Faraday school 'crime of century' kidnapping remembered 52 years on

On a cold spring day 52 years ago, in a tiny Victorian town 115 kilometres from Melbourne, two men barged into a one-teacher state school and committed "the crime of the century". The two men committed what then Assistant Police Commissioner Mick Miller would describe as the "gravest situation of kind in the history of the Victoria Police Force". "Just the most bizarre, evil image of these two men silhouetted in this school door fully armed in, you know, balaclavas and disguises," she said. Early the next morning, an anonymous caller to police left instructions for then-education minister Lindsay Thompson to bring the money to Woodend Post Office at 5am that morning with "no funny business".