The story of the dreaded band of robbers from Romania in the 1930s. How the outlaws were caught on the road to gold

One of the most famous armed robberies of the interwar years took place in Hunedoara, where a gang of armed robbers attacked a car carrying valuables of a bank, on the “gold road” in the Metaliferi Mountains.

In the interwar years, the armed robbery committed by the gang of robbers led by Todor Popa was cataloged as the “robbery of the century”.

In 1934, thieves organized an ambush on the Deva – Brad road (VIDEO), also called the gold road, attacked a bank’s cash machine, killing its driver and stealing 160,000 lei.

Caught shortly after committing the crime, the five members of the robbery gang were sentenced to life imprisonment. Their deeds were reported on the front pages of the interwar press.

“For some time, the region around Brad was terrorized by the gang leader Popa Toader, known as Totu from Ormindea, and his gang, composed of fellow citizens: Oprean Pătru, Ştefan Avram known as Denuţă, Bocan Ion and Valea Pătru, Totu’s stepson. Totu had been involved in a gold theft, he was famous for the beatings and thefts he did, so that he was well known for his banditryi”, the gang of robbers from Hunedoara was described.

The band of robbers, made up of three plowmen and two miners, organized the highway robbery of the cash machine of the Discom, with which the values ​​and amounts deposited at the Marmorosch Blank Bank by the companies in Hunedoara were transported.

“The crime was committed on August 14, at 6:30 in the evening, near Fornădia, following a well-established and detailed plan. On the same day, about half-past three in the afternoon, the robbers, at the point chosen, cut down a tree until it nearly fell over the road, masked the cut with earth and leaves, and then retreated to a hillside , where they ate. After that they lay in wait. Valea Pătru had the mission to, from a good observation height, signal the passing of the bus by exploding two cartridges of dynamite, to the bandits hidden in a bush close to the road”Universul newspaper showed in 1934.

Ambush on the Golden Road

The robbers hiding in a hut near the road were armed with a military carbine, a hunting gun, an ax and a revolver.

After Pătru Valea signaled the approach of the truck with valuables by detonating a cartridge of dynamite, his partners felled the tree on the side of the road. The valuables car stopped in front of the fallen trunk.

The three people in the car, Emilia Krausz Heinric, an employee of the Marmorosch Blank bank, Traian Boldura – the cashier and the driver Romulus Pădurar, did not have time to react to the bandits’ attack, with their faces covered with cloths.

Todor Popa discharged a gunshot from the left side towards the car cabin, and Petru Oprean fired a revolver shot from the right side.

Avram Ştefan pulled the woman out of the car, hitting her in the head with a club and then with the gun, while shouting at her to give the money.

“Hearing the signal, the bandits came out of hiding and when the van approached, they knocked the tree over the road. The car stopped and the armed bandits mistreated Mrs. Kraus from Deva and Boldura Traian, the Discom agent, who, seeing that Ion Bocan was coming to him with a hatchet, got so scared that he ran away, jumped in a river and escaped. The bandits turned on the driver, fired, Oprean with the revolver through one window of the car and Totu with a hunting weapon through the other window, they made him dizzy, blinded him with ice, smoke and window panes, in until he saw when Bocan, who had escaped Boldura, rushed and hit him in the jaw with an ax, crushing his figure and skull, killing him on the spot. During this time, a man robbed Mrs. Kraus of about 600 lei and Totu pulled the driver down, taking his bag, where he found over 3,000 lei belonging to the company. Wanting to break into the truck where the goods and the cash box were, they did not succeed and hearing the noise of carriages and voices, they left the scene of the crime, hiding. They buried the suspicious weapons and clothes, full of blood, to disappear any trace of the crime”. the Universul newspaper showed in 1934.

They were knocked out by the gang leader’s wife

Shortly after committing the robbery, the abandoned car and the body of the murdered driver were discovered by a 12-year-old child who was grazing sheep on the nearby hills.

The valuables box inside the truck could not be destroyed, so the loot of over 160,000 lei that the robbers were to take from it remained in its place. Shortly after committing the armed robbery, the five members of the gang were captured.

“Gendarme Major Buta, from Căinelul de Jos, immediately suspecting Totu, through a trick, found out and caught the whole gang the very next day. He went to Totu’s house and showed his wife a fake telegram, which said that Totu had been caught and declared everything, saying that his wife would show the gendarmes where he hid the weapons and clothes. The wife showed them the place and with these clues the whole gang was caught. Platooner Buta deserves a reward for the cleverness with which he proceeded and succeeded. Re-enacting the crime, the bandits recognized the facts exactly, in front of a huge crowd of curious people from the neighboring villages”informs Universul newspaper.

They recognized the robbery

The Hunedoren trial began in January 1935, in Deva. The magistrates of the county court heard the accused and each of them admitted their guilt.

“Popa Todor paid for wine and beer for me and Ştefan Avram, inviting us to go with him if we needed money. He told us his plan to attack the Discom car, telling us that he had a lot of money and that he was in touch with the driver. They told us not to be afraid and then I took the Browning (gun) with me. I drank five kilos of brandy with them“, Petru Oprean told the magistrates.

The testimonies of the other accused and those of the “informants” in the file and before the court confirmed the facts. On January 28, 1935, the magistrates decided to sentence the five robbers to life imprisonment.

In the following years, the Deva – Brad road, also called the “gold road”, being the connection between the city on the Mureș Valley and the Metaliferi Mountains, remained as dangerous, due to the robbers who stalked the cars transporting gold and money from the mining area of Bradului, at Deva.