Age is But a Number | The Story of The Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Heist
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to start saving and investing for your future today. Paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns. Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC Registered Investment Advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com slash crimehub. It's Easter weekend, 2015. Most of London is home on public holiday. Post offices and banks are closed.

Hatton Garden Street in Camden, England, will be empty from Thursday, April 2nd to Sunday, April 5th. Under the cover of Holy Night, a band of brazen thieves broke into the underground safe deposit vault at 88 and 90 Hatton Garden Street. They executed a multi-day heist, boosting roughly 14 million pounds worth of gold, cash, and precious gems.

To this day, only a third of it has ever been recovered. They used everything from industrial tools to drill holes in the vault to rolling trash bins to wheel the loot back to their van. Every detail was carefully planned. And it would have worked, too, if it were still 1987. But it was 2015. Our thieves overlooked a critical X-factor: technology.

While they were smart enough to cover their faces, they were dumb enough to drive their car past security cameras. They used their personal phones to talk about the robbery and their laptops to research diamond-tipped drills. They broke the first rule of modern crime: don't leave a digital trail. You might be asking yourself, how can they be so stupid? Here's the thing: our robbers weren't necessarily stupid, they were old.

The youngest among them had just turned 60. The oldest was a 76-year-old widower dying of cancer. London newspapers nicknamed them "Dad's Army," "The Diamond Wheezers," and "The Old Blaggers." In the French press, they were known as "Le Gang des Papis" or "Grandad's Gang." The ringleader even used his senior bus pass to get into the city before the robbery.

How did multiple security failures help them escape? What happened to the money that has never been recovered? But most importantly, what pushed this gang of geezers to steal 14 million pounds worth of gold, cash, and precious gems from the shops and dealers of Hatton Garden Street? Part 1: Le Gang des Papis In the UK, the term "pensioner" is often used to describe someone who is retired.

You may also hear the acronym OAP, which stands for Old Age Pensioner. Without getting too deep into the weeds, just know that the retirement age in the UK as of 2024 is 66. When you retire, you can start claiming your state pension, which works similarly to Social Security in the United States.

A pensioner can expect to receive roughly £221 per week. But that figure could be more or less, depending on several factors, such as how much you paid in national insurance. All but one of the Hatton Garden robbers could have been happily retired. But to them, £200 a week was an insult. They were career criminals. They'd been robbing banks and jewelry stores since they were old enough to hold a gun.

Despite being caught and imprisoned multiple times, they made millions by stealing from the rich and keeping it for themselves. Let's start with the eldest and work our way down to the young guns. Brian Reeder was 76 when he helped mastermind the Hatton Garden robbery. He was battling prostate cancer and had recently lost his wife in 2009. She also died of cancer.

He liked crossword puzzles, but stopped solving them after she died. Born in southeast London in 1939, Brian Reeder was a career criminal once described as one of the busiest crooks in the British underworld. He was considered the ringleader of the Hatton Garden Gang. According to police recordings, his co-conspirators often called him "the governor." Reeder's father was a World War II veteran who turned to crime after the war.

He taught his son how to steal from the docks and storefronts around the city. When Brian was 11, he appeared in juvenile court after stealing from five shops in East London. By the 1960s, Brian had upgraded from petty theft to full-fledged armed robbery. According to police investigators, he teamed up with a flexible group of Britain's top robbers and burglars. Brian also became a well-known fencer who specialized in selling stolen jewelry.

Back then, the vendors on Hatton Garden Street weren't the most ethical bunch in London. Perhaps the robbery some 60 years later was a bit of bad karma. In May of 1971, during a bank robbery in Berkshire, Brian suffered a head injury while running from the police. At the time, bank alarm systems alerted the police via the local telephone exchange. If one could break into the exchange, they could easily disable the alarm.

While inside the exchange, Brian crossed paths with an on-duty officer. He tried fleeing out a window, slipped, fell, and cracked his head on the pavement below. He woke up in the hospital surrounded by police officers. The brain damage was so bad that Brian had to recover his sense of balance through rehab and learn how to walk again. For the crime itself, he was fined 35 pounds and set free.

Brian's first big score came during the famous Baker Street robbery. Between August and September 1971, Brian and his cohorts dug a 40-foot tunnel from a rented shop to the Lloyds Bank branch two doors down. They stole between 1.25 and 3 million pounds, or between 22 and 53 million pounds in today's money.

In 1983, Brian was tangentially involved in one of the biggest robberies in British history. On November 26th, 1983, thieves stole 26 million pounds worth of gold bars, diamonds, and cash from the Heathrow International Trading Estate. It's unclear how involved Brian was in the robbery itself. He was ultimately arrested and jailed for eight years for handling stolen goods and laundering money from the Heathrow job.

Police knew Brian was a skilled fence. Together with his friend and criminal partner Kenneth Noy, they were in charge of washing the items stolen from Heathrow. On the night of January 26th, 1985, Officer John Fordham snuck onto Noy's property to search the grounds without them knowing. That's when Noy's dogs began barking, alerting him and Brian to something in the garden.

Noy went to investigate and wound up stabbing Officer Fordham to death, believing him to be some kind of masked assailant. Brian fled after the stabbing and always claimed he had nothing to do with it. Both men were arrested and charged with murder, but acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. After the Fordham incident, Brian Reeder tried keeping things low key. He married Lynn Kidd, whom he'd known since 1963.

She was a bookmaker's assistant back then, so she knew a thing or two about the criminal underworld. When she met Brian, she was immediately impressed by his sharp suits and loose wallet. He liked to spend the money almost as quickly as he stole it. At the time, Lynn didn't know where Brian's money was coming from. He claimed to run a car dealership, but the cover story didn't hold up to scrutiny. Lynn caught on quickly,

Like the wives in mobster movies, she understood and played her role well. Lynn was Brian's rock until cancer took her in 2009. After that, Brian had nothing left to lose. So, he decided to go out with a bang, masterminding one of the greatest robberies in British history. He, of course, couldn't do it alone.

Brian's second in command was 67-year-old Terence "Terry" Perkins, a career criminal famous for his role in the 1983 Security Express Depot raid in East London. During the raid, Perkins' gang stole £6 million from a building so secure that some people called it Fort Knox. As The Guardian puts it, it was "the security industry's equivalent of the Titanic." The gang broke in and held the staff at gunpoint.

They even poured gasoline over one uncooperative hostage and waved a box of matches in his face. They spoke in fake Irish accents and only referred to each other as "Patty 1", "Patty 2", "Patty 3", and so on. Before they left, they warned the frightened staff saying, "We've got a man upstairs. He's going to be there for 20 minutes just watching out for you. He's got a shooter and he's as fucking mad as they come."

That was how Terry Perkins spent his 35th birthday. He was supposed to spend the next 22 birthdays in jail, but he broke out of prison in Buckinghamshire in 1995. He remained at large for 17 years before finally getting caught in 2012. He was officially released in early 2015. A few weeks later, he and Brian Reeder spoke about how they'd hit Hatton Garden.

Funny enough, they planned the robbery for Terry's 67th birthday. Third in line was 74-year-old John Collins, but everybody called him Kenny. The word impenetrable didn't exist in Kenny's vocabulary. If there was a weakness in the vault, he'd know how to exploit it. Like the others, Kenny had a rap sheet full of thefts and robberies dating back to 1961. He played the role of getaway driver during the robbery.

Next was Daniel "Danny" Jones, the youngest of the Corps 4 at the ripe age of 60. He was also the thinnest, meaning he could easily crawl through the small hole they'd inevitably bore into the side of the Hatton Garden safe. His job was simple: crack open the safe deposit boxes and stuff the money back through the hole. Three other seniors helped pull off the Hatton Garden heist outside the Corps 4.

William Lincoln was responsible for getting the loot to a safe house in Enfield. They could trust him to hold it without stealing it for himself. Next was Carl Wood, another trusted associate recruited as an extra set of hands during the robbery. Funny enough, Wood backed out of the robbery at the last minute. The final member, known only as Basil until 2018, was their alarm expert.

Somehow, he disabled the vault system and CCTV cameras, allowing the gang to slip in and out. Police still don't know how he did it, even after identifying Basil as 58-year-old Michael Seed, the son of a college professor. Seed was an A-level student in chemistry, physics, math, and geology. After graduation, he landed a job in an electronics factory making parts for submarine detectors.

Electronics and engineering came naturally to him, as did recreational drugs. According to Seed, he used to take LSD every weekend before the Hatton Garden heist. Now that Brian Reeder had all his pieces in place, he could finally iron out the master plan. These seven geezers from London were about to pull off the crime of the decade.

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Part 2: The Hatton Garden Heist Thursday, April 2nd, 2015 Brian Reeder takes a bus from his home in Kent to Hatton Garden Street. He rides for free thanks to his pensioner's pass. The others arrive in a white maintenance van shortly after 8pm when the safe deposit facility and surrounding businesses are closed.

CCTV cameras capture Carl Wood and Daniel Jones walking toward the facility wearing neon green maintenance pinnies. They also wear hats and facial coverings. If anybody asks, they're gas contractors coming to work on the lines. Lucky for them, nobody bats an eye. Moments later, those same cameras capture Michael Seed, aka Basil, walking toward Hatton Garden with a full trash bag on his shoulder to hide his face.

He gains entry through the front door of a neighboring building. Cameras capture them lugging bags of tools and rollaway trash bins into the facility. Plenty of people can be seen walking up and down the street. To them, it looks like an ordinary crew of maintenance men working over the holiday weekend. From the fire escape, the gang carries their gear down to a sunken courtyard on the basement level.

That's where they meet Basil, who opens the fire escape door from the inside. Two of our robbers climb two flights of stairs, where they call the elevator to the second floor. They disable the lift, allowing those below to climb into the elevator shaft and down to the basement level. They pry open a metal shutter, crawl through, and disable the vault alarm, which was kept in an unlocked closet near the elevator.

Our robbers force open one iron door and then cut through another. Now comes the tedious part, drilling through the vault wall without raising suspicion. They use a diamond-tipped industrial drill to bore through 1.5 feet of pure concrete. They make three holes side by side, each requiring 30 minutes to drill. They don't know it then, but they're seconds away from being caught red-handed.

Though disabled and partially broken, the alarm manages to send an SMS text alert. A security guard gets the message and begins walking toward the building. He tries contacting the police, but a simple communication failure leaves him alone at the building. He checks the door, finds it locked, and chalks it up to a false alarm. Back in the basement, the diamond wheezers finally bore through the last bit of concrete. There, however, is a snag.

A heavy steel cabinet blocks their entry into the vault. They planned for this, bringing a heavy-duty ram to push it over. However, the ram broke at some point during the job. Unable to push it over themselves, the robbers leave empty-handed. He'll have to come back with new tools tomorrow. Our gang makes its first critical mistake on Saturday morning. John Collins and Daniel Jones hop into Collins' white Mercedes and go shopping.

Cameras follow them around London as they stop at a tool shop and buy a new hydraulic ram. Cameras also capture the same white Mercedes scoping the scene on Hatton Garden Street. It doesn't look like anyone has caught on to them. The gang returns that night, two members short. Carl Woods allegedly had cold feet and didn't participate the second night. In a shocking twist, Brian Reeder drops out too.

That's right, the ringleader didn't partake in the robbery itself. The others believe they've already come too far. They return to Hatton Garden, letting themselves in the same way as the night before. They use their new hydraulic ram to push over the steel cabinet, granting them access to the vault. The three-hole opening is only wide enough for Basil and Daniel Jones to slip through. They begin cracking open safe deposit boxes and loading their contents into bags.

Of the 999 boxes, they only opened 73. Our robber slipped into the night with about 14 million pounds worth of cash, jewelry, gold bars, and diamonds. Nobody knew what happened until Tuesday the 7th, when Scotland Yard claims they first heard about the robbery. They described the scene as chaotic, as if the gang panicked while robbing the vault.

Debris and power tools were strewn about, and safe deposit boxes were scattered around. Despite the mess, the gang was careful not to leave any forensic evidence. While cameras caught them entering and exiting the building, none saw their faces. There were no fingerprints, blood, air, or saliva. It was as if a ghost had robbed Hatton Garden. For a moment, Le Gang de Papy had pulled off one of the largest heists in English history.

But that moment wouldn't last very long. Robbery is a young man's game, especially in the 21st century. These greedy granddads were about to learn that lesson the hard way.

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Scotland Yard put their best detectives on the Hatton Garden case. The Flying Squad, also known as the Robbery Squad, the Sweeney, and SO7, is a specialist branch of the London Metropolitan Police. They formed in 1919 as a band of 12 detectives dedicated to surveilling known robbers and pickpockets.

Today, they're famous for handling some of England's most notable robberies, including the Heathrow Airport job, the Great British Train robbery, and, of course, Hatton Garden. Although they had little to work with, they knew one thing for sure: a job like Hatton Garden requires extensive planning by several people. This wasn't a one-, two-, or three-man operation. They were likely looking for a team of five to eight members.

And the more co-conspirators you have, the more likely one of them will slip. Our gang slipped on day two of the heist when John Collins drove by the scene in his white Mercedes. While the gang disabled all the cameras inside the vault, they forgot about the cameras outside the vault on the streets and nearby buildings. Those cameras captured Collins' car driving by the scene multiple times on days one and two.

The flying squad could tell that the driver knew something he shouldn't. The cameras were good enough to read Collins' license plate. They tracked the car to the machine parts shop in London, where he and Daniel Jones bought the new hydraulic drill. They found the car parked outside Collins' home and could easily prove he was the registered owner. From there, obtaining warrants to surveil Collins and bug his car was easy.

Those bugs record incriminating conversations between Collins and Jones. They have no problem talking openly about the robbery and taking shots at those who dropped out. Of the heist, one of them said, "The biggest robbery in the fucking world we was on!" One of them wants to buy a new flat. The other wants to pay for his daughter to go on vacation.

Of Brian Reeder and Carl Wood, they said, "Both as bad as the fucking other! Bottle out at the last minute! Supposed to be a full-on face! And this one you walk away from!" That's old Cockney for. I can't believe they chickened out. They'd go on to call Reeder and Wood, "Soppy cunts!" and "Fucking idiots!" Those recordings led them to phone conversations both men had with Terry Perkins.

Police followed all three to a pub where they met to talk about the robbery with Brian Reeder. Just because he backed out doesn't mean Brian didn't want his share. Just like that, the Flying Squad had connected the Core Four within a few days of the Hatton Garden heist. Now, they just had to prove they did it. That's where William Lincoln and the gang's drinking mate, Hugh Doyle, come into play.

Both agreed to store the loot at their respective flats and businesses until the gang could split it. Police learned that about six weeks after the robbery, the gang planned on transferring 4 million pounds worth of stolen goods between the safe houses. They were going to do it by car in a not-so-secret meeting place. Police bugged the area and surveilled the entire exchange. They could have busted the whole gang at once but chose to wait.

It would be better to raid their homes to see what other evidence might turn up. The Flying Squad was shocked to find millions of pounds worth of stolen goods still sitting in their flats. You'd think they'd move the loot as quickly as possible, but the gang seemed to have trouble fencing it after the robbery. In one of their flats, police found a book titled "Forensics for Dummies." In another, they found clothing and gear used during the heist.

In the end, police arrested nine suspects, including the core four, their co-conspirators, Hugh Doyle and Brian's son, Paul Reeder. According to police, Paul had nothing to do with the Hatton Garden robbery. He was only arrested because Brian, in lieu of having his own cell phone, used Paul's to contact the other robbers.

When police first connected Paul to the crime, it made sense that the son of a master thief would follow in his father's footsteps. They couldn't have been more wrong. Paul had never committed a crime in his life. His mix-up in the Hatton Garden job was the first time he'd ever been behind bars. Unfortunately, it was months before the Crown Prosecution accepted Paul's version of events.

He spent that time in jail, suffering from a kidney disease and the after-effects of an aneurysm he had in 2013. The only gang member not arrested that day was the ultra-elusive Basil. Michael Seed remained free until 2018 when police finally arrested him for his role in the raid. According to reports, they had photographed Seed talking with Brian Reeder during the initial investigation.

They just didn't know who he was. As they tailed him, they noticed that he walked with an odd gait, similar to the man seen on CCTV footage during the robbery. When they finally raided his home in 2018, they found over 1,000 items stolen from the Hatton Garden vault. They believed seed was melting gold and breaking up jewelry on a workbench in his bedroom. They also think the items were part of a bigger stash that is still missing.

Other than the loot, Seed's flat was filled with alarm gadgets and electronic jammers. It was like a scaled-down, underfunded version of Q's laboratory from the James Bond franchise. Part 4: The Golden Geysers Basil's capture in 2018 meant that all of the Hatton Garden robbers were officially behind bars. For his role as ringleader, Brian Reeder was found guilty and sentenced to six years and three months in prison.

Some say Brian's criminal career netted him over 200 million pounds and cemented him as one of England's most audacious burglars. Unfortunately for Brian, all that money couldn't buy him good health. He suffered a stroke before the gang's sentencing hearing and couldn't attend. According to his lawyer, he was deaf, half-blind, and at death's door. Why make him spend the few months he has left in prison?

The courts weren't buying it and sent Reeder to spend the rest of his days at Belmarsh Prison. He hung on until his release in 2019, but died of cancer in 2023. Upon his release, he was ordered to return his share of the loot stolen from Hatton Garden. He died only having repaid 6% of it. Nobody knows what happened to the rest.

John Collins, Daniel Jones, and Terry Perkins all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and were sentenced to seven years in prison each. Like Brian, each man was ordered to repay their share of the loot. Perkins and Jones owed the court about 6.5 million each, while Collins clocked in at 7.6 million. And just like Brian, they hardly repaid a single cent.

Terry Perkins died in prison in February 2018. To his credit, Daniel Jones tried repaying some of the money. He painted himself as someone with a guilty conscience who just wanted to return his share. He showed police where he'd buried the loot under a plot in Edmonton Cemetery. Sure enough, they dug up the grave and found two bags of stolen goods.

However, that wasn't the only grave Daniel dug. Police found another plot where he buried most of the loot. Instead of confronting him, they played dumb. They wanted to see if he'd confess to everything. He never did. Daniel wanted to play it both ways, and it earned him another six years in prison. As for John Collins, he only repaid 730,000 pounds of the 7.6 million he owed.

The decision netted him an additional 2,000 days in jail. After his arrest, Michael Seed was given a similar deal: pay back his share or have seven years added to his 10-year sentence. That was in October of 2020, and it's unclear if he's repaid any of the money. Even though they weren't part of the core four, Carl Wood and William Lincoln were sentenced to six and seven years in prison, respectively.

Hugh Doyle was found guilty of concealing and transferring criminal property. He, however, escaped with a suspended sentence and a £367 fine. The Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company went bankrupt after the raid. They'd spent 70 years serving small jewelers and local crafters. Sadly, it's those local dealers who suffered the worst. The Hatton Garden robbers didn't steal from the rich.

They stole from small business owners, small-time jewelry dealers, and kind-hearted English folk who lost their entire life's work. According to police, only one-third of the estimated 14 million pounds of loot has ever been recovered. That means about 10 million pounds is still out there. If we had to guess, it was melted down, laundered, fenced, and stolen.

The Hatton Garden robbers refused to return it because they knew the end of their rope was near. To them, six or seven more years in prison was worth six or seven million pounds. If they die before they can spend it, so be it. It'll likely pass to their children and grandchildren, who may not know their inheritance was stolen during one of London's most daring raids.

Le gong de papi, the golden geezers, the diamond wheezers, whatever you want to call them. These thieving pensioners will go down in history as one of England's oldest gangs. As the saying goes, age is but a number.