The Blonde Wig in the Van

Police found a man sitting in a van with the motor running, parked about 200 feet from a bank, wearing a long blonde wig. The van had been stolen. Inside were a fake bomb made to resemble a real explosive, a red pouch holding a demand note, a police scanner tuned to the local police department, and a notebook with draft demand notes and radio frequencies. He told officers they had caught him five minutes before he was going to rob a bank, and described his plan to use the drive-up window and leave the phony explosive with a note on it. He was charged with attempted bank robbery. The defence argued that, whatever his intentions, he had not yet taken a substantial step toward the robbery: he had never moved toward the bank.