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ABOVE: See the newly-released surveillance camera footage of the bank robbery foiled after the thief cannot heft his stolen bag of cash

Never has the phrase “doing all the heavy lifting” been so literally – and comically – true.

Surveillance camera footage has been released of a bank robbery in China that went from dangerous to comical after the would-be thief discovered his plan had a critical flaw: he wasn’t able to lift his bag of stolen cash.

Armed with a gun, the 29-year-old robber waited outside the doors of a bank in China’s Huludao City of Liaoning Province this past March.

Wearing a helmet and face-covering mask, the man waited for the armored van to drop off cash on the morning on March 29.

At around 8:00 a.m., the man sprung into action when the van arrived to make its weekly delivery.

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He sprayed gasoline into the face of the armed security guard to immobilize him, before knocking down a bank employee, shooting him in the leg with his gun, and making off with a bag containing 1.77 million yuan ($288,000 U.S. dollars).

At least, that was the plan.

The robber quickly discovered he wasn’t quite strong enough to heft the 85-kilogram bag onto the back of his getaway motorcycle.

As the man vs. bag wrestling match continued, the driver of the security van called police, and the robber was arrested minutes later.

According to police, the thief committed the crime in order to get enough money to cover the cost of his mortgage.

“I hate myself for doing that. How could I do such a thing? I will treat my parents and my wife kindly if one day I’m let out of prison,” the robber said while receiving treatment in a local hospital.

-With files from CCTV