Most of us are familiar with Juliusz Machulski's films about pre-war safe-crackers who, on the verge of professional retirement, decide to steal the goods held in a bank depository. In the wider world, a series of films initiated by 'Ocean's Eleven', telling the adventures of a group of thieves, has become extremely popular. And although it may seem that the stories we know from the films are just fiction dressed up in an attractive image, there are real stories that are hard to believe. The Hatton Garden Safe Deposit heist in London is one such case.
"Ocean's Four"
The protagonists of this story are 74-year-old John Collins, 60-year-old Daniel Jones, 67-year-old Terrence Perkins and 76-year-old Brian Reader, men with criminal pasts. It is not known which of them is the leader of a group of aging criminals in London's East End, but they decide to carry out a spectacular theft involving stealing the contents of Hatton Garden Safe Deposit boxes in London, where valuables and jewellery worth hundreds of millions of pounds are stored. Quite good if someone wants to pull off one last heist.
Course of events
It is the Friday before Easter 2015. After Hatton Garden Safe Deposit's doors close, silence falls, everyone is living the special time they will spend with their families. Meanwhile, a white van pulls up outside the building and four men get out and are let inside by a man called Basil. One can tell their age and condition by the way they move.
The burglars have no weapons, but they do dispose of rubbish buckets and a mass of metal tools. They descend the lift shaft to the basement level, neutralizing a succession of alarms along the way, disabling the CCTV and breaking down any doors they come across. At this point, a silent alarm goes off, but the services ignore the information streaming from the system, assuming it is faulty.
The plan is simple, one in the category of old and proven ways. Using heavy equipment, the burglars drill a hole in the wall of the vault, quite considerable if only so that the four aging criminals can pass through without any problems.
Having got into the vault, the men decide to steal the goods contained in Hatton Garden's safe deposit boxes. It is unclear why getting into the boxes themselves went so smoothly, but the thieves emptied more than seventy of them before deciding it was time to get going.
An imperfect crime
The Hatton Garden Safe Deposit heist has succeeded. Unstopped by anyone, the burglars got away with the loot, estimated to be worth up to £200 million and, if so, a record for theft in English history.
However, as is quite often the case, they fell in foolishly.
Firstly, they didn't turn off all the cameras, which allowed the services to view a record of the events surrounding the spectacular theft. The recording was so clear that one of the criminals was betrayed by his distinctive socks.
Secondly, and this does not befit criminals with many years of experience, there was a lack of discretion. The perpetrators talked about their extraordinary feat without any particular restraint, even afterwards. So when the services picked out a dozen suspects and measures such as wiretapping cars or a favourite pub came into play, the actors in our series were revealed in a flash.
The Hatton Garden heist in the film
The whole story is spectacular enough to have lived to see an adaptation. A film telling the fictionalized story of this theft premiered in 2017. Starring Larry Lamb, Matthew Goode, Joely Richardson and Clive Russell. A pretty good film, albeit heavily niche, it was directed by Ronnie Thompson from a script written by Ray Bogdanovich and Dean Lines.
As a warning
The Hatton Garden Safe Deposit heist is proof that, despite the increasing digitalisation of life, including the electronic theft industry which is growing at an alarming rate, there will still be amateur burglars according to the old school. This is why it makes sense to keep your property secure to minimise the risk of a successful burglary. You can talk about this and everything else with our experienced Sales Department advisors, who will be happy to tell you more than one real-life story ;-).
