One of the ‘additional duties’ we had in the squadron was to provide resources to the Base Exercise and Evaluation Team (BEET) for exercises on occasion. And one day we sent 2 of our pilots to participate in a staged holdup of Base Finance – to ‘exercise’ the Base Security Police (SP). The plan was, our 2 pilots would walk into Base Finance and announce a ‘holdup.’ There was to be a ‘little old lady’ carrying 2 sacks of ‘money.’ The ‘money sacks’ would actually be filled with scrap paper. The ‘bandits’ would then head out to their car and drive around until the Security Police collected them and retrieved the money. Pretty straightforward, one would think.
When our two guys walked into Finance and announced the stickup, as planned, they saw the woman carrying the two sacks of money. She handed over the ‘money,’ again as planned, and our guys headed out the door. Another objective of the exercise was to have Finance folks look out the window to identify the getaway car for the Security Police. No one did, and off our guys went. The only problem at this point was, they confronted the wrong lady at Finance and actually grabbed 2 bags of real money – somewhere around $15,000!
So now we have these 2 guys driving around base with ’15 Large’ in the back seat, actually waving at the SPs driving everywhere with sirens and lights! And after a while they get hungry. So they decide to head off base to get a burger. No problem.
They leave the money in the back seat and head inside for their lunch. After lunch they go back to the base and drive around a bit more, again waving at the cops when they see them. Finally they decide to contact the BEET team guys to find out when this whole thing will be over as they both have flights later the afternoon.
When they get ahold of the BEET team chief he asks, “Where are you guys?” They tell him they have just been driving around the base. And, oh yes, we went off base for a bit, for lunch.
The team chief then tells them they grabbed the wrong bags, that they actually have ‘real money!’ Oh shit!
They were then able to return the money, debrief and return to the squadron – with one great story!