Advertise on podcast: Heist Club

On a February evening in 1785 Paris, an intermediary for Queen Marie Antoinette enters a famous jewelry shop to secure a diamond necklace for the royal: the most expensive in history. She has been sent on strict instructions to keep the transaction secret, lest the king find out. The intermediary leaves as quick as she came, with a promise that the queen will start sending payments come summertime. When she puts the necklace in her bag, it's the last the jewelers ever see of it, and payment never comes. This is the affair of the queen's stolen necklace.

It's a spring morning in a Texas swamp where an elusive alligator snapping turtle hunts for his meal. He spots some meat floating right in front of his face and chomps down. Instead of a delicious meal he feels the sharp sting of a hook; and now there are hands on his shell. He wriggles and thrashes against his attackers as they hoist him into a johnboat and manhandle him into a mesh bag. He's taken to shore and tossed into the bed of a truck with another turtle. Hours later, he's dumped into a pond and comes face to face with more of his kind. They're fenced in and far from home. All he can do is wait for dinner, and he's on the menu.

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.

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.

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.

On a cool, spring night in London, the centuries-old Christ Church Picture Gallery sits in total and eerie quiet. No guards, just moonlight gleaming over the masterpieces. But then... A skylight shatters... A ladder drops in. Multiple figures descend into the darkness, and within minutes, they pluck 3 paintings from their frames like they have done this one hundred times before. They ascend the ladder with their new souvenirs and vanish into the night. Police answer the alarm within the hour, but it's no use. $12 million dollars worth of art - gone without a trace.

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.

It's July 28, 2018 at the San Antonio Aquarium. With school out for the summer, the aquarium is bustling with families. It's a seemingly normal day, until an employee spies something fishy: two men exiting a restricted area, pushing a baby stroller that's leaking water! Suddenly, alarms are blaring – the water is contaminated with bleach! Employees rush to solve the problem and everything seems fine… except one beloved aquatic resident named Miss Helen… is gone!

On the sweltering afternoon of August 22, 1972, three sharply dressed men entered a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Brooklyn. They hand the teller a note plagiarized from the movie they watched earlier that day, and reveal their shotguns. What unfolds is an insane 14 hour standoff that captures the attention of all New York City. No this isn't a recap of the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, it's the real life story of John Wojtowicz's labor of love. But, hold on. If you've already seen the movie, don't go away, because our protagonist claims that the film tells only 30% of the story…

It's the first day of the festival of the holidays in Walt Disney World's EPCOT Park. The food demonstration space is packed with guests all enjoying the festivities, when a project coordinator walks to the back of the room and through an inconspicuous door. He makes his way through a place frozen in time. He wanders further back to a theater, where a loveable animatronic would greet him. But in its place is mangled wires and an ocean of hydraulic fluid. Buzzy is gone.

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.

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 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.

Todd and Jesse have a quick chat with the winner of the Heist Club Cash Grab!

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."