HIV-positive cash collector flees with $8 million

A cash collector pointed his gun at colleagues and fled with $8 million in cash after learning that he was HIV-positive and that his wife was about to divorce him.

The incident took place Thursday in the city of Perm in the Russian Urals Region, Itar Tass said.

As a team of cash collectors were driving the money in an armored car to the bank, one of the security officers pointed his submachine gun to the driver and ordered him to turn and drive into the forest. Threatening his colleagues with the gun, he locked them in the vehicle, then loaded a bag with 250 million rubles into his own car, parked nearby, and fled.

A witnesses said that while he held them at gunpoint the man told them nervously that he had AIDS and was about to get divorced, so he had “nothing to lose”.

The man has been identified as Alexander Shurman, 36, married with two children. He has been working as a cash collector since 1995.

The police have set a reward of $10,000 for anyone able to provide information about his location.