"One night, a guy walks into a bar - the Brick House in Rochester's northwest side. He's an ex-cop and security guard for Brinks Armored Trucks named Tom O'Connor. He asked for a phone, dials 911, and tells the police dispatcher that the Brinx Armored Depot in Rochester has just been robbed. Then, he ordered a pint.
"Rochester police surrounded the depot, found two cops gagged and $7 million stolen, allegedly masked robbers who had also kidnapped O'Connor. Had the man at the bar really been kidnapped? Had he really been held hostage by these thieves or was he an accomplice? The truth would uncover a trail that led from Rochester's Irish community all the way to the Old Country."
That, more or less, is the opening of this very interesting episode of City Confidential, a story of a huge heist, an ex-cop, a priest and the IRA - all kinds of goodies. It had special interest to me, frankly, because I live about 75 minutes away from this city. Thus, I also was interested in how City Confidential portrayed by neighboring city to the east. Well, they made it look both good and bad. It's a high-tech city, and has been for a long time, but some hard times have also fallen as Kodak, the biggest company in the city, took a hard, hard fall by not getting into digital photography. The other two big companies in the city are Xerox and Bausch & Lomb.
The story is the heist, however, and it has a puzzling ending. It looks pretty obvious that three people are involved but one of them, the local guy who claimed he was kidnapped, got off. Nobody I've talked to who saw this episode believes he wasn't in on it and was an incredibly fortunate man not be convicted. His buddies in Rochester, especially at the Irish pubs, all swear by him.
The worst of the three people, in turns out, is the priest!! That's a sad comment, but there are bad apples in every profession. When taken out of the courtroom, he yelled he was going on a hunger strike in protest. He had lunch the next day.
"Rochester police surrounded the depot, found two cops gagged and $7 million stolen, allegedly masked robbers who had also kidnapped O'Connor. Had the man at the bar really been kidnapped? Had he really been held hostage by these thieves or was he an accomplice? The truth would uncover a trail that led from Rochester's Irish community all the way to the Old Country."
That, more or less, is the opening of this very interesting episode of City Confidential, a story of a huge heist, an ex-cop, a priest and the IRA - all kinds of goodies. It had special interest to me, frankly, because I live about 75 minutes away from this city. Thus, I also was interested in how City Confidential portrayed by neighboring city to the east. Well, they made it look both good and bad. It's a high-tech city, and has been for a long time, but some hard times have also fallen as Kodak, the biggest company in the city, took a hard, hard fall by not getting into digital photography. The other two big companies in the city are Xerox and Bausch & Lomb.
The story is the heist, however, and it has a puzzling ending. It looks pretty obvious that three people are involved but one of them, the local guy who claimed he was kidnapped, got off. Nobody I've talked to who saw this episode believes he wasn't in on it and was an incredibly fortunate man not be convicted. His buddies in Rochester, especially at the Irish pubs, all swear by him.
The worst of the three people, in turns out, is the priest!! That's a sad comment, but there are bad apples in every profession. When taken out of the courtroom, he yelled he was going on a hunger strike in protest. He had lunch the next day.