Confessions of a Quebec security truck pirate: stopping vehicles by remote

  A local former criminal tells Coolopolis of a time in the late 60s when he brought a new way of robbing trucks to Montreal by disabling their engines by remote.
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    The money came through mail trucks. It picks up at a bank, then another.
   By the time it gets to the Mother House in Montreal, it has nothing but cash. One truck was robbed of $400,000 (about $3 million today).

   The trucks were not guarded by guns.
   One day I was watching Mission Impossible and saw a black dude buy a little airplane.
   In the story they were going to kidnap a diplomat. They took the servo, the thing that controls the wings. He took one real small part and put it in a little magnet can you can stick to a car with two wires and a switch.
   There was a delicate wire. The truck had 15,000 volts battery. If you cut the ground, you cut the car engine. The motor cannot work without a ground.
   I went to see Charle G. He had a Jaguar. I put the little box and rigged it up.
  "Charlie, I found something you'll find interesting. I can stop any motor: plane or train and let it start when I want."
   I told him to go downstairs get in his car.
   "When you look at me you'll be stuck."
   So he's looking up from his convertible.
   He looks up. Nothing works.
   I go to a bar. I tell them I can stop a Brinks truck, a mail truck or anything.
   I try it with two more cars. The exhaust dies. The guys look stunned. It's as if I know how to fly.
   You could leave it in there for six months, a year, whatever
    We planned a heist at St. Jerome. We never did it. While we were partying, it was snowing so bad, it was up to 10 inches.
   But we ended up using it quite a few times.
   It's so simple it would probably work today.