Random True Story Of A Pizza Delivery Guy, A Bomb Collar, And A Bank Robbery (14 items)

(#2) He Worked As A Pizza Deliveryman For Nearly 30 Years

After dropping out of high school, Wells spent much of his adult life delivering pizzas. In fact, he did it for nearly 30 years. He had been working for Mama Mia Pizza-Ria for the last 10 years in Erie, PA, prior to the incident. His co-workers and bosses described him as a reliable, hardworking employee, which made what came next even more baffling.

Around 1:30 PM on August 28, 2003, he delivered an order to a phony address that turned out to be a TV transmission tower. There, the device was placed around his neck and he received his instructions. Later on, police went to the address and combed the scene, finding Wells's footprints and the tire tracks from his car, but little else.
(#7) The Police Didn't Believe That The Device Was Real Until It Went Off

When Wells was apprehended, he told police that he had an explosive affixed to his neck and it was timed to go off. They didn't seem to believe him, even after he asked why they weren't trying to remove it. According to the authorities, they didn't think it was real because Wells wasn't acting panicky or agitated.

Instead, he was fairly calm, which they took to signify the device was fake and he was involved in the plot. He calm and cognizant enough to ask, "Why is it nobody's trying to come get this thing off me? I don't have a lot of time." Wells even went so far as to acknowledge the skepticism, saying, "It's gonna go off. I'm not lying. Did you call my boss?" Any doubts the authorities may have had flew out the window when the collar started beeping, however, and the device detonated, ending Wells's life.
(#3) He Carried A Wooden Cane That Had Been Turned Into A Single Barrel Shotgun

When the police searched Wells's car, they found a wooden cane that had been turned into a shotgun. Reportedly, this was given to him by his co-conspirators, just in case things went south when he was in the bank. Wells carried the homemade single barrel with him while holding up the bank.

He handed a note to the teller, demanding $250,000, but the teller told him they didn't have access to that amount. Wells ended up walking out with under $9,000.
(#9) The Plan Was Changed At The Last Minute

The day before the PNC Bank holdup, Wells and the accomplices discussed the original plan with a fake explosive strapped around Wells's neck, in order to get the bank employees' attention and hopefully net them more money. Rothstein was to follow Wells to the bank and intercept the money from him after exiting. The idea here was to have Wells empty-handed if the police should pull him over in his getaway vehicle.

Sometime after this, the device became real, and a system of instructions for Wells to follow was put into place.
(#14) In 2018, Netflix Released A Docuseries About The Case

In 2018, Netflix released a four-part docuseries detailing the bizarre events surrounding the CBH. Evil Genius: the True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist centers around Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and tries to piece the mysterious circumstances surrounding Wells's very public and very shocking passing. In a 2018 interview with Newsweek, co-director and writer Barbara Schroeder said:

It could have gone down a lot of different paths putting this together, but it became clear pretty early on that the story tells itself. There are a lot of crazy twists and turns but there are also a lot of 'Wait! What?' moments. It's a bank heist, wait, there's a body in a freezer.

Trey Borzillieri, a documentary journalist and the co-director of the series, has been drawn to the case from the beginning. He was on-scene in Eerie the day after Wells's passing to shed light on the questions surrounding one pizza deliveryman's untimely end.
(#1) Brian Wells Was In On It, Until The Device Was No Longer Fake

Wells helped plan the holdup and was by all accounts a willing participant until he was told that the device was real - not fake, as he'd been led to believe that it would be. They gave him a cover story to tell the police, instructing him to say that he was a hostage and that three Black men forced the collar on him. The people who strapped the device on him believed the police would think Wells was an innocent victim and that Wells would conceal the identities of his real accomplices.

However, none of this worked out as planned. As soon as Wells learned the device was real, he tried to back out. His accomplices held him at gunpoint, even firing a shot in the air as a warning to Wells, before securing the device around his neck and sealing his fate.