Sinkhole That Opened up in Florida Was Actually Tunnel Leading to a Bank

Florida public works employees got more than they bargained for Tuesday night when they were called to investigate a possible sinkhole that had opened up outside a shopping center.

Beneath the hole was a narrow tunnel stretching 50 years from a wooded area towards a branch of Chase Bank. The FBI is now probing the passageway, which contained a power cable, a generator, muddy boots and a small ladder, local station WPLG reported.

"I would like to say I saw something like this in the movies," FBI Special Agent Michael Leverock told reporters Wednesday, per CNN. "However, this hole is so small. It is unique."

Any potential burglars would have to squeeze through a diameter of just two to three feet, Leverock said. "It's very small, it's very claustrophobic," he added. "You would not be afraid of small places for sure if you were doing this."

The tunnel was most likely dug with pickaxes and a small wagon found at the scene, the special agent explained. Its entrance was hidden by a wooden pallet.

"It's crazy," Robert Lazerow, a bank customer who stumbled on the investigation, told The Miami Herald. "You only hear about things like that in the movies. How would someone think you could get away with that?"

Investigators believe more than one person helped dig the passageway, which did not reach the bank itself. Leverock believes the diggers were aiming for an ATM. They never got into the bank itself, so the FBI is treating the incident as an attempted bank burglary.

Law enforcement officials sent a rover to probe the narrow tunnel, and traced parts of its path from above the ground using spray paint. But so far the FBI don't know who those diggers are, when the tunnel was built, or exactly where it ends.

"If somebody's been bragging about this, somebody's seen this wagon, seen a generator and some folks who are talking about a tunnel, certainly give us a call," Leverock said.

A man recently robbed a Missouri bank just 50 minutes after cops released him for a suspected misdemeanor drug offense. Karsten Hardeman, 20, was spotted by an officer near the Wentzville police station with several $100 bills. Shortly before, a credit union close to the station called in a robbery.

"I have no idea what he was thinking or why he decided that would be a good place to go," Officer Jacob Schmidt told the St Louis Post-Dispatch earlier in January.

A Michigan man convicted of robbing a bank recently missed his sentencing because he was detained on suspicion of robbing another bank. Police arrested Paul Carta the day before his December sentencing was scheduled, after he allegedly told bank employees he had a gun and demanded they hand over cash.