Heist Club

Welcome to part 2 of the Goodfellas heist. Last week on Heist Club, we dove into the world of the New York mafia in the 1970s and met Jimmy Burke, a powerful mob associate with a penchant for thievery, and his Robert's Lounge Gang. The gang is now moments away from robbing the Lufthansa vault at JFK airport.

A little after 3 in the morning at JFK airport, the night crew for Lufthansa Airlines goes for their meal break. After they sit down, masked gunmen storm in, demanding everyone get down. A few minutes later more employees are brought in, except for one, who's taken to the cargo terminal to open the safe. When he returns, the armed assailants warn them not to call the police until 15 minutes after they leave. When time is up, they check the vault to see the damage. The $8 million cash haul is all gone. They just took part in the largest cash robbery in American history, and it all went down because an airport worker got in too deep on his gambling debts.

On an October night in Beverly Hills, two teenagers walk the hiking trails that connect the affluent neighborhoods. They hop a fence, and head to the end of a mansion-lined street, to a house with a pink Bentley parked out front. The duo walks up the driveway and right through the front door, almost like they live there. An hour later, they leave with luxury bags stuffed with clothes, cash, and a whole lot of new bling. It's their first of many home raids. Welcome to the case of The Bling Ring.

In the early morning hours at a McDonald's, the opening staff unlock the doors and prepare the fast food joint for the morning rush. However, as they count cash at the register, a masked gunman bursts through the bathroom door. The employees shoot their hands up, terrified of what he might do next. Instead of deranged shouting and gunfire, he politely asks them to grab their coats and head into the freezer. Once the freezer door shuts, he empties the register and flees in under a minute. Mickey D's just got hit by The Roofman.

On a Monday morning in Milan, employees of Italian jewelry house, Damiani, prepare the showroom for VIP guests, when suddenly, men identifying themselves as the Italian Financial Police burst into the room, already holding the caterer hostage. They demand the manager take them to the vault room for their investigation. While everyone else is tied up, the manager opens the inventory vault and the men take everything inside. When they flee, they don't use the front door, instead they scurry into the basement. It's a real life Italian Job with $20 million of jewelry as the mark.  

On a September evening in 2019, a party rages on in Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Partygoers celebrate the arrival of an acclaimed, and strange, art piece. Each guest gets personal quality time with the work. But alas, the party must end. A couple hours later, two cars rip across the courtyard. 4 men leap out, armed with sledgehammers, crowbars, and wrenches. They smash a window and break the art into pieces, prying it apart. Shortly after they flee, the police arrive, only to be met with tire tracks, a flooded palace, and a hole where an 18-karat gold toilet worth $6M should be.

On an October evening in 1997, a vault supervisor at the Loomis Fargo Armored Truck Company sends his trainee home early after an exhausting first day. After the trainee leaves, the supervisor walks the building, alone. He goes into his manager's office and takes two security tapes, then, he backs a truck up to the vault entrance. For over an hour he loads bricks upon bricks of cash, 2,700 pounds of it, onto the truck. When the suspension sags, he closes the door and drives off with $17.3 million. An hourly wage worker just committed one of the biggest cash robberies in US history.

The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games in Sydney showcase the ultimate story of triumph. The  Spanish basketball team, led by men with intellectual disabilities absolutely dominates the competition…When they win the gold medal, they become national heroes, securing millions of dollars for their organization (and a few thousand in prize money). Pictures of the winning team explode across Spanish media, and some eye those winning smiles suspiciously. What happens when your gold medal-winning Paralympics team actually isn't disabled…

On a Monday morning in Nice, France, customers at a bank grow agitated as they wait to make their deposits. The short line grows into a small crowd. The vault door is stuck. And as the hours tick by, the door won't budge. Not even the manufacturer can get it open. In the end, frustrated employees take a jackhammer to the wall and make a hole big enough to peek through. Instead of neatly sealed deposit boxes, the employees find scattered papers, muddy tools, and an inscription on the wall that reads: "sans armes, ni haine, ni violence."

On the night of October 26, 1970, crowds swarm the streets of Atlanta, Georgia in anticipation. Muhammad Ali is officially back after a three year ban from boxing. While most of the city hits the bars and clubs, a select few travel to the west side for a highly exclusive after-party. They arrive at a house, ready for a days-long celebration full of booze, drugs, and gambling. Instead, they are met with masked men holding shotguns. Over the next several hours, every arriving party guest is stripped of everything they have and shoved in the basement. It's the biggest heist in Atlanta history.

On a rainy summer night in 1899, a railroad engineer powers a locomotive carrying passengers, mail, and other wares through the Wyoming prairie. Through the darkness, he spots two lanterns signaling an emergency stop. He breaks just in time. Instead of helpful railworkers, two masked men reveal pistols and announce that he is being robbed. Even more men board the train and after two hours of chaos and explosions, the bandits escape with $30,000. He just experienced a hit from Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch Gang.

On a November evening in 1955 in Argentina, an embalmer works on his most important project: the first lady of the nation. After nearly two years of operating in secret, he hopes the rival party will stay ignorant of his magnum opus. But that night, 20 soldiers burst through the door and drag the body into the night. They have just taken his Evita.

It's nearly 6 AM on Christmas Day in London in 1950. A young man runs into the famed Westminster Abbey, looking a bit frantic and disheveled. He drops to his hands and knees feeling around for something in the darkness. Miraculously, he accidentally kicks the small object, his car keys. He sprints out of the abbey and returns just minutes later. He grabs the ends of a cloth wrapped around a large object and drags it across the chapel floor, and into the snowy morning.

On Monday, January 30, 2017, just after 9 PM, a blue hatchback rolls up to a London warehouse. Two men slip out. They carry almost nothing — just rope, some sharp tools, and nerves of steel. They slice through the fence. There's a 40-foot wall and no ladder. They climb a drainpipe. On the roof, they expertly slice the skylight, and rappel down into the dark. All that await them are crates and silence. And $3.5 million worth of centuries old, extremely rare, and very expensive, – not jewels, not art, but books.

It's October 29,1964 and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City is closed for the night. In the darkness of night, the city lights stream through the window, gently illuminating exhibits, including… The JP Morgan Hall of Gems and Minerals. Then, a foot pokes through an open window. Two men slide down a rope and tiptoe through the room. They cut into the glass casings protecting the jewels with the ease of seasoned veterans, scooping up 24 priceless gems. The two thieves sneak back out the window and abscond into the night.

On a fall evening in 1866, three men hop on a steam train just as it leaves the depot. But they're not your average passengers – and they're not here for a ride. Their destination? The express delivery car. They open the door, Colt 45s in hand. The stunned guard follows their orders. The thieves grab the loot and leap off the locomotive with $10,000 in gold. Welcome to America's first train robbery – by its first outlaw gang.

In the dead of night in a little Minnesota town, a car parks in front of a small house, a relic of the early 20th century. A shadowy figure, armed with a sledgehammer, charges the house, smashing the glass door. Less than a minute later, he emerges, carrying a secret package which occasionally glitters under the moonlight. The car speeds off with a job well done. The following morning, a horrified woman scrambles into the house to investigate the broken glass. She is immediately faced with an empty pillar and a lone red sequin. The Ruby Slippers have been stolen.

It's Easter Weekend in London's dazzling jewelry quarter. Merchants close their shops for the Holiday and the streets are empty. Except for one…After midnight, a lone security guard approaches the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company. He's responding to a text from the damage alarm. He checks the front door. Locked. Nothing out of the ordinary, so he goes about his merry way. But just beneath the surface, a massive hydraulic drill slices through concrete walls, manned by London's most seasoned criminals. They've come for the vault, and they're not leaving empty handed.

Two weeks ago, Heist Club covered the shocking smash-and-grab style heist of the Louvre. Since it happened just a few days before recording, we only had information on how the heist went down and some of the security issues that allowed it to happen. But today, on a new bonus episode, we are going over new information that has emerged. It's a sequel, folks!

On a Sunday evening in Paris, France, reality TV star Kim Kardashian prepares for a quiet night in at her hotel, while her sister Kourtney is out dancing. At around 3 a.m., she hears her door open. She calls out, assuming her sister has returned. Instead, she's met with gun-toting men, who are holding the hotel's concierge hostage. Kim is next. After several minutes filled with language barriers and terror, the men depart, leaving Kim tied up in the bathroom. Six million dollars worth of her jewelry, including a gift from her late father, are gone.