Black robbery suspects allegedly used Hollywood-style white masks during heist
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Somebody deserves an Oscar for special effects.
A crafty trio of black robbers bought amazingly lifelike disguises from a Hollywood special-effects firm to transform themselves into white guys for a brazen Queens heist — and their get-ups were so good, their victims had no clue they were in masks.
The Brooklyn federal court trial of Akeem Monsalvatge, Derrick Dunkley and Edward Byam opened yesterday with witnesses describing how they were completely fooled.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The perps spent two painstaking months plotting their $200,000 stickup of a Queens check-cashing store last year — and theorized that switching races would help, authorities said.
So the crew turned to a well-known special-effects company CFX Composite Effects — which has worked on such flicks as “2 Guns” and “Wolverine’’ — for their disguises, officials said.
The men allegedly told company reps — who had no clue what they were up to — they needed the masks for a music video, and plunked down $2,000.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The accused crooks were apparently inspired by the 2010 Ben Affleck flick “The Town.”
As in the movie, in addition to donning masks, the robbers dressed as cops, doused bleach at the crime scene to destroy DNA traces, and provided evidence to a victim to prove they knew where she lived in case she squealed.