Many a crime has been inspired works of literature, so I would not be
surprised. It was time someone picked up on one of the masters of crime
created by Doyle as others have tried to imitate his master detective.
I do not know of other incients like these related to SH but I know of
similar examples:

The Turner Diaries is thought to be the inspiration behind a number of
violent crimes, most notably Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Murrah
Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995. The bombing, which
killed 168 people, was the worst terrorist act ever committed in the
United States. McVeigh was so impressed with the Diaries that he sent
copies of the novel to friends, with notes encouraging them to read it,
and sold the book at weekend gun shows. In addition, in a search of the
car McVeigh drove on the day of the bombing, F.B.I. agents found a copy
of a highlighted passage from the Diaries, which focused on terrorist
bombings of the United States Capitol and an airliner bound for Tel
Aviv.

The Diaries also inspired a crime spree in the early 1980s perpetrated
by a white supremacist gang called The Order (the inner circle of
resistance fighters in the Diaries was named The Order). Led by Robert
Mathews, the Order attempted to bankroll an Aryan revolution; its
crimes included murder, robbery, counterfeiting and the bombing of a
synagogue. More recently, inspired by The Order and The Turner Diaries,
members of a white supremacist gang calling itself the Aryan Republican
Army committed 22 bank robberies and bombings across the Midwest
between 1992 and 1996.

In 1971 following the release of the movie,A Clockwork Orange, a group
of teenagers in England simulated the rape scene by singing the
song "Singing in the Rain" while brutally raping a young girl. Other
films with related incidents are Taxi Driver which is tied to the
assassination attempt of President Reagan, Natural Born Killers which
apparently inspired a teenager to kill his stepmom and half sister, and
The Program which depicted teenagers lying down drunk in traffic.

Manraviel


--- In SherlockHolmesSocietyofIndia@..., "jeff_katz_2"
<jeff_katz@h...> wrote:
> There is no new thing under the sun...
>
>
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/08/brazil.heist.reut/index.htm
> l
>
> Thieves tunneled into a bank in northeastern Brazil and stole $68
> million, the biggest bank heist in the nation's history, police said
on
> Monday.
>
> "It's something you see in the movies. They dug a tunnel ... that
goes
> underneath two (city) blocks. They've been digging for three months,"
> police investigator Francisco Queiroga told Reuters by telephone.