The Vineyard Goes Michael Mann

Growing up on Martha’s Vineyard felt very safe. We never used to lock the house—I don’t even remember seeing our house keys—and we’d leave the car keys in the ignition wherever we went.

There was a bank robbery on the island Thursday morning, at the Rockland Trust bank branch off the Vineyard Haven–Edgartown Road (the site of a car wash when I was a kid).

That car wash was super fun, by the way—you could ride in the car as you went through. But that’s another story!

The suspects are still at large. If this was idiot high school kids or whacked-out drug addicts, you’d think they would have been captured by now. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.

I used to joke about the Vineyard being such a safe place—because who would be stupid enough to commit a crime on an island?

I even mused about writing a crime thriller with that premise, and asked a local police lieutenant about their procedures for lockdowns, surveillance, etc.

Having no information on this at all—and no background in bank robberies aside from Michael Mann movies—I would assume this was a team of professionals taking advantage of the island’s relative complacency.

The authorities did not take the extreme and disruptive step of shutting down the Steamship Authority ferries—so I guess all the robbers would have to do would be destroy their masks and outfits, stash the money in luggage or cars, and slip off the island one by one...right?

By the way, how awesome is that “Force Marker” piece by Brian Eno? It’s so simple, “just” a loop, but shows you how less is more—if you know what you are doing.

Hey, there’s a remix, let’s check it out:

Uh...no thanks.

Again, thank god nobody was hurt, or else this would be a very different, terrifying and tragic situation.

I hope they catch the guys. But if it was me, I’d be in Ohio by now.