby bank.
"They’re heading towards the ATM. I don’t think they were doing that for any other reason," FBI Miami Special Agent Michael D. Leverock told media, TIME reports, referring to the perpetrators' nefarious bank-robbing intent.
Inside the tunnel, police spotted a pair of muddy boots alongside some heisting essentials – a ladder, a stool, digging tools, and a Honda generator.
"I would like to say I saw something like this in the movies," said Leverock, WPLG reports. "However, this hole is so small. It is unique.
"These people were using pickaxes and a small little wagon."
In any case, the matter has now been handed over to the FBI, who are appealing to the public for any more information on the case. As of right now, there appear to be no suspects and no arrests made.
While this particular "sinkhole" was, in actual fact, a tunnel, they do turn up quite frequently in Florida (as the President no doubt knows) – blame the Sunshine State's porous limestone base.
Sinkholes tend to form in places where water dissolves the rock below the soil. This creates a cavity below the surface that can open when the top layer of soil collapses. The softer and more porous the rock, the greater the risk.
