By Ray Birch
NEW BRITAIN, Conn.—At about 3:00 in the morning on Feb. 22, 2015, Matthew Yussman walked up to his mother, who had been tied to her bed by two armed robbers, and refused to kiss her goodbye.
For Yussman, the CFO at Achieve FCU who had been confronted and then kidnapped in his own home by the two robbers, it would be one of the worst points in what was about to become a year-long series of low points that would involve fears for his life and that of his mother, people video-recording him in case a bomb detonated so they could upload the video to YouTube and, worst of all, becoming a suspect himself in the crime by police and the FBI who didn’t believe him.
But at that moment Yussman didn’t know any of that. Instead, as the two robbers told him to kiss his mother goodbye before they “took him for a ride,” Yussman recalled in an interview with CUToday.info, he didn’t follow orders. “I refused. I did not want to give them the satisfaction.”
In early 2015 the case of the kidnapping of Yussman and the attempted robbery of his credit union would become well publicized, but it was also thought to be an isolated incident until a several other financial institution executives—primarily at credit unions—would be abducted in their respective homes later in the year, setting off new worries and debate around security procedures no one had ever envisioned having to discuss.
More Robberies?
The latter kidnapping/robberies took place in Tennessee and, had the two kidnapper/robbers not been arrested—with one having already plead guilty—it’s likely the duo would have attempted other kidnappings and robberies at FIs in North Carolina.
But on that cold, dark morning in February some nine miles southwest of Hartford, Conn., no one had any way of knowing any of that. All Yussman knew was that he had been ordered at gunpoint to put on what he was told was a bomb vest that would be detonated if he didn’t meet the robbers’ demands.
That robbery never took place, and those demands were never met. Instead, Yussman would find himself sitting alone in his car in the credit union’s parking lot, surrounded by police and with nearby roads closed, schools locked down and apartments evacuated. The CFO, as well as his mother, would eventually emerge unharmed—at least physically.
The ordeal began at midnight when Yussman pulled into his driveway in Bristol, Conn., coming back from his weekly hockey game, a sport he had loved and played his entire life.
Yussman emerged from his 2007 Lincoln MKX, put his hockey sticks into the garage, and had returned to the trunk of his car for the rest of his hockey gear when a man wearing a black stocking mask dashed toward him carrying a pistol yelling, ‘Police. Police. Get down on the ground.’”
“I could tell he was not police by the way he was dressed,” Yussman said. “But I did what I was told.”
Told To Get On His Knees
What he was told was to go into the garage and get on his knees. Then, with a gun to the back of his head, the man told Yussman to place his face on the garage floor.
A series of rapid-fire questions followed, with the gunman asking Yussman if he had any security systems, dogs, or other people in the house. Then a second masked man, also armed, ran up the driveway, moved alongside Yussman and the questions began again.
The men zip-tied Yussman’s hands behind him.
Yussman, 47, said he can’t recall just what his feelings were at the time since what was happening to him was so foreign.
“I had never had a gun pointed at me before,” explained Yussman, who said his security training took over.
“I knew it was a robbery, so I started to pay attention to details—what were the men wearing, how tall they were. I have spent 28 years in banking and credit unions and nearly half of which have been in security. I have always trained my staff to pay attention to details in the event of a robbery.”
Yussman's Mother In Danger
But Yussman, a single man with no children, became more worried as he glanced toward the hallway that led to his then 70-year-old mother’s attached apartment in the 2,500-square-foot home Yussman owned for 10 years.
“I am on the garage floor and I hear my mother’s voice,” recalled Yussman. “She heard the commotion and had come to the door of the garage. She realized immediately that it was a robbery and ran, but one of the men chased her down.”
They men brought in Yussman’s mother, Valerie Yussman, and forced her to kneel next to the son who had cared for her for the last five years.
One of the robbers then took Yussman inside his mother’s apartment, had him sit on a couch, and placed a child-sized knit cap on Yussman’s head, pulling it down over his eyes.
“The cap acted as a blindfold,” Yussman said. “Then they duct taped my ankles together.”
Matthew Yussman
While he was sitting on the couch blindfolded, Yussman said he had no idea what was happening to his mother. Later he would learn that the thieves were tying his mom to her bed.
“Then they put headphones on me that allowed them to speak to me though some electronic device,” explained Yussman, who said that device altered the robbers’ voices.
It was at that point that Yussman learned the crooks were not at his home to take his possessions or his money. They were looking for millions of dollars from the credit union.
“’We are here for big money,’ they said. ‘We need $4.2 million,’” recalled Yussman.
Yussman replied that Achieve is a small credit union and does not have $4 million in cash in its vaults.
“They told me they did not care and that I would have to find a way to get the millions,” Yussman said.
Time To Lie
Yussman recalled that the thieves then asked if he could “borrow some money” from a local bank or have money wired in from another FI. Yussman explained that was not possible.
“They then asked how much money the credit union had at its two local branches, and then I knew I had to lie about something,” said Yussman.
Yussman told the men he could probably scrape together $1 million in cash, knowing that Achieve Credit Union had much less in its vaults. “But I had to tell them something at this point.”
The thieves responded, saying something that made Yussman even more concerned about his safety and his mother’s. “They said, ‘We owe some very bad people a lot of money and we have to see if that is acceptable to them.’”
After a period of silence, the men came back and said the million would be OK. What they needed now, they told Yussman, was for him to construct a very detailed plan as to how he would get the money.
Yussman explained that he did not have the keys to the buildings and that he would have to wait for staff to arrive in the morning to access the vaults.
“But they wanted a plan for how I would empty both vaults at the two branches, how I would get rid of the staff and members inside, how long it would take me to count the money, and also how long it would take to drive between branches. They made me concoct an entire scheme—how I would do things, where I would be . . . —down to minutes,” he said.
Shock Wears Off
Now the early hours of the morning, Yussman said the initial shock of the abduction had worn off and he was becoming more concerned and, admittedly, scared.
“I realized that this is a pretty bad deal and I would have to try to do something to figure out how to alert the police or someone as to what was happening to me and my mother,” Yussman said. “I bluffed my way through some of it. But I did what I always tell my staff to do in a robbery—do what the crooks tell you to do.”
Yussman said he felt torn emotionally between the conflicting tasks ahead of him–to protect his mother and the credit union.
“I had to get my head around what I would actually have to do,” said Yussman, repeating that he was feeling an even greater sense of fear at that point.
But what happened next was even more frightening.
“They took off my headphones, talked to me in their normal voices, and told me they were taking me for a ride,” said Yussman.
'Kiss Mom Goodbye'
Then they told Yussman to go “kiss your mother and tell her goodbye.”
“That was the scariest time,” said Yussman, which he estimated took place around 2:30 a.m. “I really thought they were going to drive me into the woods somewhere, take me out of the car and shoot me.”
Yussman said he was led into his mother’s bedroom, his blindfold removed, and for the first time he saw his mother tied to the bed.
“She was crying hysterically,” recalled Yussman. “I reassured her that the men were not here for money or anything in the house. They wanted money from the credit union. I asked her to try to stay calm and do what the men say.”
The robbers then told Yussman, again, to kiss his mom and tell her goodbye.
“I refused,” said Yussman. “I was not going to give them that satisfaction. Plus I know some of this might have been them trying to play head games with me. I didn’t do it. I did not kiss my mom goodbye.”
Tossed In Back Seat
The men then cut the duct tape on Yussman’s ankles and led him to his Lincoln in the garage.
“They put me in the back seat and I could see a little bit out of my blindfold and I was looking forward. They made me turn around and face the back seat,” Yussman said.
As it turned out Yussman was not being led away to the woods. Instead, they drove to what Yussman assumed was the crooks’ getaway car, which Yussman suspected was driven back to his home when he was returned 30 minutes later.
“They brought me back, sat me down, and then shocked me by asking me if I wanted to take a shower,” said Yussman.
Yussman agreed and then the men asked him what clothes he wore to work.
“They asked if I wore a suit, and I said we were business causal,” said Yussman. “They asked if I thought it would arouse suspicion if I wore a suit, and I said it would.”
Clothes were picked out for Yussman—dress slacks, a shirt and sweater.
Boston Bruins Cap Saved
Then the crooks did something that offended the long-time hockey fan.
“They told me they needed to cut up another hat to make a better blindfold and they reached for my Boston Bruins hat,” said Yussman. “I told them they couldn’t cut up my Bruins hat. I think you do some funny things under stress—I told two guys with guns that they could not cut up my Bruins hat. So they used another cap.”
The crooks then had Yussman review his plan one final time before walking the CFO to the kitchen table in his mother’s apartment, removing his new blindfold and showing him what they were building.
“I saw what looked like three bricks of clay. I was told they were C-4 explosives,” said Yussman. “There were all sorts of wires and plastic pieces, maybe a timer—lots of components that they said were for a bomb. They said, ‘We are going to make a bomb and strap it to you because we don’t trust you to do the plan.’”
The robbers said the bomb timer would be set to go off at 11 in the morning—plenty of time, as the plan was expected to be completed by 10, when Yussman was supposed to drive the money from the credit union to a drop-off point—the location of which the thieves would text to him later.
“They also warned me that the bomb would have a proximity sensor, so that if I tried to remove it, it would go off,” explained Yussman.
Bomb Taped To Yussman
The men told Yussman to get some sleep for a few hours before they would head out at about 8:00 am.
“Are you kidding? Sleep? There is no way I could sleep. I spent the next two hours thinking of ways I might be able to get out of this, alert the credit union and the police.”
As Yussman got dressed in the morning, the men duct taped the “bomb” to his chest. Yussman was wearing a blindfold, but he still had some vision looking downward. One thing he saw was that a brick of what was supposed to be C-4 did not have any wires going into it.
“That’s when I thought there was a 50-50 chance that this bomb was a fake,” said Yussman. “But 50-50 is not a good enough chance to take with my life and remove the vest if I got the chance.”
Yussman said the men made some changes to the plan in the morning, including having Yussman drive to the CU alone instead of being accompanied by one robber. Now both crooks would drive to the still unidentified point at which Yussman was supposed to deliver the cash from the credit union.
To make sure Yussman did not try “anything foolish,” the crooks said they placed a bomb under his mother’s bed that would be detonated if Yussman did not follow orders.
The men warned Yussman not to use any bait money, dye packs or GPS tracking.
“At that point I told them their plan would not work,” said Yussman, referring to a plan that involved walking into the credit union with luggage, garbage bags and suitcases to fill with money from the vault.
'Staff Will Panic'
“The staff will panic and call the police,” said Yussman. “I told them I didn’t know what to do and that the plan won’t work. The men then asked me who I trusted at the credit union to do what they were told.”
Yussman asked if he could call his CEO, Andrew Klimkoski, because the credit union has procedures for dealing with this type of situation.
“We don’t, but I had to tell them that,” said Yussman. “They let me call my CEO because I said he knows what to do and won’t panic. Amazingly they let me do that.”
At about 8:00 a.m., the men said they were going to drive away, reminding Yussman, now sitting in his 2013 Lincoln MKZ—his second car—that they would text him the drop-off directions at 10 a.m. They warned him not to go back into the house or stray from the plan as someone would be watching him. At 8:15 Yussman called Klimkoski.
“My boss said I sounded like I was reading from a script, and that was because I was trying to keep things together and not be emotional and make the situation worse than it was. The first thing I said was ‘This is Matt. My mom and I are victims of a home invasion and I am currently sitting in a car with an explosive device strapped to my chest. I have been instructed to go to the credit union and empty our vaults of cash.’”
Situation Is 'Real'
Klimkoski asked Yussman if this was one of his surprise security drills.
“I said, ‘No, this is real. This is my life, don’t play with it. Don’t call the police.’”
Yussman said he followed the plan, saying that what he told his CEO on the phone was done because not only did he fear someone was watching him, he was concerned one of the criminals might still be in the house or the garage.
“I played it by the book.”
Yussman left his home in Bristol at 8:45 and drove to the credit union’s offices in New Britain. When he arrived, he soon found he wasn’t alone. Klimkoski had dialed 911. Cops from the New Britain Police Department and snipers were “everywhere.” Yussman had assumed Klimkoski would alert authorities, but he had hoped police would be careful in their response.
“When I got to the credit union I said to myself, ‘My god, they are not being subtle at all, and if someone is following me the police just screwed things up. Now my mother and I will be blown up,’” shared Yussman.
Police Run For Cover
When he arrived, police yelled at Yussman, asking what he was doing there and ordering him to get out of the burgundy colored Lincoln.
“I told them I was the victim of a home invasion and was being forced to rob my own credit union and that I have an explosive device strapped to my chest.”
The police told Yussman to show him the bomb.
“When I did that they all ran behind their cars,” he said.
The police then asked if Yussman had a phone. He told them he did, and gave them his number. The conversations between Yussman and police were then conducted via phone.
Yussman said that one toughest ordeals of that morning was sitting in the car alone, looking at his phone and its time display.
“During the night I eventually became very calm,” said Yussman. “But when you are sitting alone in the car concerned about a bomb going off, your mind plays a lot of tricks on you. One of the first things I thought about is if I would feel anything when the bomb detonates, or will I even know it did. I looked across the street and people were hanging out of their apartment windows shooting video with their phones. They were waiting for the bomb to go off and then put the video up on YouTube.”
Mom Is Safe
Yussman finally received a first piece of good news as he sat there in the CU’s parking lot. The police called and told him that his mother was safe and unharmed, and that there was no bomb under her bed. As he would learn later, his mother had managed to untie herself and leave the house.
“I am watching the minutes go by and the crooks are going to text me at 10. Police are trying to keep me calm, but I am pretty much in tears,” Yussman said. “But I am trying to keep my composure.”
Right at 10 Yussman received a text from the bandits asking if he got the money. Yussman relayed that information to police who then told Yussman to stall the thieves.
“They said to make something up, so I texted back and said there was actually more money in the vaults than I thought and it’s taking a little longer,” explained Yussman.
Brian Witham and Michael Benanti have been arrested for their roles in several FI employee kidnappings, including Achieve
Police then told Yussman to text the criminals that he was on the way to the drop-off.
“I did that and they texted me an address to head to,” said Yussman. “But all the while I am sitting there with what I believe could be a bomb that could go off.”
Yussman said authorities repeatedly told him they were “pretty sure” the bomb was a fake.
“But ‘pretty sure’ does not make me comfortable,” said Yussman, who said he asked police only minutes before 11—when the bomb would supposedly detonate if the crooks did not get their money—if help was on the way.
“They said the bomb squad was still en route,” said Yussman. “Here I am, sitting in my car with what I believe could be a bomb taped to me that may go off in minutes. I saw my phone show 11, my heart stopped, and the bomb did not go off.”
Yussman Handcuffed
The bomb squad showed up shortly afterward and an officer wearing a bomb suit examined the device on Yussman, determined it was a fake, and removed it from Yussman.
“There I was, standing in the middle of the credit union parking lot, my shirt off and shivering from the five-degree weather and the aftermath of the ordeal,” said Yussman. “I walked over to an officer to pat him on the back for helping me and the police slapped handcuffs on me.”
While Yussman thought his unimaginable, 12-hour ordeal was now over, in many ways it was only beginning. And it would last for the next year.
Coming Friday--the second story in this two-part series in which Yussman discusses how the robbery/abduction only started his problems.