Straker and his partner-in-crime, Scobie, are bank robbers, who are planning a spectacular Christmas heist of millions in gold bullion from the Second National Bank - by tunnelling into its vault from the next-door Harman's Department Store... via the store's toy department!
Straker - voiced by David Graham - and Scobie both appear in Give or Take a Million.
They rob banks: Scobie (l.) and Straker
Biography[]
The Bank Job[]
Straker, with Scobie's help, breaks into the Second National Bank from Harman's Department Store, just next door. After tying up the store's resident Santas, the pair of would-be robbers sets to work, first drilling into the adjoining wall - creating a hole large enough to climb through - and then firing a cable into the vault itself, aimed at the opposite wall.
Straker pulls Scobie into the vault via a harness fitted to the cable fired into the vault. The vault has a touch-sensitive floor, sounding an alarm if anything touches it. But inside the vault, Scobie has become greedy surrounded by all the gold. Despite Straker's warnings Scobie loads up on too much gold at a time, slowly pulling the cable - and harness, too - closer to the floor. As the line slips, Scobie puts his hand on a table to steady himself - only to dislodge a pencil that ends up on the floor!
In order to escape, the two thieves dress up as Santas and stowaway in the container of toys, completely unaware that it's about to be loaded onto the Christmas Rocket. The rocket takes off with the thieves still inside - and when the rocket is delivered to Coralville Children's Hospital, the staff discover two unconscious crooks inside!
Trivia[]
- Straker's puppet previously appeared as Stevens, the chauffeur, in Danger At Ocean Deep. In The Duchess Assignment, it was seen as a gambler at the French Casino.
