Bungling nuclear worker-turned-armed-robber jailed after he was caught stealing getaway vehicle while disguised as an old woman in plot inspired by Affleck movie
- Michael J. Buhrman, a former senior reactor operator at the Dresden nuclear plant in Chicago, was extradited from Venezuela last month after a year on the run
- He was convicted of being the mastermind of a wild scheme involving an armoured car heist and car theft
- Buhrman could possibly face additional money laundering and smuggling charges
- He was supposedly inspired by the 2010 Ben Affleck movie The Town, in which a group of Boston buddies rob several banks
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER PUBLISHED: 14:18 GMT, 18 November 2013 | UPDATED: 18:22 GMT, 18 November 2013
Captured: Michael J. Buhrman, a former senior reactor operator at the Dresden nuclear plant in Chicago, was extradited from Venezuela late last month after a year on the run and has been sentenced to 40 years in prison
A former nuclear plant employee in Chicago was the mastermind of a wild scheme involving an armoured car heist, car theft, money laundering and smuggling guns and steroids. Michael J. Buhrman, a senior reactor operator at the Dresden nuclear plant, was extradited from Venezuela late last month after a year on the run and has started serving his 40-year sentence for the carjacking.
He is still awaiting possible additional charges in connection for his alleged smuggling, which happened in the South America country where he was hiding from authorities.He is the alleged mastermind of the scheme, which was supposedly inspired by the 2010 Ben Affleck movie The Town, in which a group of Boston buddies rob several banks and Fenway Park, according to NBC News. According to court and Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents, Buhrman tried to recruit co-workers at the nuclear plant, about 45 miles south of Chicago, and eventually succeeded in persuading colleague, Landon Brittain, to participate in the robbery of an armored car.The two never managed to do the robbery because they were caught for stealing a car they planned to use for the heist.
The crime spree started on May 9, 2012, when Buhrman accosted a woman in a parking lot outside a Kohl’s store in Woodridge, about 30 minutes west of Chicago. Police said he was disguised as an old man in an elaborate latex mask and threatened the woman with a .45-caliber Beretta semiautomatic handgun before speeding off in her 2000 Pontiac Grand Am. But a witness followed and called police, who corraled Buhrman less than a quarter of a mile away.Police say Brittain, another senior reactor operator at the nuclear plant, acted as a lookout during the carjacking – though he wasn’t arrested at the time.
Inspiration: The scheme was supposedly inspired by the 2010 Ben Affleck movie The Town, in which a group of Boston buddies rob several banks and Fenway Park
Awaiting trial: Buhrman presuaded his colleague, Landon Brittain, another senior reactor operator at the nuclear plant, to act as a lookout during the carjacking. He is being held on a $1 million bail
According to documents, the two men intended to use the stolen car in the armored car robbery.
‘I’ve been in investigations quite a bit of my career, and for someone like Michael Buhrman, who seemed to have a lot going for him, to be messed up in something like this, I’ve never seen anything like it,’ said Woodridge, Ill., Deputy Police Chief Tom Stefanson.
The case also sent ripples through the nuclear power industry, prompting the Exelon Corp. – which owns the Dresden plant and is the largest U.S. operator of nuclear reactors – to change how it trains its employees to spot and report behavior that might pose a security threat.
Buhrman was released on bond, but police were alerted by a girlfriend who said he was intending to flee to Chile and had access to offshore bank accounts, according to NBC.
In June 2012, a judge added conditions to his bail, including a GPS ankle monitor.
That proved insufficient to keep Buhrman grounded. In September, police responded to an alert from the monitor and found it cut off in his Coal City home.
Police also testified that $14,000 that had been deposited into Buhrman’s bank account from a foreign source was withdrawn three days before he disappeared.
Richard Blass, Buhrman’s attorney, told NBC there were signs of violence at the scene but that he had not been allowed to speak to Buhrman since he was brought back to the U.S. Blass did say that an appeal was being explored.
Brittain also disappeared and his family started an online campaign to bring him back. Brittain's attorney did not return a call seeking comment, Brittain has pleaded not guilty.
Melissa Gates, who divorced Buhrman in 2008, told NBC that he came to see their son three days before he fled, but gave no indication that he planned to leave the country. At the time, police suspected both men had fled to South America, and in April 2013, Buhrman was convicted in absentia in the carjacking. The bank robbery plot emerged a month later at another hearing at which he was sentenced to 40 years in prison. By then, Buhrman and Brittain were reportedly living the high life in Venezuela. An independent journalist who has covered the case said the former power plant operators had rented an apartment in a luxury high-rise building in Caracas and frequented a nearby gym.
Protocol: The case prompted Exelon Corp - which owns the Dresden plant where Buhrman worked, and is the largest U.S. operator of nuclear reactors - to change how it trains its employees to report strange behavior
They might be there yet had they not gotten involved with a Venezuelan man who was under suspicion of drug trafficking, illegal weapons trade and money laundering by authorities there, said journalist Lucas Hixson, who writes for a nuclear power website, Enformable.Hixson reported that sources told him that agents discovered Buhrman had conspired with the Venezuelan man to ship $500,000 in cash into Venezuela in a shipment of nutritional supplements.
But the Venezuelan took the money and tried to betray the men to police, the sources told Hixson, adding that Buhrman and Brittain were also investigated in cases involving smuggling of illegal arms and steroids.Buhrman and Brittain were arrested and both Americans were deported.
Brittain was sent back to the United States in July. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail and is next scheduled to appear in court in December. Buhrman was arrested in Venezuela in September and was extradited to the U.S. at the end of October, Darrah said. He was handed over to state custody to begin serving his 40-year prison term.
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