In what could easily have been copied from a movie scene, would-be robbers dug a tunnel to try to gain entry to a bank in Fordsburg, Johannesburg.
However, an alarm went off and disturbed them.
It is still unclear where the tunnel was dug from.
Al Baraka Bank chief operating officer Mohammed Kaka said the attempted break-in happened in the early hours of Wednesday.
"We had an attempted break-in and the alarm went off, so they were disturbed. We [have] a shutter gate in front of the branch (bank). It (the hole) was between the shutter gate and the branch," Kaka said.
Police could not immediately comment on the incident.