WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.400 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are stripping 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:08.300 away the veneer of a story that I think a lot 00:00:08.300 --> 00:00:10.279 of people think they know. The headline version. 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:12.380 Exactly. They know the headline. But we're going 00:00:12.380 --> 00:00:14.480 to dig into the details. We're going to London, 00:00:14.619 --> 00:00:18.339 specifically to a very quiet, very specialized 00:00:18.339 --> 00:00:21.100 street in the Jewelry District over the Easter 00:00:21.100 --> 00:00:23.640 weekend of 2015. A place called Hatton Garden. 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:25.579 And I want you to really picture the scene here 00:00:25.579 --> 00:00:27.940 because... The atmosphere is just so important 00:00:27.940 --> 00:00:30.480 to this whole story. It's a bank holiday. The 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:32.679 streets are empty. Totally deserted. All the 00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:35.820 businesses are shuttered. It's silent. But underneath 00:00:35.820 --> 00:00:39.159 the pavement, inside a reinforced concrete vault, 00:00:39.380 --> 00:00:41.619 there's a group of men working with industrial 00:00:41.619 --> 00:00:43.920 machinery to pull off what would eventually be 00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:46.100 called... The largest burglary in English legal 00:00:46.100 --> 00:00:48.439 history. It's incredible. And it feels so cinematic. 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:51.299 Oh, completely. When the news first broke, the 00:00:51.299 --> 00:00:53.759 immediate reaction from, well, from everyone, 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:56.670 the public, the press, was descriptive. It had 00:00:56.670 --> 00:00:58.570 all the elements of a Hollywood blockbuster, 00:00:58.630 --> 00:01:00.829 right? It's perfect. The impenetrable vault, 00:01:00.969 --> 00:01:04.189 the massive hall of gold and diamonds, the timing 00:01:04.189 --> 00:01:07.269 over a long weekend. But as we dig into the reports, 00:01:07.530 --> 00:01:10.310 you know, the police files, the court transcripts, 00:01:10.310 --> 00:01:14.090 what we find is that the reality is it's much 00:01:14.090 --> 00:01:17.069 grittier. It's much dirtier. And frankly, it's 00:01:17.069 --> 00:01:18.890 just much more interesting than any movie version. 00:01:19.129 --> 00:01:21.370 Absolutely. And the headline everyone remembers, 00:01:21.450 --> 00:01:25.599 the big twist was that, aha. The moment when 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:27.560 the police revealed that this wasn't some team 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:31.400 of, you know, acrobatic, cyber savvy young thieves 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:34.040 rappelling from the ceiling. Yeah. It was a group 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:38.340 of elderly men. Oh. Men who were, and this is 00:01:38.340 --> 00:01:41.640 the best part, eligible for a bus pass. The diamond 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:43.900 geezers, as the press immediately dubbed them, 00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:46.060 and that nickname, it did a lot of heavy lifting. 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:48.260 It really did. It created this image of sort 00:01:48.260 --> 00:01:50.959 of lovable rogues, a dad's army gone bad. It 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:53.180 made them seem harmless, almost cute. Right. 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:56.000 But part of our mission today in this deep dive 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.560 is to really dismantle that myth. These weren't 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.620 just bored grandfathers looking for a weekend 00:02:00.620 --> 00:02:04.719 hobby. They were career criminals, serious, hardened 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:06.519 men. who had been involved in some of the most 00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:09.680 notorious crimes of the 20th century. This wasn't 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:12.099 a whim for them. This was the culmination of 00:02:12.099 --> 00:02:15.300 a lifetime of organized crime. We are absolutely 00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:17.259 going to get into the profiles of these men, 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:19.259 and trust me, they are not characters you'd want 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:21.439 to run into in a dark alley, regardless of their 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:23.550 age. But we're also going to look at the mechanics. 00:02:23.889 --> 00:02:26.849 The how. The how. We've got the technical specs 00:02:26.849 --> 00:02:29.250 of the drill they used, this beast called the 00:02:29.250 --> 00:02:31.830 Hilti B350. We're going to look at the police 00:02:31.830 --> 00:02:35.389 investigation and the massive, I mean, the critical 00:02:35.389 --> 00:02:37.729 failure that allowed this heist to continue when 00:02:37.729 --> 00:02:39.210 it really should have been stopped cold on night 00:02:39.210 --> 00:02:41.599 one. And we have to talk about the money. Of 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:44.800 course. Because even today, years later, the 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:47.479 vast majority of that loot, and we're talking 00:02:47.479 --> 00:02:49.960 millions upon millions of pounds worth of gold, 00:02:50.020 --> 00:02:52.639 jewelry, cash, it's still missing. It's just 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:54.800 vanished. It's this lingering mystery that just 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:57.500 hangs over the entire case. So let's start in 00:02:57.500 --> 00:03:00.699 the beginning. The setup. To understand why this 00:03:00.699 --> 00:03:02.740 heist happened, you first have to understand 00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:06.960 the location. Hatton Garden. For those who maybe 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:09.139 haven't walked through London, can you paint 00:03:09.139 --> 00:03:10.939 a picture of this place? Sure. Haddon Garden 00:03:10.939 --> 00:03:14.300 isn't just a street name. It's a mitnum. It stands 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:17.159 for the entire UK diamond and jewelry trade. 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:19.759 It's been the epicenter of that industry for 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:22.599 centuries, really, since medieval times. So this 00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:24.919 is old London. Very. And if you walk down the 00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:27.340 street today, you see shop window after shop 00:03:27.340 --> 00:03:30.560 window just filled with engagement rings, watches, 00:03:30.919 --> 00:03:33.879 glittering jewels. But behind those retail fronts, 00:03:34.039 --> 00:03:37.180 there's this massive... unseen network of workshops 00:03:37.180 --> 00:03:40.139 and polishers and traders. And crucially for 00:03:40.139 --> 00:03:42.500 this story. And crucially, safe deposit facilities. 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:45.139 And the target was one of these. Hatton Garden 00:03:45.139 --> 00:03:49.240 Safe Deposit LTD, located at 8890 Hatton Garden. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:52.240 Now, this was an underground facility. And I 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:53.659 think we should probably clarify what a safe 00:03:53.659 --> 00:03:56.000 deposit box actually is, because in our age of 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.800 digital banking, it feels like a bit of an anachronism. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:01.039 It really does. It feels like something from 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:03.860 an old spy movie, but it serves a very specific 00:04:03.860 --> 00:04:06.860 purpose. And that purpose is anonymity. When 00:04:06.860 --> 00:04:09.120 you put money in a bank, there's a digital trail. 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:12.879 The bank knows, the government knows, a safe 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:16.120 deposit box is essentially a physical void. You 00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:18.319 rent the box, you put your items inside, you 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:20.779 take the key. The company renting you the box 00:04:20.779 --> 00:04:23.160 generally has no idea what's in there. Which 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:25.720 makes it perfect for legitimate valuables. You 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:28.199 know, family heirlooms, stamp collections, digs 00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:30.819 to a property, that sort of thing. Exactly. But... 00:04:31.050 --> 00:04:32.870 And this is a major factor in the psychology 00:04:32.870 --> 00:04:36.149 of this whole heist. It's also the perfect place 00:04:36.149 --> 00:04:39.730 for gray or even black assets. What do you mean 00:04:39.730 --> 00:04:42.269 by that? Well, if you're hiding cash from the 00:04:42.269 --> 00:04:44.949 tax authorities or maybe hiding jewelry from 00:04:44.949 --> 00:04:47.230 an ex -spouse during a really bitter divorce 00:04:47.230 --> 00:04:50.110 or if you're a criminal hiding the proceeds of 00:04:50.110 --> 00:04:52.230 other crimes. You use a safe deposit box. You 00:04:52.230 --> 00:04:55.149 use a safe deposit box. And the thieves, they 00:04:55.149 --> 00:04:58.189 absolutely knew this. They were banking on it. 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:01.300 There's this idea, isn't there, that robbing 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:04.079 a safe deposit vault is almost the perfect crime 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:07.019 because half the victims won't even report what 00:05:07.019 --> 00:05:09.360 was stolen from them. It's the robber's fallacy. 00:05:09.560 --> 00:05:12.240 They assume that because some of the loot might 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:15.459 be illicit, the police investigation will be 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:18.079 hampered, that people won't come forward. Oh, 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:20.990 is that true here? To an extent. There were certainly 00:05:20.990 --> 00:05:23.930 rumors and later some confirmations that other 00:05:23.930 --> 00:05:26.550 criminals lost a lot of money in this raid. But 00:05:26.550 --> 00:05:28.389 the reality is that many of the victims were 00:05:28.389 --> 00:05:30.290 small business owners. Jewelers. Independent 00:05:30.290 --> 00:05:32.930 jewelers, yeah. People who stored their entire 00:05:32.930 --> 00:05:35.430 stock in the vault over the long weekend because 00:05:35.430 --> 00:05:37.610 their own shop safes just weren't strong enough. 00:05:37.649 --> 00:05:39.230 This wasn't just pocket money for them, it was 00:05:39.230 --> 00:05:42.649 their livelihood. So that's the target. A subterranean 00:05:42.649 --> 00:05:46.290 vault, deep under London, filled with untold 00:05:46.290 --> 00:05:49.240 millions. But the environment in the city that 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:52.100 week was, well, it was chaotic. We have to talk 00:05:52.100 --> 00:05:53.800 about the Kingsway Fire. This is one of those 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:55.680 details that just makes you question the nature 00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:58.120 of coincidence. It's almost too perfect. So what 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:01.300 happened? On April 1st, 2015, that's April Fool's 00:06:01.300 --> 00:06:03.740 Day, and just two days before the heist began, 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:07.779 a massive underground electrical fire breaks 00:06:07.779 --> 00:06:10.860 out in a place called Kingsway. Now, Kingsway 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:13.399 is a major artery in central London. It's just 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:15.420 a short walk from Hatton Garden. And when you 00:06:15.420 --> 00:06:18.079 say fire, I think people might picture a trash 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:20.899 can burning or something small. This was infrastructure 00:06:20.899 --> 00:06:24.779 collapse. This was subterranean chaos. An electrical 00:06:24.779 --> 00:06:27.399 fault deep in the tunnels under the road caused 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:30.339 gas mains to rupture, and you had flames literally 00:06:30.339 --> 00:06:33.100 shooting out of manhole covers in the street. 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:35.899 Like geysers of fire. Exactly. The smoke was 00:06:35.899 --> 00:06:38.500 toxic. It was thick. Thousands of people had 00:06:38.500 --> 00:06:40.779 to be evacuated from their offices. The West 00:06:40.779 --> 00:06:42.920 End theaters had to cancel performances because 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:45.360 the power grid was so unstable, it shut down 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:47.620 a huge section of the city. And of course, when 00:06:47.620 --> 00:06:49.720 the heist was discovered a few days later, the 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:52.160 immediate public theory was... The burglars started 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:54.220 the fire. It had to be. them. It's the perfect 00:06:54.220 --> 00:06:56.879 diversion. It makes perfect tactical sense, doesn't 00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:58.339 it? I mean, if you want to rob a vault, you want 00:06:58.339 --> 00:07:00.699 the police distracted. You want the fire brigade 00:07:00.699 --> 00:07:02.879 tied up. You want alarms to be drowned out by 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:05.500 sirens. You want data and phone lines to be fried. 00:07:05.660 --> 00:07:07.879 It creates this perfect screen of confusion. 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:10.600 But the official investigation didn't support 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:13.019 that theory, did it? No. The London Fire Brigade 00:07:13.019 --> 00:07:15.740 did a full forensic analysis, and they ruled 00:07:15.740 --> 00:07:17.500 it an electrical fault. There was absolutely 00:07:17.500 --> 00:07:21.040 no sign of arson. It was just London's aging 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:24.139 Victorian infrastructure finally giving up the 00:07:24.139 --> 00:07:26.300 ghost at the worst possible time. Or the best 00:07:26.300 --> 00:07:28.019 possible time, depending on your perspective. 00:07:28.259 --> 00:07:30.959 Well, exactly. And here's the key point. Whether 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:33.079 they started it or not is almost irrelevant. 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:36.540 The fire acted as a massive force multiplier 00:07:36.540 --> 00:07:38.879 for the gang. It was an incredible stroke of 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:41.720 luck. The luckiest break imaginable. It meant 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:43.959 that all the emergency services were stretched 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:46.100 to the breaking point. It meant the police were 00:07:46.100 --> 00:07:48.480 focused on crowd control and traffic management 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:51.920 over in Kingsway. It meant that if some random 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:55.339 alarm went off a few blocks away in a quiet street... 00:07:55.339 --> 00:07:57.980 It's not top priority. The fatigue factor for 00:07:57.980 --> 00:08:01.060 the response teams would be sky high. It provided 00:08:01.060 --> 00:08:03.860 this perfect cloak of noise and confusion right 00:08:03.860 --> 00:08:06.560 as the Easter weekend began. So the stage is 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:09.759 set. London is distracted by this fire. The city 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:12.279 is emptying out for the holiday. It's Thursday, 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:15.399 April 2nd. Why was Easter weekend so critical 00:08:15.399 --> 00:08:20.560 for their plan? One word. Time. That is the one 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:23.519 resource a burglar usually lacks. In a typical 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:26.240 smash and grab, you've got minutes. Maybe, if 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:28.259 you're lucky, 10 minutes before the police response 00:08:28.259 --> 00:08:30.620 time catches up with you. But Easter in the UK 00:08:30.620 --> 00:08:32.919 isn't just one day off. No, it's a four -day 00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:35.299 bang holiday. Good Friday is a public holiday. 00:08:35.460 --> 00:08:37.559 Easter Monday is a public holiday. So all those 00:08:37.559 --> 00:08:40.299 businesses in Hatton Garden, they lock up on 00:08:40.299 --> 00:08:42.500 Thursday night. And nobody is expected back at 00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:44.539 their desks until Tuesday morning. Which is the 00:08:44.539 --> 00:08:47.799 crew. A 96 -hour window. 96 hours where they 00:08:47.799 --> 00:08:49.460 can make noise, where they can take breaks, where 00:08:49.460 --> 00:08:51.039 they can troubleshoot problems if something goes 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:54.480 wrong. It completely changes the game. It turns 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:57.360 a sprint into a marathon. Okay, so let's walk 00:08:57.360 --> 00:08:59.799 through the timeline of the entry itself. It's 00:08:59.799 --> 00:09:03.279 Thursday evening. The clock ticks over to 9 .11 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:06.580 p .m. The staff at the Safe Deposit Center lock 00:09:06.580 --> 00:09:09.120 the main doors. They set the alarm. They head 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:11.720 home for the long weekend. And barely four minutes 00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:15.200 later, at 9 .23 p .m., the operation begins. 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:18.210 This is that quick. We see them on the CCTV footage. 00:09:18.830 --> 00:09:21.529 The man the press later nicknamed Mr. Ginger 00:09:21.950 --> 00:09:24.730 appears first he lets himself in and descends 00:09:24.730 --> 00:09:26.309 into the vault area and then the rest of the 00:09:26.309 --> 00:09:28.690 team follows and i have to bring up the equipment 00:09:28.690 --> 00:09:30.669 they were carrying because it's just such a strange 00:09:30.669 --> 00:09:33.110 detail they weren't carrying tactical duffel 00:09:33.110 --> 00:09:35.269 bags or anything like that no they were dragging 00:09:35.269 --> 00:09:37.909 plastic wheelie bins the kind you put your household 00:09:37.909 --> 00:09:40.629 trash in it looks absurd on the camera footage 00:09:40.629 --> 00:09:42.830 these elderly men dragging garbage bins into 00:09:42.830 --> 00:09:45.450 a building it looks absurd but from a logistical 00:09:45.450 --> 00:09:48.710 standpoint it is absolutely brilliant think about 00:09:48.710 --> 00:09:50.990 it if you're walking down a street in central 00:09:50.990 --> 00:09:53.039 london wearing a high -vis vest and dragging 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:56.460 a bin, you are invisible. You're a workman, a 00:09:56.460 --> 00:09:59.600 cleaner. Nobody looks twice. And practically 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:01.820 speaking, if you plan on stealing gold bars, 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:04.840 what's the one thing you know about gold? It's 00:10:04.840 --> 00:10:07.590 heavy. It's incredibly heavy. You can't carry 00:10:07.590 --> 00:10:09.570 a million pounds worth of gold in a backpack. 00:10:09.850 --> 00:10:12.149 You need wheels. You need something durable, 00:10:12.250 --> 00:10:14.889 something that won't attract attention. The bins 00:10:14.889 --> 00:10:17.629 were the perfect transport method, both for the 00:10:17.629 --> 00:10:20.029 tools on the way in and the loot on the way out. 00:10:20.110 --> 00:10:22.360 So they get into the building. But they didn't 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:24.279 break down the front door, did they? No, there 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:26.879 were no external signs of forced entry at all. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:29.200 They entered through a communal fire -staped 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:31.419 door at the side of the building, which suggests 00:10:31.419 --> 00:10:34.220 they had done extensive reconnaissance or, more 00:10:34.220 --> 00:10:36.679 likely, had some kind of inside knowledge. And 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:38.960 from there? From there, they made their way to 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:41.200 the building's lift shaft, they disabled the 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:43.360 lift on the second floor, forced the doors open, 00:10:43.580 --> 00:10:45.700 and then climbed down the lift shaft to get to 00:10:45.700 --> 00:10:47.860 the basement. I mean, that's physically demanding. 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:51.539 Climbing down a dark lift shaft is not easy for 00:10:51.539 --> 00:10:54.879 a 20 year old, let alone a man in his 70s. It 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:57.600 requires upper body strength. It requires a certain 00:10:57.600 --> 00:10:59.519 amount of agility. And remember, they're not 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:01.759 just climbing down themselves. They're carrying 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:04.879 tools. They're lowering heavy equipment down. 00:11:05.059 --> 00:11:07.100 This really dispels that idea that they were 00:11:07.100 --> 00:11:09.840 frail old men. They might have been old, but 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:11.600 they were physically capable. OK, so they're 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:13.340 in the basement. They're standing in front of 00:11:13.340 --> 00:11:15.860 the vault. And this is where the Hilti DD350 00:11:15.860 --> 00:11:18.519 enters the story. Right. The vault door itself 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:21.519 is a monster. I mean, it's designed to withstand 00:11:21.519 --> 00:11:24.240 explosives, thermal lances, you name it. it, 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:27.500 a direct assault on the door would be pointless. 00:11:27.860 --> 00:11:29.440 So they didn't even try. They didn't even try. 00:11:29.480 --> 00:11:31.539 They attacked the wall next to the door. The 00:11:31.539 --> 00:11:33.659 concrete wall. The reinforced concrete wall. 00:11:33.740 --> 00:11:36.639 We're talking half a meter thick. That's 20 inches 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:39.580 of aggregate and steel rebar. It's basically 00:11:39.580 --> 00:11:41.899 the foundation of the building. And to get through 00:11:41.899 --> 00:11:45.759 that, they brought the Hilltide DD350. Let's 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:48.480 geek out on this drill for a second. This is 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:50.259 not something you buy at a hardware store for 00:11:50.259 --> 00:11:53.370 a weekend DIY project. No. Absolutely not. This 00:11:53.370 --> 00:11:56.370 is an industrial diamond coring drill. It's designed 00:11:56.370 --> 00:11:59.289 for major construction projects, you know, drilling 00:11:59.289 --> 00:12:02.190 huge holes for pipes through bridge foundations, 00:12:02.389 --> 00:12:05.289 that kind of thing. It uses a diamond tip circular 00:12:05.289 --> 00:12:08.190 bit that doesn't so much drill as grind the concrete 00:12:08.190 --> 00:12:10.629 into dust. And it's not a handheld tool, is it? 00:12:10.889 --> 00:12:13.610 No way. The torque would break your wrists. You 00:12:13.610 --> 00:12:15.929 have to bolt the rig itself to the wall or the 00:12:15.929 --> 00:12:18.669 floor to get the leverage you need. It also requires 00:12:18.669 --> 00:12:20.929 water cooling. So you have a hose constantly 00:12:20.929 --> 00:12:23.750 running water onto the bit to stop it from overheating. 00:12:23.789 --> 00:12:26.970 Which creates a mess. A huge mess. A slurry of 00:12:26.970 --> 00:12:29.730 wet concrete mud. It's incredibly loud. It vibrates 00:12:29.730 --> 00:12:32.509 the entire room. It's a brutal piece of machinery. 00:12:32.870 --> 00:12:35.029 And the plan was to drill three holes, right? 00:12:35.190 --> 00:12:38.509 Yes. Three overlapping circular holes. If you 00:12:38.509 --> 00:12:40.330 can picture a Venn diagram or maybe... be the 00:12:40.330 --> 00:12:42.450 Audi logo. You drill three holes that are all 00:12:42.450 --> 00:12:44.389 touching each other. You knock out the center 00:12:44.389 --> 00:12:46.750 pieces and you're left with an opening. How big? 00:12:47.070 --> 00:12:49.750 Roughly 10 inches high and about 18 inches wide. 00:12:49.870 --> 00:12:51.950 Just enough for a skinny man to crawl through. 00:12:52.129 --> 00:12:55.460 So they're down there. In the dark, drilling. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:58.639 And this wasn't a quick process. It took hours 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:01.059 and hours. They were down there all through Thursday 00:13:01.059 --> 00:13:03.080 night. They were working into the early hours 00:13:03.080 --> 00:13:05.500 of Friday morning. And this is where the story 00:13:05.500 --> 00:13:07.799 takes a turn that just emphasizes their sheer 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:10.960 persistence. They hit a snag. The timeline shows 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:12.960 they actually left the building and came back. 00:13:13.059 --> 00:13:16.700 Why? Well, they managed to drill the holes. They 00:13:16.700 --> 00:13:19.549 created the opening in the wall. But the back 00:13:19.549 --> 00:13:22.289 of the vault was lined with this heavy cabinet 00:13:22.289 --> 00:13:24.990 of metal deposit boxes that was bolted to the 00:13:24.990 --> 00:13:27.330 floor and the ceiling. They couldn't push it 00:13:27.330 --> 00:13:29.149 over. The hole was blocked. So they couldn't 00:13:29.149 --> 00:13:30.789 get through the hole they just made. Exactly. 00:13:31.210 --> 00:13:34.690 They tried to use a hydraulic ram. It's a tool 00:13:34.690 --> 00:13:37.370 called a port -a -power to try and force the 00:13:37.370 --> 00:13:40.690 cabinet out of the way. But the ram broke. The 00:13:40.690 --> 00:13:43.460 equipment failed. The equipment failed. Just 00:13:43.460 --> 00:13:45.379 imagine that situation for a second. It's the 00:13:45.379 --> 00:13:47.259 middle of the night on Friday. You've broken 00:13:47.259 --> 00:13:49.919 in. You've drilled through a 20 -inch wall. You 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:53.360 are inches away from millions in gold. And you 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:55.740 can't get in. Most burglars would panic and run 00:13:55.740 --> 00:13:57.899 at that point. But they didn't. They didn't. 00:13:57.899 --> 00:13:59.940 They packed up. They left the building. They 00:13:59.940 --> 00:14:02.639 went home. They sourced a new pump for the hydraulic 00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:04.659 ram. I mean, they essentially went shopping for 00:14:04.659 --> 00:14:06.820 replacement parts over the holiday weekend. And 00:14:06.820 --> 00:14:08.580 then they came back. They came back to the scene 00:14:08.580 --> 00:14:11.990 of the crime. They did. Mr. Ginger returned on 00:14:11.990 --> 00:14:15.590 Saturday, April 4th, with two others. They reentered 00:14:15.590 --> 00:14:17.750 the building the same way, went back down the 00:14:17.750 --> 00:14:20.230 lift shaft, set up the new ram, and they finished 00:14:20.230 --> 00:14:22.570 the job. The audacity of that is just staggering. 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:26.019 To leave and then return a day later. It speaks 00:14:26.019 --> 00:14:29.220 to their all -in mentality. This was their retirement 00:14:29.220 --> 00:14:31.440 fund. This was the one last job. They weren't 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:33.580 going to let a broken bit of equipment stop them. 00:14:33.820 --> 00:14:36.519 But it also speaks to their absolute confidence 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:38.860 that nobody was coming for them. And that brings 00:14:38.860 --> 00:14:41.120 us to the most frustrating part of this entire 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:43.960 deep dive. The missed opportunity. The alarm. 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:47.279 Because listeners are probably screaming at their 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:49.340 speakers right now. Didn't the drilling, the 00:14:49.340 --> 00:14:52.179 noise, the vibration, didn't that trigger a sensor? 00:14:52.649 --> 00:14:55.149 It did. Let's rewind a bit. Go back to shortly 00:14:55.149 --> 00:14:58.509 after midnight on Friday, April 3rd. It's 12 00:14:58.509 --> 00:15:02.509 .21 a .m. The drilling causes enough vibration 00:15:02.509 --> 00:15:05.809 to trip the building's intruder alarm. So the 00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:08.519 system worked. The technology did its job perfectly. 00:15:09.059 --> 00:15:11.480 The signal went straight to Southern Monitoring 00:15:11.480 --> 00:15:13.620 Services, the private alarm company that was 00:15:13.620 --> 00:15:16.080 contracted to watch the building. OK. They received 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:18.059 the alert. They tried to contact the key holder 00:15:18.059 --> 00:15:20.340 for the building, but they got no answer. So 00:15:20.340 --> 00:15:23.100 as per their procedure, they called the Metropolitan 00:15:23.100 --> 00:15:25.899 Police. Hello, Scotland Yard. The alarm is going 00:15:25.899 --> 00:15:28.679 off at the giant vault full of diamonds. Essentially, 00:15:28.840 --> 00:15:30.980 yes. They passed all the information to the police. 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:33.840 The call was logged in the police computer aided 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:36.539 dispatch system, the CAD system. Everything was 00:15:36.539 --> 00:15:38.799 done by the book. And the police sent a SWAT 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:40.720 team, right? Right. Or at least a patrol car 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:43.679 to check it out. They sent nothing. Nothing. 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:46.320 Zero response. Why? I mean, how is that even 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:49.629 possible? It comes down to a really mundane piece 00:15:49.629 --> 00:15:52.350 of bureaucracy, a grading system. The operator 00:15:52.350 --> 00:15:56.169 who took the call graded it as a grade N response. 00:15:56.250 --> 00:15:58.909 Grade N. Which stands for no response required. 00:15:59.169 --> 00:16:02.409 No response required for an alarm going off at 00:16:02.409 --> 00:16:05.789 a major safe deposit vault in the jewelry district. 00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:08.299 The reasoning that was given later was complex 00:16:08.299 --> 00:16:11.419 and, frankly, a bit of a mess. There was a policy 00:16:11.419 --> 00:16:13.940 in place at the time that said unless the alarm 00:16:13.940 --> 00:16:16.620 company could actively verify that a crime was 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:19.440 in progress, you know, by seeing someone on CCTV 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:22.139 or hearing voices on a microphone, the police 00:16:22.139 --> 00:16:24.700 wouldn't automatically attend every single alarm. 00:16:24.860 --> 00:16:26.879 Because there are too many false alarms. Exactly. 00:16:27.500 --> 00:16:29.840 But there's also a lot of evidence that the call 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:32.860 was simply mishandled or at the very least deprioritized 00:16:32.860 --> 00:16:35.340 because of the massive workload from the Kingsway 00:16:35.340 --> 00:16:37.460 fire and it being a holiday weekend. But the 00:16:37.460 --> 00:16:39.799 consequence of that one decision was total silence. 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:41.980 Total silence. And just think about the psychology 00:16:41.980 --> 00:16:44.100 of the thieves for a moment. They're in the vault. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:46.240 They know they've tricked the alarm. They must 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:48.679 have heard the bell ringing upstairs. They freeze. 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:50.559 Waiting for the sirens. They're waiting for the 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:52.799 sirens. They're checking their watches. Five 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:55.279 minutes go by. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. No 00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:58.230 sirens. Nothing. silence tells them one thing. 00:16:58.330 --> 00:17:01.309 Nobody is coming. It's the green light. It's 00:17:01.309 --> 00:17:03.590 the green light. That failure to respond was 00:17:03.590 --> 00:17:06.269 everything. If a single patrol car had just driven 00:17:06.269 --> 00:17:09.210 by at 1240 a .m. and shown a torch at the fire 00:17:09.210 --> 00:17:11.589 escape door, the gang would have fled. They would 00:17:11.589 --> 00:17:13.890 never have come back on Saturday with the replacement 00:17:13.890 --> 00:17:17.230 pump. That single grade end decision by one operator 00:17:17.230 --> 00:17:20.369 turned a failed break -in into a 14 million town 00:17:20.369 --> 00:17:22.890 catastrophe. It really highlights the fragility 00:17:22.890 --> 00:17:25.089 of security, doesn't it? Yeah. You can have 20 00:17:25.089 --> 00:17:27.210 inches of reinforced concrete and sophisticated 00:17:27.210 --> 00:17:29.809 sensors, but if the human being at the other 00:17:29.809 --> 00:17:31.849 end of the line presses the wrong button... It's 00:17:31.849 --> 00:17:34.049 all completely worthless. It's the human factor. 00:17:34.430 --> 00:17:36.250 Complacency. Oh, it's probably just a spider 00:17:36.250 --> 00:17:38.529 on the sensor. It's probably just a glitch from 00:17:38.529 --> 00:17:40.950 the power surges from the fire. Those little 00:17:40.950 --> 00:17:44.230 assumptions cost the victims everything. So let's 00:17:44.230 --> 00:17:46.710 fast forward. The gang finishes the job over 00:17:46.710 --> 00:17:48.700 the weekend. They finally drive away for the 00:17:48.700 --> 00:17:51.619 last time at 6 .10 a .m. on Sunday morning, their 00:17:51.619 --> 00:17:53.960 wheelie bins now full of loot. The bank holiday 00:17:53.960 --> 00:17:57.140 finishes. Tuesday morning, April 7th, arrives. 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:00.740 And the world wakes up. The staff return to 8890 00:18:00.740 --> 00:18:02.859 Hatton Garden. They open the doors, they go down 00:18:02.859 --> 00:18:05.240 to the vault, and they walk into a scene of absolute, 00:18:05.420 --> 00:18:08.180 total devastation. The photos of the aftermath 00:18:08.180 --> 00:18:10.859 are just incredible to look at. The floor is 00:18:10.859 --> 00:18:13.680 covered in inches of concrete, dust, and debris. 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:16.660 Safety deposit boxes have been ripped out of 00:18:16.660 --> 00:18:18.980 the wall. They've been angled ground open. Papers 00:18:18.980 --> 00:18:21.359 and empty jewelry boxes are just scattered everywhere. 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:24.099 It looked like a bomb had gone off. The staff, 00:18:24.299 --> 00:18:26.819 obviously horrified, called the police. And this 00:18:26.819 --> 00:18:30.460 time, the police do respond. And very, very quickly, 00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:33.339 they realize this isn't a job for the local beat 00:18:33.339 --> 00:18:35.720 cops. This gets kicked up immediately to the 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:38.339 Flying Squad. We hear that name a lot in British 00:18:38.339 --> 00:18:40.819 crime dramas. The Flying Squad. Who are they, 00:18:40.859 --> 00:18:42.789 for those who don't know? They're the Sweeney. 00:18:42.809 --> 00:18:45.130 The name comes from Sweeney Todd, which is old 00:18:45.130 --> 00:18:47.970 Cockney rhyming slang for Flying Squad. They 00:18:47.970 --> 00:18:49.990 were the elite branch of the Met Police, and 00:18:49.990 --> 00:18:52.349 they are dedicated to tackling serious, organized 00:18:52.349 --> 00:18:55.269 crime -armed robbery, tiger kidnapping, high 00:18:55.269 --> 00:18:57.950 -value heists. If a bank gets robbed in London, 00:18:58.190 --> 00:19:00.369 the Flying Squad takes the case. So these are 00:19:00.369 --> 00:19:02.230 the heavy hitters. But before they could even 00:19:02.230 --> 00:19:04.190 really lock down the investigation and get started, 00:19:04.369 --> 00:19:06.890 the media got involved. And this is where the 00:19:06.890 --> 00:19:09.430 public perception of the heist just got completely 00:19:09.430 --> 00:19:13.700 warped. Yes. The Daily Mirror, a British tabloid, 00:19:13.700 --> 00:19:17.400 pulled off a massive scoop. On April 10th, that's 00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:19.500 just three days after the crime was even discovered, 00:19:19.700 --> 00:19:22.880 they somehow obtained CCTV footage from a camera 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:25.299 on a nearby building that overlooked the fire 00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:27.900 escape. They got it before the police released 00:19:27.900 --> 00:19:30.180 it. Yes. The police were absolutely furious. 00:19:30.460 --> 00:19:32.880 Right. But the Mirror ran it on their front page. 00:19:32.980 --> 00:19:35.200 And because the footage was grainy and it was 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:37.240 taken from a distance, you couldn't identify 00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:40.440 any of the faces. You could just see these indistinct 00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:43.890 figures. In Hy -Vee's jackets, moving bins in 00:19:43.890 --> 00:19:47.130 and out. And the newspaper, in true tabloid fashion. 00:19:47.450 --> 00:19:49.089 They gave him nicknames. This is where the whole 00:19:49.089 --> 00:19:51.670 cast of characters was born. Exactly. Mr. Ginger, 00:19:51.970 --> 00:19:53.970 because one of them appeared to have reddish 00:19:53.970 --> 00:19:56.329 hair. Mr. Strong, because he was seen carrying 00:19:56.329 --> 00:19:59.349 heavy bags. The Gent, because he wore smart shoes 00:19:59.349 --> 00:20:02.410 and a jacket. The Tall Man, and of course, the 00:20:02.410 --> 00:20:06.269 Old Man. It turned a crime into a caper. It fictionalized 00:20:06.269 --> 00:20:09.190 them instantly. It did. It framed them as movie 00:20:09.190 --> 00:20:11.990 characters from the very beginning. And crucially, 00:20:12.089 --> 00:20:14.470 because they didn't look like threatening thugs 00:20:14.470 --> 00:20:17.170 and balaclavas, but rather like a bunch of ordinary 00:20:17.170 --> 00:20:20.170 workmen, the public didn't feel afraid of them. 00:20:20.289 --> 00:20:22.650 They felt amused. They felt amused. It seemed 00:20:22.650 --> 00:20:25.509 quaint. Look at these cheeky old guys pulling 00:20:25.509 --> 00:20:27.970 one over on the establishment. And that narrative 00:20:27.970 --> 00:20:30.650 just stuck, didn't it? Even when the police finally 00:20:30.650 --> 00:20:33.190 released the official crime scene photos showing 00:20:33.190 --> 00:20:36.329 the sheer destruction inside the vault. The public 00:20:36.329 --> 00:20:39.589 was, in a strange way, still kind of rooting 00:20:39.589 --> 00:20:42.009 for the underdogs. Which was a massive headache 00:20:42.009 --> 00:20:44.410 for the investigation. They had to pivot from 00:20:44.410 --> 00:20:48.049 hunting dangerous criminals to managing a media 00:20:48.049 --> 00:20:50.849 circus. But the flying squad was working away 00:20:50.849 --> 00:20:53.450 in the background. And despite the very analog 00:20:53.450 --> 00:20:56.789 nature of the break -in drills and wheelie bins, 00:20:57.089 --> 00:21:00.230 the investigation that caught them used cutting 00:21:00.230 --> 00:21:02.329 -edge digital forensics. And that's the great 00:21:02.329 --> 00:21:05.039 irony of this case. The thieves won the analog 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:07.279 battle. They beat the concrete. They beat the 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:09.740 physical security. But they lost the digital 00:21:09.740 --> 00:21:12.940 war. So what did the police do? They used AMPR. 00:21:12.940 --> 00:21:15.980 That's automatic number plate recognition. They 00:21:15.980 --> 00:21:18.839 scanned thousands of hours of footage from cameras 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:21.619 all around Hatton Garden. And they started tracking 00:21:21.619 --> 00:21:24.140 vehicles that were seen in the area over that 00:21:24.140 --> 00:21:26.980 weekend. They found a white Mercedes that was 00:21:26.980 --> 00:21:30.059 seen circling the block. They traced a Honda 00:21:30.059 --> 00:21:32.619 CR -V. And once you have a license plate. You 00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:50.509 have a name. And then... The police did something 00:21:50.509 --> 00:21:53.670 very old school. They started listening. Surveillance. 00:21:53.849 --> 00:21:56.890 Covert surveillance. They identified the core 00:21:56.890 --> 00:21:59.670 suspect's men named Kenny Collins, Terry Perkins, 00:21:59.769 --> 00:22:02.369 Daniel Jones, and they managed to place listening 00:22:02.369 --> 00:22:06.049 devices bugs in their cars, specifically in Kenny 00:22:06.049 --> 00:22:08.789 Collins' white Mercedes and in Terry Perkins' 00:22:09.009 --> 00:22:11.569 Citroen. And the transcripts from those bugs 00:22:11.569 --> 00:22:13.670 must have been gold dust for the prosecution. 00:22:13.769 --> 00:22:15.690 They weren't just discussing the weather, I assume. 00:22:16.039 --> 00:22:17.779 They were bragging. They were arguing about how 00:22:17.779 --> 00:22:19.500 to split the money. They were discussing the 00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:22.319 drill, the problems they had. At one point, one 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:24.859 of them is literally boasting about pulling off 00:22:24.859 --> 00:22:27.420 the biggest robbery in history. It was a full 00:22:27.420 --> 00:22:30.539 confession captured on tape. So on May 19th, 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:34.579 2015, about six weeks after the heist, the hammer 00:22:34.579 --> 00:22:36.779 finally drops. The police execute a series of 00:22:36.779 --> 00:22:39.099 coordinated raids across London and Kent. And 00:22:39.099 --> 00:22:42.039 they arrested nine suspects. And as the monk 00:22:42.039 --> 00:22:44.980 shots started coming out, that... Diamond Geezer's 00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:47.680 name was cemented forever because the ages were 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:50.720 just shocking. Truly. Let's meet the crew because 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:52.720 we really need to dispel this idea that they 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:55.319 were just some cute old man from the pub. Let's 00:22:55.319 --> 00:22:57.140 start with the man they call the mastermind, 00:22:57.240 --> 00:23:00.589 Brian Reeder. Brian Rader was 76 years old when 00:23:00.589 --> 00:23:03.009 he was arrested. The press called him the mastermind, 00:23:03.049 --> 00:23:05.730 or the old man. And the detail everyone loves 00:23:05.730 --> 00:23:08.329 is that he used his senior citizen freedom pass, 00:23:08.529 --> 00:23:11.089 his free bus pass, to travel to and from the 00:23:11.089 --> 00:23:13.049 scene of the crime. Which saves him, what, two 00:23:13.049 --> 00:23:15.529 pounds fifty? On a multi -million pound heist? 00:23:15.670 --> 00:23:18.369 It's comical, isn't it? But it's also smart. 00:23:18.509 --> 00:23:20.849 A bus pass doesn't leave a credit card trail. 00:23:22.190 --> 00:23:24.490 But Brian Reeder wasn't just some pensioner trying 00:23:24.490 --> 00:23:27.210 to supplement his state pension. He was a serious, 00:23:27.369 --> 00:23:30.049 heavy -duty criminal. He was a key lieutenant 00:23:30.049 --> 00:23:33.630 for a notorious gangster named Kenneth Noy. Kenneth 00:23:33.630 --> 00:23:36.430 Noy. Now that's a serious name in the British 00:23:36.430 --> 00:23:39.410 underworld. A very serious name. Noy was a key 00:23:39.410 --> 00:23:42.309 figure in the infamous Brink's Mat robbery back 00:23:42.309 --> 00:23:47.410 in 1983. That was the 26 million con gold bullion 00:23:47.410 --> 00:23:49.829 heist near Heathrow that completely changed British 00:23:49.829 --> 00:23:52.359 policing. And Brian Reeder was right there. He 00:23:52.359 --> 00:23:54.480 was involved in laundering that gold. He had 00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:56.619 been a top -tier professional criminal for over 00:23:56.619 --> 00:23:59.539 30 years. So this truly was the one last job 00:23:59.539 --> 00:24:01.660 for him. In the most literal sense, he was the 00:24:01.660 --> 00:24:03.579 elder statesman of the crew. Then you have Terry 00:24:03.579 --> 00:24:06.440 Perkins, who was 67 at the time. He was no slouch 00:24:06.440 --> 00:24:08.200 either. He'd been involved in the Security Express 00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:10.900 robbery also in 1983, which at the time was the 00:24:10.900 --> 00:24:13.339 largest cash robbery in British history. Six 00:24:13.339 --> 00:24:15.380 million pounds. He was sentenced to 22 years 00:24:15.380 --> 00:24:17.839 in prison for that. So these guys had spent decades 00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:20.140 of their lives in prison already. They knew exactly 00:24:20.140 --> 00:24:22.059 what the consequences were if they got caught. 00:24:22.410 --> 00:24:24.630 They were institutionalized criminals. They didn't 00:24:24.630 --> 00:24:26.789 know another way of life. This wasn't a hobby 00:24:26.789 --> 00:24:29.529 for them. It was their profession. And then you 00:24:29.529 --> 00:24:32.470 had Daniel Jones, who was 60. He was described 00:24:32.470 --> 00:24:35.029 as being very eccentric, obsessed with the military. 00:24:35.230 --> 00:24:37.589 He used to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor 00:24:37.589 --> 00:24:39.589 of his house, even though he had a bed. He was 00:24:39.589 --> 00:24:41.410 the one who was obsessed with the mechanics of 00:24:41.410 --> 00:24:43.730 the drill. But there was one man who didn't quite 00:24:43.730 --> 00:24:47.910 fit the profile. The mystery man. The one the 00:24:47.910 --> 00:24:50.549 press called Basil. Basil the ghost. Oh, yes. 00:24:50.769 --> 00:24:53.789 In the CCTV footage, you see this one figure 00:24:53.789 --> 00:24:56.569 who is clearly trying to disguise himself. He's 00:24:56.569 --> 00:24:58.789 wearing a red wig. He keeps his face hidden. 00:24:58.930 --> 00:25:01.049 He seemed younger, more agile than the others. 00:25:01.150 --> 00:25:03.349 And crucially, he seemed to have the keys and 00:25:03.349 --> 00:25:05.170 the alarm codes to get into the building in the 00:25:05.170 --> 00:25:07.960 first place. The inside man. Potentially. And 00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:10.180 when the raids happened in May, Basil wasn't 00:25:10.180 --> 00:25:12.759 there. He vanished. He vanished. The police arrested 00:25:12.759 --> 00:25:14.619 everyone else in the core group, but they couldn't 00:25:14.619 --> 00:25:17.660 find Basil. He stayed free for three years. Three 00:25:17.660 --> 00:25:20.339 years. So he actually got away with it for a 00:25:20.339 --> 00:25:23.759 while. He did. It wasn't until March 2018 that 00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:26.480 the police finally tracked him down. His real 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:29.440 name was Michael Seed. He was an alarm specialist. 00:25:30.170 --> 00:25:33.049 an electronics expert. He lived a very quiet, 00:25:33.170 --> 00:25:36.329 unassuming life in Islington, North London. When 00:25:36.329 --> 00:25:38.950 they finally raided his flat, they found jewelry, 00:25:39.309 --> 00:25:42.730 gold ingots, and a whole load of electronic equipment 00:25:42.730 --> 00:25:46.029 used for jamming and bypassing alarms. Finding 00:25:46.029 --> 00:25:48.390 him closed the final chapter on the crew itself. 00:25:48.750 --> 00:25:51.130 But it doesn't close the book on the most important 00:25:51.130 --> 00:25:53.829 part of the story, does it? The loot. This is 00:25:53.829 --> 00:25:55.769 the part that still stings for the victims and 00:25:55.769 --> 00:25:57.710 for the police. The police estimate that the 00:25:57.710 --> 00:26:00.289 game stole approximately 14 million worth of 00:26:00.289 --> 00:26:03.269 goods. 14 million. And that's the 2015 valuation. 00:26:03.630 --> 00:26:05.769 In today's money, when you factor in inflation 00:26:05.769 --> 00:26:07.950 and the significant rise in gold prices since 00:26:07.950 --> 00:26:10.470 then, that figure is much closer to 20 million. 00:26:10.750 --> 00:26:13.210 That is a staggering amount of wealth. It is. 00:26:13.289 --> 00:26:16.230 But of that amount, only about 4 .3 million was 00:26:16.230 --> 00:26:18.069 ever recovered. So wait, you're saying roughly 00:26:18.069 --> 00:26:20.730 10 million pounds sterling is still missing? 00:26:20.930 --> 00:26:24.099 Gone. Vanished into thin air. Where? I mean, 00:26:24.099 --> 00:26:26.039 how do you hide 10 million worth of gold and 00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:28.400 diamonds? Well, that is the multi -million pound 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:30.579 question, isn't it? Some of it was recovered 00:26:30.579 --> 00:26:34.400 in a very strange place. A cemetery. Daniel Jones, 00:26:34.700 --> 00:26:37.220 one of the ringleaders, led the police to a stash 00:26:37.220 --> 00:26:39.599 he had buried under a family memorial stone in 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:43.039 Edmonton Cemetery. Bizarre. Very. But that was 00:26:43.039 --> 00:26:45.720 only a fraction of the total haul. The rest... 00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:48.279 It's highly likely it was broken down and moved 00:26:48.279 --> 00:26:51.660 on very very quickly after the heist. Gold can 00:26:51.660 --> 00:26:54.650 be melted down into untraceable bars. Diamonds 00:26:54.650 --> 00:26:56.730 can be popped out of their settings and recut. 00:26:57.150 --> 00:26:59.849 Once you remove the identifying marks, gold is 00:26:59.849 --> 00:27:03.369 just element 79 on the periodic table. It's untraceable. 00:27:03.450 --> 00:27:05.549 It's still hidden somewhere. That's the other 00:27:05.549 --> 00:27:08.049 great speculation. Is there a stash of gold buried 00:27:08.049 --> 00:27:10.430 in a field somewhere in Kent? Is there a bag 00:27:10.430 --> 00:27:12.829 of diamonds bricked up in a wall of a house somewhere 00:27:12.829 --> 00:27:14.990 in London? Or did they sell it all to an international 00:27:14.990 --> 00:27:17.210 fence for pennies on the pound just to get rid 00:27:17.210 --> 00:27:20.250 of it quickly? We may never know for sure. Let's 00:27:20.250 --> 00:27:22.109 talk about the consequences for the men who were 00:27:22.109 --> 00:27:25.119 caught. The sentencing. Because the law came 00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:27.119 down very hard on them, not just with prison 00:27:27.119 --> 00:27:30.160 time, but with huge financial penalties. That's 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:32.960 right. In March 2016, the main crew was sentenced. 00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:36.000 Brian Reeder, the oldest, got six years and three 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:39.299 months. Collins, Jones, and Perkins all got seven 00:27:39.299 --> 00:27:42.680 years each. Now, to a listener, seven years for 00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:45.299 a 14 million pound robbery might sound a bit 00:27:45.299 --> 00:27:47.819 light. It does on the surface. But under English 00:27:47.819 --> 00:27:50.420 law, burglary is technically a nonviolent crime. 00:27:50.559 --> 00:27:52.180 They don't use guns. They didn't threaten anyone 00:27:52.180 --> 00:27:54.920 directly. So the sentencing guidelines put a 00:27:54.920 --> 00:27:57.359 cap on how long they can serve for that specific 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:00.660 offense. However, the legal system has a very 00:28:00.660 --> 00:28:03.839 nasty sting in its tail. It's called the Proceeds 00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:06.630 of Crime Act, or POCA. Explain how that works. 00:28:06.890 --> 00:28:09.769 POCA is a piece of legislation specifically designed 00:28:09.769 --> 00:28:11.829 to stop criminals from profiting from their crimes. 00:28:12.049 --> 00:28:13.809 The court basically does a calculation. They 00:28:13.809 --> 00:28:15.829 say, right, we know you stole 14 million pounds. 00:28:16.029 --> 00:28:18.210 We've only managed to find 4 million pounds. 00:28:18.269 --> 00:28:20.130 Therefore, you are hiding 10 million pounds. 00:28:20.269 --> 00:28:22.250 You are now jointly liable to pay that back to 00:28:22.250 --> 00:28:24.670 the state. And if they don't pay or can't pay? 00:28:24.910 --> 00:28:27.490 Their prison sentences are extended significantly. 00:28:28.049 --> 00:28:30.730 In January 2018, the court ordered the ringleaders 00:28:30.730 --> 00:28:34.480 to pay back a combined 27 .5 million. That massive 00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:36.779 figure includes the stolen value plus punitive 00:28:36.779 --> 00:28:38.980 interest and legal costs. And they didn't have 00:28:38.980 --> 00:28:41.559 it. Or at least they refused to give it up. T 00:28:41.559 --> 00:28:44.039 .D. Perkins, the career criminal, he died in 00:28:44.039 --> 00:28:46.779 his prison cell at HMP Bill Marsh in February 00:28:46.779 --> 00:28:49.880 2018, just one week after that ruling was made. 00:28:50.099 --> 00:28:53.519 He was 69 years old. He died bankrupt, owing 00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:55.740 millions to the state. That is such a grim image. 00:28:56.279 --> 00:28:59.539 Dying in a concrete cell. broke after pulling 00:28:59.539 --> 00:29:01.839 off what everyone called the heist of the century. 00:29:02.019 --> 00:29:04.039 It completely strips away the romance of it, 00:29:04.059 --> 00:29:06.400 doesn't it? Daniel Jones and Kenny Collins also 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:08.980 failed to pay their share, so they each had nearly 00:29:08.980 --> 00:29:11.900 seven years added to their sentences. So a seven 00:29:11.900 --> 00:29:14.220 -year sentence suddenly becomes a 14 -year sentence. 00:29:14.420 --> 00:29:17.059 For a man in his 70s, that is effectively a life 00:29:17.059 --> 00:29:19.609 sentence. It is. The government played hardball. 00:29:19.730 --> 00:29:22.329 They basically said, if you are hiding that gold 00:29:22.329 --> 00:29:24.309 for your family or for when you eventually get 00:29:24.309 --> 00:29:26.730 out, we will make absolutely sure you never live 00:29:26.730 --> 00:29:29.230 to enjoy it. It turned the tactical victory of 00:29:29.230 --> 00:29:31.990 the heist into a total crushing strategic defeat. 00:29:32.250 --> 00:29:35.250 And Michael Seed, bezel the ghost. He was sentenced 00:29:35.250 --> 00:29:38.490 much later in 2019 after he was caught. He got 00:29:38.490 --> 00:29:40.750 10 years for burglary and eight for conspiracy 00:29:40.750 --> 00:29:44.019 to run concurrently. And then a year later, he 00:29:44.019 --> 00:29:46.700 was also hit with a £6 million repayment order 00:29:46.700 --> 00:29:49.960 under POCA. It's just such a tragedy of waste, 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:53.460 really. Human potential, ingenuity, all wasted 00:29:53.460 --> 00:29:56.480 on crime. Decades of their lives wasted in prison. 00:29:57.079 --> 00:29:59.019 and all that wealth stolen from people who had 00:29:59.019 --> 00:30:01.519 worked for it. And we absolutely have to address 00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:04.460 the victimless crime myth here because the movies 00:30:04.460 --> 00:30:06.599 and the media coverage often portray this as 00:30:06.599 --> 00:30:09.140 just sticking it to the man. But the victims 00:30:09.140 --> 00:30:11.119 were real people. They were small business owners. 00:30:11.259 --> 00:30:13.099 They were independent jewelers. Many of them 00:30:13.099 --> 00:30:15.819 were uninsured or underinsured because the premiums 00:30:15.819 --> 00:30:18.539 for jewelry stock in Hatton Garden are just astronomical. 00:30:19.059 --> 00:30:21.440 For many of them, losing their stock meant losing 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:23.680 their livelihood, their business, their life's 00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:26.240 work. Some people lost irreplaceable heirlooms. 00:30:26.380 --> 00:30:28.259 that had sentimental value you can't put a price 00:30:28.259 --> 00:30:31.220 on. The gang didn't just steal metal and stones. 00:30:31.539 --> 00:30:33.559 They stole people's security and their past. 00:30:33.880 --> 00:30:37.339 Yet, despite that reality, the cultural impact 00:30:37.339 --> 00:30:40.259 was massive. Within a few years, we had, what, 00:30:40.279 --> 00:30:43.700 three movies? The Hat Garden Job. King of Thieves 00:30:43.700 --> 00:30:46.460 with Michael Caine, and a big ITV television 00:30:46.460 --> 00:30:49.279 series. There's a deep fascination with heists. 00:30:49.299 --> 00:30:51.839 It's the ingenuity, I think. We can't help but 00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:54.019 admire the planning, the sheer mechanics of the 00:30:54.019 --> 00:30:56.660 drill, the audacity of the timeline. And then 00:30:56.660 --> 00:30:59.000 seeing legendary actors like Michael Caine and 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:00.940 Ray Winstone play these parts, it reinforced 00:31:00.940 --> 00:31:03.619 that sense of nostalgia. It connected this very 00:31:03.619 --> 00:31:06.440 modern crime back to some mythical good old days 00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:09.380 of British villainy. But the reality, as we've 00:31:09.380 --> 00:31:12.059 discussed, was far less charming. It was dusty. 00:31:12.140 --> 00:31:14.680 It was dirty. It was physically exhausting. And 00:31:14.680 --> 00:31:17.160 ultimately, it was desperate. And futile, utterly 00:31:17.160 --> 00:31:19.059 futile. They did all that work, took all that 00:31:19.059 --> 00:31:20.759 risk. And in the end, they ended up with nothing 00:31:20.759 --> 00:31:22.839 but a prison cell, a huge debt to the government 00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:25.440 and a legacy of ruin. So as we wrap up this deep 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:28.180 dive, what's the big takeaway for you? How should 00:31:28.180 --> 00:31:31.160 we really remember the Hatton Garden heist? I 00:31:31.160 --> 00:31:33.039 think it stands as this perfect collision between 00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:35.940 two different worlds. You had the analog world 00:31:35.940 --> 00:31:38.839 of the 20th century criminal. the heavy drill 00:31:38.839 --> 00:31:41.940 the wheelie bin the reliance on silence and time 00:31:41.940 --> 00:31:44.400 going up against the digital world of 20 first 00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:46.559 century policing. The old school versus the new 00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:49.400 school. Exactly. The gang won the battle in the 00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:51.900 vault because they understood concrete and mechanics 00:31:51.900 --> 00:31:54.940 and persistence. But they lost the war because 00:31:54.940 --> 00:31:57.339 they didn't understand data. There were dinosaurs 00:31:57.339 --> 00:32:00.940 in a digital age. They didn't grasp how ANPR 00:32:00.940 --> 00:32:03.539 cell site analysis and covert listening devices 00:32:03.539 --> 00:32:06.059 would create a web they couldn't escape from. 00:32:06.220 --> 00:32:08.619 And that is ultimately what caught them. And 00:32:08.619 --> 00:32:11.160 it leaves us with that one final tantalizing 00:32:11.160 --> 00:32:13.460 question that we've touched on. The missing millions. 00:32:13.660 --> 00:32:15.920 And the ghost money. That's gone forever. Melted 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:19.119 down, recut, scattered to the winds. Or is it 00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:21.220 still out there somewhere? It's a provocative 00:32:21.220 --> 00:32:23.119 thought to end on, isn't it? If you're walking 00:32:23.119 --> 00:32:24.960 your dog through a field in the English countryside, 00:32:25.160 --> 00:32:27.500 or you're renovating an old house in North London, 00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:30.359 and you pull up the floorboards, are you standing 00:32:30.359 --> 00:32:33.220 on top of the Hatton Garden loot? A fortune just 00:32:33.220 --> 00:32:36.599 waiting to be found. But a fortune that, as we've 00:32:36.599 --> 00:32:39.799 seen, came with a very, very high price. Indeed. 00:32:40.299 --> 00:32:42.140 Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into 00:32:42.140 --> 00:32:44.720 the London Underground. It's a story that proves 00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:47.059 that sometimes the truth isn't just stranger 00:32:47.059 --> 00:32:49.440 than fiction. It's a whole lot grittier, too. 00:32:49.539 --> 00:32:50.660 Until next time. See you then.