September 11, 2025 • 55 mins
Theo and Karl Albrecht build a discount food empire. Aldi is known the world over for "the best quality at the lowest price." Bringing bargains to the people is lucrative business, and the Albrecht brothers built their fortunes to astonishing heights. But with great wealth comes great risk, even if you do your very best to stay under the radar.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Zaren Elizabeth?
Speaker 3 (00:05):
How are you, Zaren Burnett?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
How the hecky? You've been so good? It's been so long.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
How are you? How's your heart?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Do you get your Did you get your haircut? No?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I don't have hair.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
No, okay, you're just wearing a sloppy hat, a bit
of hair poke out. It's a good look for you. You
should do that more often. Is that a chef's hat?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
This is a chef's hat.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
You don't normally see people wear those. No, it looks
good on you, though, Thank you. I don't think I
could pull that off.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, pretty special question, Yeah, please question.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I love those?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Do you know it's ridiculous?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I do American football?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
That is so ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, but not just the whole no idea how ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I know it is for you, But like I grew
up a football fan. In fact, that's how I learned to.
I could multiply it by sevens before I could multiply
by two or.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Three or four.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
The football scores, Yeah, and I was I was my
dad support team. There's really bad. So there's scores that
get really high. So I could multiply up to like
fifty six.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
But that's if they get that extra point, right.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah, exactly, And that was usually happening. So yeah, yeah,
I'd be like fifty six to seven and I'd be like,
that's eight seven, Dad, and he's like, they don't talk
to me about this, but that's not what I want
to tell you about what I want to tell you
because it's now about to be NFL season or we're
deep into the start of NFL season, and there's a
lot of like things that are messed up about football,
which I think we can both agree to, even though
I'm a super fan of football. Yeah, here's something that
(01:22):
I found that was ridiculous. In twenty seventeen, there was
this former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, Erica Wilkins. She sued the
Cowboys for lost wages, right yeah, and she reported that
the amount she earned for a full year's work as
a cheerleader, which is more than just the games. They
do other stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Oh yeah, they have like public appearances exactly.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
She was a member of the Quote Show Group, an
elite squad of the best dancers on the team, and
they had to do stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And there's a lot of like training and practice and rehearsals.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
She got eight dollars an hour for rehearsals, which took
place every night between and they lasted between three to
six hours every night. Yes, and she you know what
she got for appearances one hundred bucks. This is in
twenty seventeen. It was three hundred dollars when she like
finally left.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Anyway bucks an hour.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yes, so her full year's work, she got forty seven
hundred dollars. Wait, what as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader she
earned forty seven They means they all have other jobs, right, Yeah,
but what I learned that was the most ridiculous part, Like, haha, ridiculous.
The team mascot, the guy who wears the big cowboy
like hat and he has like this head and like
(02:27):
the whole thing he's in like one of those like
you outfits. Right, he made sixty five thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Okay, okay, I just need a moment, right, just need
a moment.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
A whody's more famous, the cowboy mascot or the Dallas
Cowboy cheerleaders.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I don't I'm not a football person. I don't watch it. Yes,
I know that there's the Dallas Cowboy cheeroders. I didn't
know that. I couldn't tell you.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
The master exactly sixty five thousand dollars a year, one
thousands for.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
What be getting hot?
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Like?
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Oh, I got hot in my little outfit. I mean,
what do you How is that worth that?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I'm so angry right now, ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I'm ridiculously angry. Are you kidding? Forty a year. They
got to have a day job.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yes, and they rehearse every night, so they can't have
much of a social life.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I'm not I'm gonna guess they like all their like
makeup and hair extensions. Gym membership isn't covered.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
No, no, no.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Because they have to they have to.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys, is notoriously cheap.
He just lost his star player because he wouldn't pay
him a reasonable salary.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
This is another reason why we just don't need football.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I thought you'd see me. Yeah, this is ridiculously offensive,
but it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Oh my god, yeah, that's ridiculous. Okay, I got to
take a deep breath, deep cleansing breath. Do you want
to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Damn?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Do I ridiculously good deals. Yeah, this is Ridiculous Crime,
(04:13):
a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons.
It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred
percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I know you heard that.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I think I mentioned a couple episodes ago about Aldi Supermarkets. Yeah,
it was when I was talking about their oasis Champagne, right,
the Champagne supernova in the sky, but at a discount
discount Champers anyway, So Aldi entered our consciousness, and it
entered the consciousness of friend of the show Christopher McTaggart
(04:49):
and more specifically, his lovely fiance Zophie.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Great name by the way, right.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
So it's okay. So see, Sophie was looking into Aldi
as one does not because of what I mentioned, But
you know, she stumbled upon something in their history.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
What's that?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Something that would fit right into this show. So thanks
to them, Zophie for finding it and Christopher for tipping
us off. Yes, I continue with a good amount of
further ado. Have you ever been in an Aldi?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
It's they're kind of amazing. It's your euro store, great
deals on stuff, food, things like that. They have their
weird home brands like Trader Joe's. More on that later,
and even in the US they keep their euro grocery
style strong. Oh really yeah, So what I mean by
that is that the cashiers get to sit on a chair,
(05:42):
which is awesome. Yeah, and then they ring things up
as fast as they can, which whatever, and they don't
bag anything, which.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Is all well a very German and Dutch.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah, but you got to be ready to bag your
stuff as it comes flying in rapid succession, and like,
I can't tell you how speedy it is, and they're
like you're shoving stuff in bags. You're trying to like
do sped up tetris work all the yeah, and then
they total it out while you're still bagging and you
have to like quickly step over and pay on the
pin pad or whatever. Sure, and like your groceries just
(06:13):
like spin in place at the end of the conveyor
belt while you're taking care of that, and the people
behind you they grow restless even though they're on deck.
They're in the pole position to be part of the
same speed change. So you pay, and like you go
back to bagging the last bits and putting the bags
in your cart as like the next customer, stuff comes
flying at you. It is stressful, at least for me,
(06:34):
I imagine for you. They also have this thing with
the grocery carts or in the South as they call
them buggies, where you put a quarter in to get it.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Oh yeah, the return you.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Get the quarterback and that keeps it from you know,
people leaving them all over the lot, which is fantastic.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Small amount to get people to do the right thing.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, exactly. When I lived in Scotland, I learned that
this is how it's done at supermarkets that speed checkout
at all of them. So it wasn't just a yeah,
And I got into the habit of like self bagging
at advanced speeds. And when I came back to the States, like,
I kept it up and sometimes the checkers appreciate it,
(07:13):
and other times they look at me like I'm nuts,
like I'm stepping onto their turf.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Like the bag boys. They actually have bag boys. That's
a job. They come up like, hey, well job security.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
We'll take five pal Yeah. You know, in California, if
you don't bring your own bag, they charge you for
each bag. I think that's in a lot of other places.
But like you know, and I think the checkers also
want to keep track of that or like make sure
you're not being wasteful with them. And there's also the
distinct possibility that I am completely overthinking the whole thing
talent that is a talent of mine. So Aldi, I
(07:43):
look to see if they have any in the Bay Area,
because I was like, we could do like a live show.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Oh there you go.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
No, in California. It's only in southern California. Oh it's
like Maha bra palm desert, Like they're all.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Over These are not exciting. I know, they're all making
his hand palm desert. Also what about oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Blythe is on there. It's totally like, seriously, those are
the ones just stuck in my head beating.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Down in there East San Diego County.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Sure, yeah, yeah, exactly. So anyway, they're only in southern California,
in California, but they have them in all other parts
of the country East, in the South. They're a whole
bunch of interesting but they are not an American invention.
As you can guess. Aldi is the brainchild of two
German brothers Germans guessing, Okay, two German brothers with a
fascinating story, part of which involves a crime. Oh so,
(08:47):
Sarah and I would like you to meet Carl and
Theo Albreck. Carl in the family hair hair are me?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I don't even speaking.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
They came from Essen, like the industrial heartland, in the
rural valley, good Catholic folks. Carl Arbrecht Senior he was
born in eighteen eighty.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Six, eighteen eighties, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
The patriarch of the family. He worked as a baker's
assistant and then later as a miner, and then he
got he had lung problems because of that, so then
he opened a small bread selling business in nineteen thirty baking. Yeah,
so it wasn't like an actual bakery, but he just
had like the shop. His wife Anna, expanded that business
(09:33):
into a corner grocery, and in nineteen nineteen they moved
their shop into a larger space where Carl this junior,
Carl Junior he was born in nineteen twenty and Theo
who was born two years later in nineteen twenty two.
They grew up stocking shelves, helping customers and like.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
The dadiest babies industry, the dad kept meticulous books like
he was he was mount.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yes, oh, get right, goes without saying, and so this
like modest storefront became the seed of aldi.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Oh of course, yeah, she was not coming.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
The family was working class and they were really shaped
by Germany's interwar hardships, as you can imagine board. Yes,
you know because look born in nineteen, the brothers twenty
and twenty two, so you know.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
They're right at the end of World War and that period.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
That is fascinating to me. Between yes and that's what
they know, that's their place of birth. There was that
hyper inflation of the early twenties.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And wheelbarrows with deutsch markt Yes.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
That meant that their groceries like strict frugality. Like the
store they offered only the essentials. They really tightly controlled stock,
of course, and they kept the prices super low. It's
all by necessity. It was a survival tactic, not just
like a good business model.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
No, I've heard an interesting joker that time is that
somebody showed up with a whealebarrow of deutsch Mark's to
do their grocery shopping, and then they got upset because
they went out and someone had stolen the wheelbarrow and
left all the Deutsche marks.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Basically, like the thing is like they've got this store
and it's you know, bare bones and the cheap, so
it's super popular people.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, of course at that time.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Then both of the sons they were drafted into service
during World War Two, so like they would have later
on run into my grandfather somewhere who'd say, where were
you in the war? Just that was my favorite thing.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
A lot of uncomfortable conversation.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Oh my god. Apparently like no, no. My mom tells
a story about going to Europe when she was a
teenager and my grandfather who served in Guadalcanal, Like they
go and they're in like Bavaria and then in like
a beer hall, and he would turn to people and
be like, so where were you in the war? Like
you just want to fight your way out of this place?
(11:51):
What's up, dude? He scrap. He's a navy man, okay.
So so they get drafted. Karl fought on the Eastern
Front and was wounded. He took like something in the
leg or something, I guess, and then theo he was
sent to the Africa Corps and he was captured in
(12:11):
Tunisia by Allied forcees like hoorayok for them. And he
spent years in the US pow camp before he was repatriated,
so you know, like.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
In Texas he lived, they send him.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
I don't know, so, Zaren, these two boys were not
on the right side of history.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I was just skipping past that because you said they
were drafted.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I don't know how enthusiastic they were about the cause,
and I would I'm just going to hope that they
were reluctant troops. Something came out of their wartime experiences though,
besides a good drubbing, their time in the war reinforced
their existing discipline and like this deep avoidance of waste,
(12:53):
you know, like they were they became like really camp
you know what I mean exactly, and so they hung
on to even like the slightest little things, and that's
what infused their business philosophy later. So they get home
in nineteen forty six and they took over the family
store essen pretty much destroyed, which like course.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah you got ball bearings factories they were going down.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
But the shop remained. The shop was still standing, and
the discount force field was like strong, like it made
a bubble around it when our boys went in there.
And blew it to smithereens. No, it stayed the let's
not forget that. Post war Germany obviously faced shortages and rationing.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Oh yeah, a decade and a half.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, it's the perfect milieu for discount retail, no good points.
So they built a chain of stores across the region
by buying up these like bombed out shops on the cheap.
They refitted them, rehabbed them, and then operated with like
that tight cost control. And so there's like no frills
whatsoever in these shops.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Decoration so spartan.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, it's just like and bare shelves. No, like you're saying,
no decorations, just things, you know, five boxes stuck. Then
they're like, you can have one. They offered this limited assortment.
Most traditional supermarkets you've got like thousands of items. They
had like hundreds of items. This reduced thing. And then
they had these private label goods that they started developing.
(14:24):
So they sourced directly from producers under their own control
to cut costs.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Like McDonald's.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, their motto was, and I guess is quote the
best quality at the lowest price. It's like a very
straightforward motto.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I say, they didn't spend any time on.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
No marketing speak, no ad dies were paid for this.
There's no none of that like false sense of like
community or family. Just the facts, best quality money exactly.
So by nineteen fifty they ran thirteen shops. By nineteen
sixty they had over three hundred. Yeah, they're expanded. And
(15:00):
that was the year that the brothers formally divided the empire.
So accounts differ, but the general consensus is that they
got into a fight over whether or not to sell cigarettes. What. Yeah,
Carl was opposed to it. THEO was all for it.
So Carl was worried that if they carried tobacco products
it would attract shoplifters and damage their profits.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Wow, that is not the angler, I thought he would
tell not hell Or was like, let's roll the dice, buddy.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
But like more broadly, they also had different management philosophies
and expansion philosophies, so they had like it made the
division natural and it was not contentious. Oh really Yeah,
So THEO took what would be called Aldi nord Aldi
North for sure. These were the stores in northern and
western Germany, like going up from Essen. Carl took Ald
(15:50):
sued Aldi South. All the Southern stores. So it was
in nineteen sixty two that they adopted the name ALD
which is short for Albrecht Discount all brick discount. So
there's like this no nonsense brand reflects their strategy. We
got discount goods, minimal advertising.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Not as many letters as in other companies.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Pears efficiency, it's very German. Theo's Aldi Nord expanded into Belgium,
the Netherlands, Denmark, and then in nineteen seventy nine he
quietly acquired Trader Joe's in the US.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
What, yeah, does he still own it?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah. Trader Joe's began in nineteen sixty seven in Pasadena, California. Sure,
founded by Joe Colomba. In nineteen seventy nine, CEO bought
the chain through a family trust. But the thing is
they always operated completely separately from Aldi.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yes to do your own thing.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yeah, So there's like separate, distinct leadership, merchandising, supply business,
and it's under the Aldi Nord side of the family.
Joe Trader Joe himself stayed as CEO for almost a
decade after the sale. And you know they have like
so they do that quirky private label, little heavy identity
(17:02):
national cult brand. But they're not as spare in any
way as all they is.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
But they're pretty spare compared to other American.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Groceries, most definitely. Most definitely, I.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Can see the connection exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So are you a treator Joe's Guy.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I've had friends who worked there. My friend Jay, he
worked there, and I really enjoyed it when he worked there.
I had my sister be a fan, so I used
to do shopping for her and her family, so I
had to go there personally, you know me, I can't
stand the parking lots.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
They drive me insane.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
They never have good parking lots and people are always
fighting and jostling for spots, and I'm like, I do
not care.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
I will go to any other grocery stores. I don't
have to deal with that.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Tr I to go get like one or two things
and I'm walking by or on a bike, Yes, But
if I'm in a car crowded, no.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
There aren't really enough spaces, and I always feel like
the spaces are narrower. Yes, yes, and it makes people all.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Mad and there's just a bunch of angry liberals yelling
at each other. I'm like, super super violence.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
I know a lot of people who worked there too,
either have are now do and they love it For
the company, I feel like it's more of a snack store.
Sometimes they have good like frozen stuff. I like the
frozen pizzas, but I have not had success shopping for
fresh groceries there. No, I know people who swear by it.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Oh really yeah? Also I have heard complaints about their meats.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Saren I am particular about my groceries, Yes you will,
And to be honest, I spread my purchases over a
number of stores depending on the item. And you know
what I'm right or die for?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Though your your mini food farmer's markets.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
You go to Costco baby. Speaking of which, did you
know that one of the house brands at Aldi is Kirkwood. Oh,
Kirkwood frozen breaded chicken stuff is like supposed to be
a hit in the friar. In my research, I kept
seeing all these articles. That's what the Internet told me.
I've never ventured into it myself, but Kirkwood hits a
little too close to Costco's Kirkland. If you ask me
(18:51):
like shots, fire.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yourself a fresh pair of kirk on elevens and have
a good day.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Face off. Let's take a break and I'm going to
go heat up some Kirkwood chicken nuggets for you. And
when we come back, more Aldi zaren Okay, back to
(19:27):
Aldi please, So Carl's Aldi sued they entered the US
directly under the Aldi brand, So Aldi THEO went with
Trader Joe's. Carls like, you know what, you can't mess
with all that, and their US arm like grew steadily
from the Midwest outward. Now it's like got this dense network,
(19:47):
aggressive news store and remodeling.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
That's like, where's the highest population and density of Germans? Okay,
from Chicago and Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
They've been in the South. They've been buying up a
lot of the wind Dixies after wind Dixie closed and
kind of doing.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Wind Dixie closed. Oh yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
They haven't been down there, but you know it still
stands strong.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Past pig Wiggly Okay, nothing could take Pig.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
I'm big on the Pig. So they're they're like they're
constantly expanding. They want to open around eight hundred news
stores by twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
My father wouldn't let me shopping a place called Dixie,
So yeah, of.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Course no, not so how many stores eight hundred that's
an addition to what they already have. How many do
they have, I don't know, but in an addition to
what they already have by twenty twenty eight, they want
eight hundred more, okay. And so there are serious Aldi
fans out there. They love the products and seeing them online,
dedication of good value, and they're those who like track
the various products and promotions. There's this thing called the
(20:45):
Isle of Shame.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Is that a real thing?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
No? Well, it's like it refers to the middle aisle
of the store that has all these like limited time
non grocery what they call all de fines like home decor,
kitchen gadgets, seasonal items.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
It's nicknamed the Isle of shame because shoppers like do
impulse bies. Oh right, and he's like discounted yet exciting fine. Sure,
And then like those said, shoppers like to share anecdotes
online about these silly purchases. There's a whole Facebook community
about the Isle of shame.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
In that isle of shame or sometimes items that fans
refer to as aldidas, it's the Aldi logo in the
style of the Adida's logo, not the like leaf one
but the triangle and it's on sports where like tennis
shoes and tracksuits and I'm not gonna lie. The pictures
I found like awesome, No you can't. You got to
go into the stores.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
It's got to walk. Is of shame.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yeah, exactly. It's cheeky. And Adidas doesn't seem to mind.
Really they don't really care.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Because they're like they're.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Like, yeah, well they're just like no one's going to
make a mistake on this, and it's cute. You want
to be me so bad? Exactly. You know who does
mind UK retailer Marks and Spencer m and S.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Why would they?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I love M and S by the way, it's a
good shop anyway. So the most it's like a like
they got everything type thing. Tesco's more groceries. M and
S is like they've got house wears and clothes. It's
like Target. The most famous case was callin the Caterpillar
versus Cuthbert, so it was a street it's a cake fight.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
This is a cake fight. I did not see any
of this.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
M and S claimed that, okay, M and S had
call in the Caterpillar, which is like a rolled cake,
like a it's a long roll case with a face
on it looks like a caterpillar, and so it's like
you can buy these. It's a popular thing to children.
You chop up the caterpillar and you eat them, and
everyone that's calling the caterpillar, well all the introduced Cuthbert
(22:52):
the caterpillar. And it was like the M and S
said that the cake was so similar to Colin that
it unfairly on Collin's reputation. Wow, and it was a
bismirching saren. So the case became like an absolute meme fest.
And I remember this happening on social media. There was
like hashtag free Cuthbert because they were gonna have to
(23:13):
like puddle from.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
The shelves, taking the side of the underdogors.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah, and everyone out and was buying as many Cuthberts
as they could. So the parties reached like this confidential settlement.
They declared a truce in February of twenty twenty two,
and they could both go on selling their caterpillar cakes.
There was no court ruling on liability.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
So I think that like all these just had to
kick some up to M and.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
S and I think emins had to realize the judge'll
be like, why are you taking it my time with this?
And of course anyone can sell a caterpillar case.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah exactly, I mean, and they did look a lot,
they looked and then whatever, it's cute. So then there
was the snow globe gin bottle case from twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
One Spencer, so they like marketing gin to children, like
more kids.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Spencer claimed that that time that all these festive light
up liqueur bough with a winter scene, swirling gold flakes
an led base infringed upon their UK registered designs for
their own light up snow globe gin range UK drinking.
Oh god, it's so good. So this time the legal
(24:15):
hook wasn't trademarks but registered designs, so like the protected
appearance of the pressure. In January of twenty twenty three,
the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court held that all these bottles
infringed four of Marks and Spencer's registered designs because to
the quote informed user, they did not create a sufficiently
different overall impression.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
They could be mistaken for each other.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, So the Court of Appeals upheld that ruling dismissed
all these appeal confirmed infringement of the Marks and Spencer
designs commentators noted that this was like a significant design
owner friendly decision for tackling supermarket lookalikes.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Oh so it set a precedent law.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, and so you know brand don't like they had
this distinctive seasonal packaging and it was shots fired warning
to discounters that like these closely, you know, get ups
can cross the line. So those aren't though the all
the crimes I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I was curious.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
No, I have a major crime, a big dog. Let's
go back to Carl and CEO Albrecht. Yes, discount grocery magnates.
They were notoriously thrifty. Yeah. Ceo was once asked to
inspect plans for a new store. He looked them over,
inspected every detail, and then he offered this comment quote,
(25:38):
this layout is very good, but there's just one thing.
This paper you're using is too thick. Use thinner paper
to save money paper so the like, rather than wasting
money on fancy fountain pens. He would take notes at
meetings with senior staff using pencil stubs that were like
less than two inches long. He wrote pencils down to
(25:58):
like the erasers and everyone else to do the same thing.
He's like, why are you doing that?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Here?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
No waste. So as you can see THEO. He's very
involved in the day to day of his business. He
put in hours at HQ, just like everybody else. Zaren
close your eyes.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I'll want you to pick a little nervous.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
It's the twenty ninth of November nineteen seventy one. You
are THEO Albrecht, the very wealthy head of Aldi North.
You are one of the richest men in the world,
but you don't flaunt it. You live more like old
money does. You prefer buying things that are built to last,
and you wieschee flashy brands or homes. That's not to
(26:44):
say you don't enjoy the finer things. You live in
a large home, not a mansion by any stretch, but
bigger than most. You drive a gorgeous Mercedes two eighty sel.
It's an elegant sedan that's built like a tank. Today
you're wrapping up a long day at the office. You're
leaving all the North headquarters, heading out to the parking
lot to make your way home. Your shoes squeak on
(27:06):
the immaculate, high gloss cement floors as you cross the
lobby and give a wave to the security guard at
the front desk. He nods to you as you pass.
You walk to the parking lot, whistling a tune I'm
happy to call it a day and spend the evening
with your family. You open the door of the Benzo
hop in and fire up. The engine roars to life,
and for a moment, your Creten's Clearwater Revival tape begins
(27:29):
to play in the stereo, but only for a moment.
Then there's a scrambled, squealing sound as the tape deck
each your cassette drat. You decide to forego the stereo
and supply your own tunes, whistling away as you hit
the turn signal and leave the lot. You leave the
industrialized area and hit the leafy suburbs of Essen. You
wind down a narrow road, tall trees hugging the tarmac
(27:52):
creating a bony fence. On this almost winter evening, it's
still beautiful. As you come to a turn in the road,
you slam on your brakes. A van has pulled out
into the road in front of you from some sort
of alley or driveway.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Dundkov.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
You yell as your tires screech on the black top.
A man hops from the van and heads to your window.
You roll it down and await his apology. Instead, he
shoves a gun in your face. This is a curious development.
You think you are terrified. The man demands you exit
your car, but first he stares at you from behind
a balaclava. He asks to see your id. You can fly.
(28:29):
He looks back and forth between your ID and your
face that's slowly losing color. He tells you he thought
you'd be fancier, have a nicer suit on, maybe have
a driver.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
You shrug.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
He holds the gun to your temple, yanks you from
the car and drags you to the van. The back
doors pop open and shoves you in. Another man is
already back there, the driver, it seems. He immediately begins
binding your body with rope. Your arms are tied securely
to your sides. One of them wraps wide tape around
your head, covering your mouth and preventing any scream cries
for help. Then a piece of that same wide tape
(29:03):
is slapped across your eyes, blocking out light. You can
no longer see their masked faces. The van roars to
life and speeds off this whole thing is so disorienting
and frightening that you can't get your bearings. You don't
know which way the van is traveling. All you know
is that you're on the floor of a van with
a gun shoved into your ribs, praying for the Blessed Virgin,
(29:23):
all the saints, and the Good Lord himself to protect
you and save you, because you know you can't do
that for yourself right now, So zaren, Yes, THEO Albrecht
was just kidnapped. In case that wasn't clear, very clear.
Two men, a lawyer named Hans Jaquim Allenberg and an
ex burglar, Paul Diamond, Paul Krawn. They were the culprits. Yeah.
(29:49):
So when THEO didn't show up at home after work,
his family became worried.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
With very tight schedule, very tight.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, they raised the alarm, contacted the cops, a search
began in immediately. THEO was a very high profile and
wealthy individual, and it's important to remember that their lives
and safety matter far more than ours priorities there very true.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, No waiting twenty four hours, no, no, you.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Get the call. Everything all resources put towards that it's there.
They're worth more.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah, they're pretty much the pedestals of the community holding
all the rest of us up.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Their lives are more valuable than ours. So Theo's Mercedes
was found ditched about twenty five miles from his office,
and the next day the kidnappers moved THEO between a
couple of flats in Duseldorf. He was made to strip
down to his underpants each time they shoved him into
a wardrobe like an amor at each place for various
(30:46):
periods of time standing closet. He wasn't tortured or treated
too poorly, other than having to sit in a closet
wearing nothing but his chonies, but like the kidnappers kept
threatening it with harm in order to make sure he behave.
The next day, the first of the ransom letters arrived
at the Albrich family home, and some were dictated by
(31:07):
THEO under duress. But it confirmed that he was alive.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
But they aren't cutout letter.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
No, it's his handwriting. Yeah, So the kidnappers identified themselves
as en fjor Rungsfrat Kidnapping Council, and so they're trying
to sound like this structured organization. Hey, it's us. The
Kidnapping Council.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
We had a meeting and we decided on the price.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
So they were demanding seven million Deutsche marks seven, which
was the equivalent of two point one million dollars at
the time. So that's more than sixteen point five million
dollars today. Yeah. It was the largest ransom on record
at the time. According to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
It was international. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Oh so messages were also sent to North Rhine Westphalia's
state premiere, hinting at more kidnappings if their demands weren't met.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Oh smart.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Yeah. So THEO he asked his captors like, how did
you choose me?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Why? He wanted to know, my family is notoriously not
the spendee.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah. They told him that they picked him for the
abduction after reading this book called The Rich and the
super Rich, a book chronicling the lives of the wealthy.
It was like a catalog for them.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Didn't know who to go.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Yeah, they're chatting it up by now and they're they're
letting THEO read the paper, listen to the radio, and
he's like advising them on negotiating, Like he's basically acting
as his own negotiator with them okay, yeah, and he's
like trying to Yeah, you know, he's not like, hey,
get more of it exactly.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
You know, I'm much more.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Remember, THEO came from a devout Catholic family, so in
times of trouble, one leans on one's face, and Theo's
family quietly involved the Catholic Church at this point. Once
the ransom letter was received, they reached out to Bishop
Franz Hangbock of Essen and he agreed to mediate.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Suggesting okay, the cooler heads prevailed, right, So.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
For three days communications continued via letters, phone calls. The
police were cautious, they ran surveillance and they kept the
negotiations going. They feared for Theo's life, like if it
dragged on too long, the family and then all the
all the executives. They worked to keep the case out
of the press for as long as possible.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Oh interesting, and the police.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
They had the bishop pass along a message to the kidnappers.
If they produced THEO unharmed, the cops would give them
twenty four hours lead time to make a run for it.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
They give him a head start.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah, I'll give you a twenty four hour head start,
and then we're.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Going to come after you you know, this is like
a Ron Howard movie.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah, So the fifteenth of December, an agreement was reached.
CEO had been in captivity for sixteen days. The family
put seven million Deutsche marks in banknotes into two large suitcases,
and the police had like prepared, they had marked all
the notes, like there were covert tracking things, but like
it's nineteen seventy one technology, so there are limits. But
(34:02):
all of the cash was marked. On the seventeenth day
of his captivity, the plan went into motion. It was
the sixteenth of December nineteen seventy one. So in the
dim light of the evening, Bishop Hengsbach drove to this
rural area outside of Duseldorf. Following instructions he was given,
he put the two suitcases filled with ransom money out.
(34:23):
The kidnappers collected the cash, and then the next morning,
THEO was released near Essen, physically unharmed but like obviously shaken.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, cops standing on the corner.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
The cops lied. They immediately began the man hunt. They're like,
you're stupid for falling for that.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Wow, and like they had it was kind of a
ridiculous thing. We'll give you twenty four hours don't worry.
We're making a game of the day, like.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
You promise, you like to tell you wants to do this.
They had recordings of the phone calls and they played
them for the public and asked the public he recognized
the voice and oh my god, so many people called in.
But that wasn't where they got their first break. It
was the money in the wild, oh, betting spent. It
was only days later after theo got freed that Diamond
(35:10):
Paul drew attention to himself by paying a shop debt
with five hundred Deutsche mark notes that came from the
ransom handover. So the tip from the dealer gave police
this concrete lead. Diamond Paul right arrested in Germany on
the twentieth and December nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Did the dealer like know Paul, Like there's a regular
place he went, I'm like yeah this time.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Yeah, the lawyer Oleenberg he fled. He figured Diamond Paul
was going to rat him out, and so the cops
like rushed to Ollin.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Now.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Remember, so he's this lawyer. They go to his law
office in Duseldorf, but he's already in the wind. There
was evidence there that implicated him and the kidnapping, since
that's one of the places they kept THEO in the office.
So this manhunt follows. Ohlenberg gets picked up in Mexico
City who and flown back to Germany by around New
Year's So this is like end of November, beginning of
(36:06):
December and it's New Year's they bring him back. This
is German efficiency.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Soon enough, the pair stood trial. I'm going to pause here,
check out some ads. Hopefully there's good deals. I hope
they're not too offensive to the senses. And when we
return court time Zaren Elizabeth, welcome back.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Man the bush Us. I could not believe.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
I'm still kind of like tripping out that they didn't
have any like wherewithal to not spend the money. I mean,
I guess they didn't have I guess Diamond Paul didn't
have it like that.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Well, Diamond Paul was like, he's not like the best, No,
even though he's Diamond Paul.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, Well, nicknames don't always tell you it's true.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
That's true. But let's talk about the law. Part of
law and order court. So the kidnapping case of THEO
Albrecht was heard in Essen's regional court by three professional
judges plus two lay judges. Apparently, as was the custom
of the day. The trial opened in January of nineteen
seventy three, so like thirteen months after the abduction. The
(37:29):
newspaper Der Spiegel they described an absolutely overflowing press and
public gallery because here you've got this family that's so
secretive and then there's this huge event, so everyone wants to,
you know, to learn more about.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
It, crack open the walls of the family, what's going on.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
In contemporary coverage, like they classed it as a robbery
style extortion plus unlawful deprivation of liberty. So that was
basically the kidnapping for ransom pairing in German law at
the time, and there was a statue tory maximum sentence
of fifteen years. The prosecution had key evidence, right, so
there were those marked ransom bills. Remember, just days after
(38:09):
the release, he goes to the shop. He's like, here,
here's some five hundred deutsch mark bills. And then that
was the tip that led to his arrest. So that's
part of the evidentiary chain. Then there was that runner
that Ollenberg did, and then there were the confession slash
partial admissions.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
From both men.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah, so the court noted that both men were quote
vit Gen gesstendis largely confessed. Oh, I'm not saying any
of this right, and I was going to just skip it,
but I thought, why not aim for the stars. Elizabeth
was in your life. Dershpiegel's week one report paints this
super vivid scene, like the courtroom is packed with TV crews, photographers,
(38:51):
the two defendants are sparring over like who masterminded what,
and then the article also records testimony about how the
targets were selected because he was like they had others,
just just those two, because they had that they're rich
and the super rich, and then pressless that they found.
Then THEO shows up, so like the regional coverage marks
(39:12):
like his own testimony mid January, and there are photographs, captions,
but there's so little information about what was said, and
I think that they could maybe manipulate the press into
not talking about it too much. And so in the end,
each guy gets eight and a half years in prison.
About half the ransom was recovered in bank accounts and
(39:34):
safe houses, only half, but yeah, three to three and
a half million Deutsche marks vanished without a trace. So
there's so much speculation around that. There's talk about offshore
stashes dimonds. No, not that I know of. So we
have to keep in mind who we're dealing with in
terms of the victim. Right. So THEO lifelong account and son,
(39:55):
notorious miser. His family had just shelled out all that
money and he wanted justice or at least financial balance.
So old THEO tried to deduct the unrecovered ransom as
a business expense on his taxes. The government, I want
to write it off. So the government was like, no,
(40:16):
we don't agree with that or that course of action.
So the Duseledore Finance Court ruled that it could not
be classed as a business.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
As a business loss essentially, well, they did.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Allow it as part of a quote extraordinary burden against
income tax. Oh yeah. So this very unusual action by
the court and the new president drew wide attention in
German legal and financial circles because there's all sorts of
ways that you can, you know, ful with that fake it.
So anyway, already known for his secrecy, THEO became even
(40:49):
more reclusive. He rarely granted interviews, he avoided photographs, seldom
seen in public his addresses and movements were really tightly guarded.
Hero in an armored car to work and he changed
his route every day. Yeah, lightning striking twice according to Ye. Yeah,
so this reinforced all these culture of anonymity, like the
(41:14):
executives also stayed low profile.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Everyone really all potentially learned from his loss.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yes, And then there's four four in the nineties, the
brothers Theo and Carl. They retreated to a remote North
Sea island. Four is one of the North Frisian islands
off it's the second largest German island.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Yeah, you're another nothing against you. Your pronunciation was throwing.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Oh it's terrible. So it's well, here's the thing, Like
I go online, I get online. Yeah, you know, I
surf the web, I surf the net, and I was
doing the pronunciation for how to pronounce his place and
they are like six different ways and none of them
are right, you know what I mean, Like he hit
won and it's off. No, that's on how they are four.
Speaker 6 (42:02):
F O with the two little like yeah, h r
fu su I think it'd be like I think it
is fures.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Oh yeah, okay, so fure he's on fear O, he's
on fear Hey, little girls, your daddy home. So seriously,
it's a great song. The boss maybe go back and
fix them. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (42:33):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
So Fure is this second largest German island. It's this
quiet thatch roof cottage kind of place with like this
long North Friesian cultural history and a twenty seven hole
golf club online, but like discrete. Uh it's in an
area called the Frisian Caribbean. Oh yeah, it is to
(42:57):
their aim and high accounts describe this as like semi
retirement living from that. Yeah, so from like the nineties onward,
because like THEO stepped back from daily operations in ninety
three and Carl in ninety four. They just like puttered
around the island. They went back and forth to like Essen,
but they were mainly there and like the intense privacy
(43:17):
that they had makes it really hard to pin down dates,
but like you know, you can kind of guess based
on obituaries and stuff like that. Okay, So the sources
that we have like link this island life to these private,
really low key hobbies, golf collecting, antique typewriters. That was
like a long running THEO quirk.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
That's a Tom Hanks quirk too.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Yeah, all like, so THEO did that for a long time. Orchids.
THEO was also super orchids. Yeah, they both like to
go hunting. That's fun. So THEO. He died in July
of twenty ten in his hometown of Essen. The family
provided no details about it and they delayed reporting it
for a while, like delayed telling the press. Carl passed
(44:03):
away four years later in twenty fourteen, and that year
he was listed as one of the richest people in
the world, with an estimated net worth of twenty three
point one four billion.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Damn lost count grocery.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Yeah, so when he died, he was named the richest
person in Germany and the fourth richest in Europe.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Ceo and his wife silly. They had two sons, Theo Junior.
He went on to work Aldi Nord and then Berthold
and his branch of the family remained involved through like
foundation work. So control of Aldi Nord was vested in
three family foundations, Marcus, Lucas and Jacobus. I don't know
(44:45):
where they got the names, so there's so little information
on their background and they're thinking of stuff. So this
was designed for like tax reasons. And to enforce long
term stewardship. So after Theo's death in twenty ten and
then his son Berthold ied in twenty fourteen, a fight
broke out among the heirs. So these like disputes became
(45:07):
really public, and they were overwhelmingly on the Aldi Nord side,
and it centered on the control of those foundations that
you know, Aldi Nord and then Trader Joe's by extensions.
Oh yeah, So there are very specific, let's call them
like flash points in this. So first was Theo's death
and then a couple of years later his son, and
(45:28):
it was later revealed that his son blew out his
liver drinking himself to death. But at the time of
his death, like it was just this mysterious he's had
fifty but when he died, he and his brother had
an estimated net worth of almost eighteen billion dollars.
Speaker 5 (45:44):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
Yeah. So the next flashpoint was the resignation of the
Aldi Nord CEO Mark Heiberger in twenty eighteen because there
was all this like shareholder turmoil. Now, then there was
silly the mom's will that accused Berthold's will Babet and
their five children of siphoning more than one hundred million
euros from one of the foundations.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Not bad, bet ba.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Bet love that. Why wasn't I named Babet? That'd be
so much more fun.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
People call you Babs. You'd hate that. I could do that.
You could do that, Babs.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
No, I couldn't do that. Think So then the next
year there was a criminal complaint this is twenty twenty,
filed by the grandson Nikola against his mom and his sisters. Yeah, yeah,
he's like babbet uh. Prosecutors later dropped an embezzlement probe
and to like check everything out open books. By January
(46:37):
of twenty twenty three, the camps like they, you know,
they we've put our feud to rest.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
Yeah, it's crossing us to legal fees.
Speaker 3 (46:43):
But not before more than a decade of like reporting
on the feuds in the tabloids. It's like the Daily
Mail had a field day, mainly because of all these
popularity in the UK. They always mentioned that in the
articles and the details were wild. There's like the drinking,
all these accusations and then is incredible eye popping amounts
of money.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Are they doing like that underground German stuff? Or they
do the sword fighting and cut each other's cheeks.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
Probably Now let's say they did. It is like perfect
tabloid father, which is exactly what THEO would have hated. Yes,
like this would have been He's he is spinning in
his grave. He's like crypt He's yeah, like just drilled
a hole.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yeah, further, you could play a record.
Speaker 3 (47:22):
Hated it. Another major scandal touching the air was the
Helge Achenbach art fraud case in twenty fourteen. If you
say so, right, bless me, a prominent art dealer was
convicted of defrauding Berthold and then drunk son.
Speaker 6 (47:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:38):
Later civil rulings awarded damages to the heirs on the
Aldi suit side, Carl the heirs bit to Hayster and
the late Carl Arbrick Junie. If they had any disputes,
they kept it private. Oh real quiet. There's no comparable
public legal brawls over controlled.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
No, yeahind closed doors with lawyers.
Speaker 3 (48:01):
The Theo's abduction is one of post war Germany's most
infamous crimes. I met, and it really hardened corporate Germany's
security culture and made the name synonymous Albrecht not just
with like frugality but secrecy. What about the kidnappers.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Arin what about them, Elizabeth.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
They both died in twenty seventeen, together a few months apart,
so Paul Diamond Paul he passed away in a care
home at the age of eighty seven, and heinz Olenberg
he died at the age of ninety three same year.
So they kept really low profiles after their release. And
regarding the ransom, Diamond Paul said that Ollenberg was the
(48:41):
brains behind the abduction and only gave him like a
few thousand Deutsche marks for his participation in it. Ollenberg
the lawyers like no, no, no, no, I beg to differ.
He swore they had split the money evenly, and when
he was busted, he returned his half. That's the half
they got.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Oh, and that's why they were That's what they have
and so that's that's why we have.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
Yeah, that's why they have the three and a half
deutsche marks missing Diamond Paul. But here's Diamond Paul. He
talks to the press and he's like on a pension,
like a pensioner's allowance.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
Like he's not rich, but does he have some like
you know, this is forgive me for being a romantic,
but does he have like someone who he's like protecting
an illegitimate daughter and he's just giving her all the money.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
I have no idea, And I'll tell you what's really
interesting is like, I really think that the Albrecht family
had such a grip on German media that they could
get these little bits and pieces. But the details are
just scant, and it gave me the impression that a
lot of it was just clamped, that they don't want
too much stuff out there. But Diamond Paul, he said,
(49:46):
he told the press, quote, Honestly, I don't know about it.
I only got ten thousand Deutsche marks from Ollenberg. He
was cleverer than me.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
Who do you believe in this between the two of them.
Speaker 3 (49:57):
I believe I believe Diamond Paul. I want to you
know that, like, yeah, he got stiffed, he got ten grand.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Oh, I believe it the other way. I believe that
he was like, I guess I split it. I guess
I don't believe him. That's the better way of saying it.
Speaker 4 (50:11):
I believe that Oldenburg split it with the Diamond Paul,
and that Diamond Paul is not telling the truth about
the ten grand or the ten thousand he got, and
that he is he's hidden it away somewhere, but for
somebody else who he doesn't want anything bad to happen,
and he's going to live as a pauper.
Speaker 3 (50:25):
Olenburg. He was living out by the Polish border and
he was living in this like spare life.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yeah, East Germany.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
He would not talk to the media at all, had
nothing to do with them. But like local talentspeople they
like had the whispers about, like stash money in Switzerland,
like that was the rumor. So in twenty twenty five,
the police in Essen, they announced that they had recovered
a box of misplaced case files in the basement the
(50:52):
cellar of a station.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
A misplaced pop had like total for the most.
Speaker 3 (50:56):
Important Yease, it wasn't just them, there's a bunch of
but in the box we're records from the all record kidnapping. Sure,
so they think the files might shed light on the
ransom handover and the fate of those missing millions, and
so like the publics that getting all jazzed up about it,
you know, more than half a century later.
Speaker 2 (51:14):
And if they're marked, they're still marked, I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
So stay tuned, Saren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 4 (51:21):
Oh man, like this couldn't be a more German story
the way everybody is involved in like, and I'm not
trying to like, I know that it's a wide culture.
Not every German falls under the stereotyps. What I'm saying
is our understanding as Americans of the German cultural personalities,
if you will. This is very much like I'm like
wow at every turn, like that he drives himself in
(51:43):
his own car, and then that they judge him for
driving himself, like we would have thought you would have
a better suit to driver, and he's like, well, you
would be wrong, you know. It's it's just very interesting
to me. And then also the family splitting in the
North and South. I have to admit, just because of
understanding of latitudes and the tendencies of latitude, that the
(52:04):
South family would be the messier one in the North family,
and it flips. I find that interesting too.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
What about for you, Elizabeth?
Speaker 3 (52:10):
I again, I love the I know a good number
of Germans and those who are from there live there,
those who are immigrants. Yeah, and it's and it's it
is a very German story. They're all these really endearing
coat qualities of it. And I'm fascinated by having this
money and like his house, like you can only I
(52:32):
was able to kind of like sneak away to find
his house with these like coordinates. Oh, but you can't
do a street view. It's just like there's a huge thing,
but like from the footprint above, it's not. It isn't
a mansion. I mean it's huge, so I mean i'd
put it at maybe like eight thousand square feet. It's huge,
but it's not this palatial estate and it's not like
(52:53):
got huge grounds around it. It's in a neighborhood and
there are smaller houses around and all that kind of
thing a neighborhood to it's I find that fascinating. This
guy is like a billionaire and this quiet life and
that he and his brother too, their joy was finding
this like isolated island and so all of the stuff
that they lived through and saw and like fought through,
(53:17):
you know that, Uh, to come out with that in
this frugality. That then the secrecy is also like a
huge thing, like to keep their name out of the press,
and then how their family blows that entirely. Yeah, I
mean there's the Daily Mail articles are nuts. So that's
my takeaway. I would really love a talkback.
Speaker 2 (53:39):
Hell yeah, oh god, I went get.
Speaker 5 (53:52):
Zaran. This is story from Asto, Minnesota, home to three people,
and you need to take your Bluetooth pack into Elizabeth Forrester.
Get over to Krispy Creton right now, because happening for
a limited time only is Harry Potter Donuts. That's right,
pick your house of ill repute, grab a ratchet and
(54:17):
get over there now. Thanks guys, Bye.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
Round trip for coming to.
Speaker 4 (54:24):
See you, babe, and thank you for the deepole on
the ratchet. I need to get Elizabeth properly. I do
need to get a ratchet and Bluetooth.
Speaker 2 (54:30):
That forester.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
Is so good. Uh. That is it for today. You
can find us online at ridiculous Crime dot com. I
was just named employee of the month there really so
thank you Saron. Congratulations, Thank you Eric. I'm so proud
of you. Thank you. Uh. You were also a Ridiculous
Crime on blues Crime Instagram. We're on YouTube at Ridiculous
(54:54):
Crime Pod. You can email Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.
Leave a talk back. God you love the talkbacks on
the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by
Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett. Produced and edited by loss
Albreck brother Dave Kusten, starring Annale Rudger as Judith. Research
(55:17):
is by Frugal shopper Marisa Brown. The theme song is
by Discount Musical Instrument Emporium pioneers Thomas Lee and Travis
dunt Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Guests Haron,
makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andre. Executive producers are Scheming
Kidnappers of the One Percent, Ben Bowleen and Noel Brown.
(55:42):
Disquime Say It One More Time, Gee Crime.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more Podcasts.
My Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Zaren Elizabeth?
Speaker 3 (00:05):
How are you, Zaren Burnett?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
How the hecky? You've been so good? It's been so long.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
How are you? How's your heart?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Do you get your Did you get your haircut? No?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I don't have hair.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
No, okay, you're just wearing a sloppy hat, a bit
of hair poke out. It's a good look for you. You
should do that more often. Is that a chef's hat?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
This is a chef's hat.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
You don't normally see people wear those. No, it looks
good on you, though, Thank you. I don't think I
could pull that off.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah, pretty special question, Yeah, please question.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I love those?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Do you know it's ridiculous?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I do American football?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
That is so ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, but not just the whole no idea how ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I know it is for you, But like I grew
up a football fan. In fact, that's how I learned to.
I could multiply it by sevens before I could multiply
by two or.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Three or four.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
The football scores, Yeah, and I was I was my
dad support team. There's really bad. So there's scores that
get really high. So I could multiply up to like
fifty six.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
But that's if they get that extra point, right.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah, exactly, And that was usually happening. So yeah, yeah,
I'd be like fifty six to seven and I'd be like,
that's eight seven, Dad, and he's like, they don't talk
to me about this, but that's not what I want
to tell you about what I want to tell you
because it's now about to be NFL season or we're
deep into the start of NFL season, and there's a
lot of like things that are messed up about football,
which I think we can both agree to, even though
I'm a super fan of football. Yeah, here's something that
(01:22):
I found that was ridiculous. In twenty seventeen, there was
this former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, Erica Wilkins. She sued the
Cowboys for lost wages, right yeah, and she reported that
the amount she earned for a full year's work as
a cheerleader, which is more than just the games. They
do other stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Oh yeah, they have like public appearances exactly.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
She was a member of the Quote Show Group, an
elite squad of the best dancers on the team, and
they had to do stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
And there's a lot of like training and practice and rehearsals.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
She got eight dollars an hour for rehearsals, which took
place every night between and they lasted between three to
six hours every night. Yes, and she you know what
she got for appearances one hundred bucks. This is in
twenty seventeen. It was three hundred dollars when she like
finally left.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Anyway bucks an hour.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yes, so her full year's work, she got forty seven
hundred dollars. Wait, what as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader she
earned forty seven They means they all have other jobs, right, Yeah,
but what I learned that was the most ridiculous part, Like, haha, ridiculous.
The team mascot, the guy who wears the big cowboy
like hat and he has like this head and like
(02:27):
the whole thing he's in like one of those like
you outfits. Right, he made sixty five thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Okay, okay, I just need a moment, right, just need
a moment.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
A whody's more famous, the cowboy mascot or the Dallas
Cowboy cheerleaders.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I don't I'm not a football person. I don't watch it. Yes,
I know that there's the Dallas Cowboy cheeroders. I didn't
know that. I couldn't tell you.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
The master exactly sixty five thousand dollars a year, one
thousands for.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
What be getting hot?
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Like?
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Oh, I got hot in my little outfit. I mean,
what do you How is that worth that?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
I'm so angry right now, ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I'm ridiculously angry. Are you kidding? Forty a year. They
got to have a day job.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yes, and they rehearse every night, so they can't have
much of a social life.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I'm not I'm gonna guess they like all their like
makeup and hair extensions. Gym membership isn't covered.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
No, no, no.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Because they have to they have to.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys, is notoriously cheap.
He just lost his star player because he wouldn't pay
him a reasonable salary.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
This is another reason why we just don't need football.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I thought you'd see me. Yeah, this is ridiculously offensive,
but it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Oh my god, yeah, that's ridiculous. Okay, I got to
take a deep breath, deep cleansing breath. Do you want
to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Damn?
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Do I ridiculously good deals. Yeah, this is Ridiculous Crime,
(04:13):
a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists and cons.
It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred
percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I know you heard that.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I think I mentioned a couple episodes ago about Aldi Supermarkets. Yeah,
it was when I was talking about their oasis Champagne, right,
the Champagne supernova in the sky, but at a discount
discount Champers anyway, So Aldi entered our consciousness, and it
entered the consciousness of friend of the show Christopher McTaggart
(04:49):
and more specifically, his lovely fiance Zophie.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Great name by the way, right.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
So it's okay. So see, Sophie was looking into Aldi
as one does not because of what I mentioned, But
you know, she stumbled upon something in their history.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
What's that?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Something that would fit right into this show. So thanks
to them, Zophie for finding it and Christopher for tipping
us off. Yes, I continue with a good amount of
further ado. Have you ever been in an Aldi?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
It's they're kind of amazing. It's your euro store, great
deals on stuff, food, things like that. They have their
weird home brands like Trader Joe's. More on that later,
and even in the US they keep their euro grocery
style strong. Oh really yeah, So what I mean by
that is that the cashiers get to sit on a chair,
(05:42):
which is awesome. Yeah, and then they ring things up
as fast as they can, which whatever, and they don't
bag anything, which.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Is all well a very German and Dutch.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah, but you got to be ready to bag your
stuff as it comes flying in rapid succession, and like,
I can't tell you how speedy it is, and they're
like you're shoving stuff in bags. You're trying to like
do sped up tetris work all the yeah, and then
they total it out while you're still bagging and you
have to like quickly step over and pay on the
pin pad or whatever. Sure, and like your groceries just
(06:13):
like spin in place at the end of the conveyor
belt while you're taking care of that, and the people
behind you they grow restless even though they're on deck.
They're in the pole position to be part of the
same speed change. So you pay, and like you go
back to bagging the last bits and putting the bags
in your cart as like the next customer, stuff comes
flying at you. It is stressful, at least for me,
(06:34):
I imagine for you. They also have this thing with
the grocery carts or in the South as they call
them buggies, where you put a quarter in to get it.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Oh yeah, the return you.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Get the quarterback and that keeps it from you know,
people leaving them all over the lot, which is fantastic.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Small amount to get people to do the right thing.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, exactly. When I lived in Scotland, I learned that
this is how it's done at supermarkets that speed checkout
at all of them. So it wasn't just a yeah,
And I got into the habit of like self bagging
at advanced speeds. And when I came back to the States, like,
I kept it up and sometimes the checkers appreciate it,
(07:13):
and other times they look at me like I'm nuts,
like I'm stepping onto their turf.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Like the bag boys. They actually have bag boys. That's
a job. They come up like, hey, well job security.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
We'll take five pal Yeah. You know, in California, if
you don't bring your own bag, they charge you for
each bag. I think that's in a lot of other places.
But like you know, and I think the checkers also
want to keep track of that or like make sure
you're not being wasteful with them. And there's also the
distinct possibility that I am completely overthinking the whole thing
talent that is a talent of mine. So Aldi, I
(07:43):
look to see if they have any in the Bay Area,
because I was like, we could do like a live show.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Oh there you go.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
No, in California. It's only in southern California. Oh it's
like Maha bra palm desert, Like they're all.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Over These are not exciting. I know, they're all making
his hand palm desert. Also what about oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Blythe is on there. It's totally like, seriously, those are
the ones just stuck in my head beating.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Down in there East San Diego County.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Sure, yeah, yeah, exactly. So anyway, they're only in southern California,
in California, but they have them in all other parts
of the country East, in the South. They're a whole
bunch of interesting but they are not an American invention.
As you can guess. Aldi is the brainchild of two
German brothers Germans guessing, Okay, two German brothers with a
fascinating story, part of which involves a crime. Oh so,
(08:47):
Sarah and I would like you to meet Carl and
Theo Albreck. Carl in the family hair hair are me?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I don't even speaking.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
They came from Essen, like the industrial heartland, in the
rural valley, good Catholic folks. Carl Arbrecht Senior he was
born in eighteen eighty.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Six, eighteen eighties, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
The patriarch of the family. He worked as a baker's
assistant and then later as a miner, and then he
got he had lung problems because of that, so then
he opened a small bread selling business in nineteen thirty baking. Yeah,
so it wasn't like an actual bakery, but he just
had like the shop. His wife Anna, expanded that business
(09:33):
into a corner grocery, and in nineteen nineteen they moved
their shop into a larger space where Carl this junior,
Carl Junior he was born in nineteen twenty and Theo
who was born two years later in nineteen twenty two.
They grew up stocking shelves, helping customers and like.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
The dadiest babies industry, the dad kept meticulous books like
he was he was mount.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yes, oh, get right, goes without saying, and so this
like modest storefront became the seed of aldi.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Oh of course, yeah, she was not coming.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
The family was working class and they were really shaped
by Germany's interwar hardships, as you can imagine board. Yes,
you know because look born in nineteen, the brothers twenty
and twenty two, so you know.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
They're right at the end of World War and that period.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
That is fascinating to me. Between yes and that's what
they know, that's their place of birth. There was that
hyper inflation of the early twenties.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And wheelbarrows with deutsch markt Yes.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
That meant that their groceries like strict frugality. Like the
store they offered only the essentials. They really tightly controlled stock,
of course, and they kept the prices super low. It's
all by necessity. It was a survival tactic, not just
like a good business model.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
No, I've heard an interesting joker that time is that
somebody showed up with a whealebarrow of deutsch Mark's to
do their grocery shopping, and then they got upset because
they went out and someone had stolen the wheelbarrow and
left all the Deutsche marks.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Basically, like the thing is like they've got this store
and it's you know, bare bones and the cheap, so
it's super popular people.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, of course at that time.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Then both of the sons they were drafted into service
during World War Two, so like they would have later
on run into my grandfather somewhere who'd say, where were
you in the war? Just that was my favorite thing.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
A lot of uncomfortable conversation.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Oh my god. Apparently like no, no. My mom tells
a story about going to Europe when she was a
teenager and my grandfather who served in Guadalcanal, Like they
go and they're in like Bavaria and then in like
a beer hall, and he would turn to people and
be like, so where were you in the war? Like
you just want to fight your way out of this place?
(11:51):
What's up, dude? He scrap. He's a navy man, okay.
So so they get drafted. Karl fought on the Eastern
Front and was wounded. He took like something in the
leg or something, I guess, and then theo he was
sent to the Africa Corps and he was captured in
(12:11):
Tunisia by Allied forcees like hoorayok for them. And he
spent years in the US pow camp before he was repatriated,
so you know, like.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
In Texas he lived, they send him.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
I don't know, so, Zaren, these two boys were not
on the right side of history.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I was just skipping past that because you said they
were drafted.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I don't know how enthusiastic they were about the cause,
and I would I'm just going to hope that they
were reluctant troops. Something came out of their wartime experiences though,
besides a good drubbing, their time in the war reinforced
their existing discipline and like this deep avoidance of waste,
(12:53):
you know, like they were they became like really camp
you know what I mean exactly, and so they hung
on to even like the slightest little things, and that's
what infused their business philosophy later. So they get home
in nineteen forty six and they took over the family
store essen pretty much destroyed, which like course.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah you got ball bearings factories they were going down.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
But the shop remained. The shop was still standing, and
the discount force field was like strong, like it made
a bubble around it when our boys went in there.
And blew it to smithereens. No, it stayed the let's
not forget that. Post war Germany obviously faced shortages and rationing.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Oh yeah, a decade and a half.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, it's the perfect milieu for discount retail, no good points.
So they built a chain of stores across the region
by buying up these like bombed out shops on the cheap.
They refitted them, rehabbed them, and then operated with like
that tight cost control. And so there's like no frills
whatsoever in these shops.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Decoration so spartan.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, it's just like and bare shelves. No, like you're saying,
no decorations, just things, you know, five boxes stuck. Then
they're like, you can have one. They offered this limited assortment.
Most traditional supermarkets you've got like thousands of items. They
had like hundreds of items. This reduced thing. And then
they had these private label goods that they started developing.
(14:24):
So they sourced directly from producers under their own control
to cut costs.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Like McDonald's.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, their motto was, and I guess is quote the
best quality at the lowest price. It's like a very
straightforward motto.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I say, they didn't spend any time on.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
No marketing speak, no ad dies were paid for this.
There's no none of that like false sense of like
community or family. Just the facts, best quality money exactly.
So by nineteen fifty they ran thirteen shops. By nineteen
sixty they had over three hundred. Yeah, they're expanded. And
(15:00):
that was the year that the brothers formally divided the empire.
So accounts differ, but the general consensus is that they
got into a fight over whether or not to sell cigarettes. What. Yeah,
Carl was opposed to it. THEO was all for it.
So Carl was worried that if they carried tobacco products
it would attract shoplifters and damage their profits.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Wow, that is not the angler, I thought he would
tell not hell Or was like, let's roll the dice, buddy.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
But like more broadly, they also had different management philosophies
and expansion philosophies, so they had like it made the
division natural and it was not contentious. Oh really Yeah,
So THEO took what would be called Aldi nord Aldi
North for sure. These were the stores in northern and
western Germany, like going up from Essen. Carl took Ald
(15:50):
sued Aldi South. All the Southern stores. So it was
in nineteen sixty two that they adopted the name ALD
which is short for Albrecht Discount all brick discount. So
there's like this no nonsense brand reflects their strategy. We
got discount goods, minimal advertising.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Not as many letters as in other companies.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Pears efficiency, it's very German. Theo's Aldi Nord expanded into Belgium,
the Netherlands, Denmark, and then in nineteen seventy nine he
quietly acquired Trader Joe's in the US.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
What, yeah, does he still own it?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah. Trader Joe's began in nineteen sixty seven in Pasadena, California. Sure,
founded by Joe Colomba. In nineteen seventy nine, CEO bought
the chain through a family trust. But the thing is
they always operated completely separately from Aldi.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yes to do your own thing.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yeah, So there's like separate, distinct leadership, merchandising, supply business,
and it's under the Aldi Nord side of the family.
Joe Trader Joe himself stayed as CEO for almost a
decade after the sale. And you know they have like
so they do that quirky private label, little heavy identity
(17:02):
national cult brand. But they're not as spare in any
way as all they is.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
But they're pretty spare compared to other American.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Groceries, most definitely. Most definitely, I.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Can see the connection exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So are you a treator Joe's Guy.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I've had friends who worked there. My friend Jay, he
worked there, and I really enjoyed it when he worked there.
I had my sister be a fan, so I used
to do shopping for her and her family, so I
had to go there personally, you know me, I can't
stand the parking lots.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
They drive me insane.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
They never have good parking lots and people are always
fighting and jostling for spots, and I'm like, I do
not care.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
I will go to any other grocery stores. I don't
have to deal with that.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Tr I to go get like one or two things
and I'm walking by or on a bike, Yes, But
if I'm in a car crowded, no.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
There aren't really enough spaces, and I always feel like
the spaces are narrower. Yes, yes, and it makes people all.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Mad and there's just a bunch of angry liberals yelling
at each other. I'm like, super super violence.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
I know a lot of people who worked there too,
either have are now do and they love it For
the company, I feel like it's more of a snack store.
Sometimes they have good like frozen stuff. I like the
frozen pizzas, but I have not had success shopping for
fresh groceries there. No, I know people who swear by it.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Oh really yeah? Also I have heard complaints about their meats.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Saren I am particular about my groceries, Yes you will,
And to be honest, I spread my purchases over a
number of stores depending on the item. And you know
what I'm right or die for?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Though your your mini food farmer's markets.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
You go to Costco baby. Speaking of which, did you
know that one of the house brands at Aldi is Kirkwood. Oh,
Kirkwood frozen breaded chicken stuff is like supposed to be
a hit in the friar. In my research, I kept
seeing all these articles. That's what the Internet told me.
I've never ventured into it myself, but Kirkwood hits a
little too close to Costco's Kirkland. If you ask me
(18:51):
like shots, fire.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yourself a fresh pair of kirk on elevens and have
a good day.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Face off. Let's take a break and I'm going to
go heat up some Kirkwood chicken nuggets for you. And
when we come back, more Aldi zaren Okay, back to
(19:27):
Aldi please, So Carl's Aldi sued they entered the US
directly under the Aldi brand, So Aldi THEO went with
Trader Joe's. Carls like, you know what, you can't mess
with all that, and their US arm like grew steadily
from the Midwest outward. Now it's like got this dense network,
(19:47):
aggressive news store and remodeling.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
That's like, where's the highest population and density of Germans? Okay,
from Chicago and Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
They've been in the South. They've been buying up a
lot of the wind Dixies after wind Dixie closed and
kind of doing.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Wind Dixie closed. Oh yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
They haven't been down there, but you know it still
stands strong.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Past pig Wiggly Okay, nothing could take Pig.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
I'm big on the Pig. So they're they're like they're
constantly expanding. They want to open around eight hundred news
stores by twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
My father wouldn't let me shopping a place called Dixie,
So yeah, of.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Course no, not so how many stores eight hundred that's
an addition to what they already have. How many do
they have, I don't know, but in an addition to
what they already have by twenty twenty eight, they want
eight hundred more, okay. And so there are serious Aldi
fans out there. They love the products and seeing them online,
dedication of good value, and they're those who like track
the various products and promotions. There's this thing called the
(20:45):
Isle of Shame.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Is that a real thing?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
No? Well, it's like it refers to the middle aisle
of the store that has all these like limited time
non grocery what they call all de fines like home decor,
kitchen gadgets, seasonal items.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
It's nicknamed the Isle of shame because shoppers like do
impulse bies. Oh right, and he's like discounted yet exciting fine. Sure,
And then like those said, shoppers like to share anecdotes
online about these silly purchases. There's a whole Facebook community
about the Isle of shame.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
In that isle of shame or sometimes items that fans
refer to as aldidas, it's the Aldi logo in the
style of the Adida's logo, not the like leaf one
but the triangle and it's on sports where like tennis
shoes and tracksuits and I'm not gonna lie. The pictures
I found like awesome, No you can't. You got to
go into the stores.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
It's got to walk. Is of shame.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yeah, exactly. It's cheeky. And Adidas doesn't seem to mind.
Really they don't really care.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Because they're like they're.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Like, yeah, well they're just like no one's going to
make a mistake on this, and it's cute. You want
to be me so bad? Exactly. You know who does
mind UK retailer Marks and Spencer m and S.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Why would they?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I love M and S by the way, it's a
good shop anyway. So the most it's like a like
they got everything type thing. Tesco's more groceries. M and
S is like they've got house wears and clothes. It's
like Target. The most famous case was callin the Caterpillar
versus Cuthbert, so it was a street it's a cake fight.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
This is a cake fight. I did not see any
of this.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
M and S claimed that, okay, M and S had
call in the Caterpillar, which is like a rolled cake,
like a it's a long roll case with a face
on it looks like a caterpillar, and so it's like
you can buy these. It's a popular thing to children.
You chop up the caterpillar and you eat them, and
everyone that's calling the caterpillar, well all the introduced Cuthbert
(22:52):
the caterpillar. And it was like the M and S
said that the cake was so similar to Colin that
it unfairly on Collin's reputation. Wow, and it was a
bismirching saren. So the case became like an absolute meme fest.
And I remember this happening on social media. There was
like hashtag free Cuthbert because they were gonna have to
(23:13):
like puddle from.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
The shelves, taking the side of the underdogors.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah, and everyone out and was buying as many Cuthberts
as they could. So the parties reached like this confidential settlement.
They declared a truce in February of twenty twenty two,
and they could both go on selling their caterpillar cakes.
There was no court ruling on liability.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
So I think that like all these just had to
kick some up to M and.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
S and I think emins had to realize the judge'll
be like, why are you taking it my time with this?
And of course anyone can sell a caterpillar case.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah exactly, I mean, and they did look a lot,
they looked and then whatever, it's cute. So then there
was the snow globe gin bottle case from twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
One Spencer, so they like marketing gin to children, like
more kids.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Spencer claimed that that time that all these festive light
up liqueur bough with a winter scene, swirling gold flakes
an led base infringed upon their UK registered designs for
their own light up snow globe gin range UK drinking.
Oh god, it's so good. So this time the legal
(24:15):
hook wasn't trademarks but registered designs, so like the protected
appearance of the pressure. In January of twenty twenty three,
the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court held that all these bottles
infringed four of Marks and Spencer's registered designs because to
the quote informed user, they did not create a sufficiently
different overall impression.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
They could be mistaken for each other.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, So the Court of Appeals upheld that ruling dismissed
all these appeal confirmed infringement of the Marks and Spencer
designs commentators noted that this was like a significant design
owner friendly decision for tackling supermarket lookalikes.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Oh so it set a precedent law.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, and so you know brand don't like they had
this distinctive seasonal packaging and it was shots fired warning
to discounters that like these closely, you know, get ups
can cross the line. So those aren't though the all
the crimes I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I was curious.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
No, I have a major crime, a big dog. Let's
go back to Carl and CEO Albrecht. Yes, discount grocery magnates.
They were notoriously thrifty. Yeah. Ceo was once asked to
inspect plans for a new store. He looked them over,
inspected every detail, and then he offered this comment quote,
(25:38):
this layout is very good, but there's just one thing.
This paper you're using is too thick. Use thinner paper
to save money paper so the like, rather than wasting
money on fancy fountain pens. He would take notes at
meetings with senior staff using pencil stubs that were like
less than two inches long. He wrote pencils down to
(25:58):
like the erasers and everyone else to do the same thing.
He's like, why are you doing that?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Here?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
No waste. So as you can see THEO. He's very
involved in the day to day of his business. He
put in hours at HQ, just like everybody else. Zaren
close your eyes.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I'll want you to pick a little nervous.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
It's the twenty ninth of November nineteen seventy one. You
are THEO Albrecht, the very wealthy head of Aldi North.
You are one of the richest men in the world,
but you don't flaunt it. You live more like old
money does. You prefer buying things that are built to last,
and you wieschee flashy brands or homes. That's not to
(26:44):
say you don't enjoy the finer things. You live in
a large home, not a mansion by any stretch, but
bigger than most. You drive a gorgeous Mercedes two eighty sel.
It's an elegant sedan that's built like a tank. Today
you're wrapping up a long day at the office. You're
leaving all the North headquarters, heading out to the parking
lot to make your way home. Your shoes squeak on
(27:06):
the immaculate, high gloss cement floors as you cross the
lobby and give a wave to the security guard at
the front desk. He nods to you as you pass.
You walk to the parking lot, whistling a tune I'm
happy to call it a day and spend the evening
with your family. You open the door of the Benzo
hop in and fire up. The engine roars to life,
and for a moment, your Creten's Clearwater Revival tape begins
(27:29):
to play in the stereo, but only for a moment.
Then there's a scrambled, squealing sound as the tape deck
each your cassette drat. You decide to forego the stereo
and supply your own tunes, whistling away as you hit
the turn signal and leave the lot. You leave the
industrialized area and hit the leafy suburbs of Essen. You
wind down a narrow road, tall trees hugging the tarmac
(27:52):
creating a bony fence. On this almost winter evening, it's
still beautiful. As you come to a turn in the road,
you slam on your brakes. A van has pulled out
into the road in front of you from some sort
of alley or driveway.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Dundkov.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
You yell as your tires screech on the black top.
A man hops from the van and heads to your window.
You roll it down and await his apology. Instead, he
shoves a gun in your face. This is a curious development.
You think you are terrified. The man demands you exit
your car, but first he stares at you from behind
a balaclava. He asks to see your id. You can fly.
(28:29):
He looks back and forth between your ID and your
face that's slowly losing color. He tells you he thought
you'd be fancier, have a nicer suit on, maybe have
a driver.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
You shrug.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
He holds the gun to your temple, yanks you from
the car and drags you to the van. The back
doors pop open and shoves you in. Another man is
already back there, the driver, it seems. He immediately begins
binding your body with rope. Your arms are tied securely
to your sides. One of them wraps wide tape around
your head, covering your mouth and preventing any scream cries
for help. Then a piece of that same wide tape
(29:03):
is slapped across your eyes, blocking out light. You can
no longer see their masked faces. The van roars to
life and speeds off this whole thing is so disorienting
and frightening that you can't get your bearings. You don't
know which way the van is traveling. All you know
is that you're on the floor of a van with
a gun shoved into your ribs, praying for the Blessed Virgin,
(29:23):
all the saints, and the Good Lord himself to protect
you and save you, because you know you can't do
that for yourself right now, So zaren, Yes, THEO Albrecht
was just kidnapped. In case that wasn't clear, very clear.
Two men, a lawyer named Hans Jaquim Allenberg and an
ex burglar, Paul Diamond, Paul Krawn. They were the culprits. Yeah.
(29:49):
So when THEO didn't show up at home after work,
his family became worried.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
With very tight schedule, very tight.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, they raised the alarm, contacted the cops, a search
began in immediately. THEO was a very high profile and
wealthy individual, and it's important to remember that their lives
and safety matter far more than ours priorities there very true.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, No waiting twenty four hours, no, no, you.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Get the call. Everything all resources put towards that it's there.
They're worth more.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah, they're pretty much the pedestals of the community holding
all the rest of us up.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Their lives are more valuable than ours. So Theo's Mercedes
was found ditched about twenty five miles from his office,
and the next day the kidnappers moved THEO between a
couple of flats in Duseldorf. He was made to strip
down to his underpants each time they shoved him into
a wardrobe like an amor at each place for various
(30:46):
periods of time standing closet. He wasn't tortured or treated
too poorly, other than having to sit in a closet
wearing nothing but his chonies, but like the kidnappers kept
threatening it with harm in order to make sure he behave.
The next day, the first of the ransom letters arrived
at the Albrich family home, and some were dictated by
(31:07):
THEO under duress. But it confirmed that he was alive.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
But they aren't cutout letter.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
No, it's his handwriting. Yeah, So the kidnappers identified themselves
as en fjor Rungsfrat Kidnapping Council, and so they're trying
to sound like this structured organization. Hey, it's us. The
Kidnapping Council.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
We had a meeting and we decided on the price.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
So they were demanding seven million Deutsche marks seven, which
was the equivalent of two point one million dollars at
the time. So that's more than sixteen point five million
dollars today. Yeah. It was the largest ransom on record
at the time. According to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
It was international. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Oh so messages were also sent to North Rhine Westphalia's
state premiere, hinting at more kidnappings if their demands weren't met.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Oh smart.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Yeah. So THEO he asked his captors like, how did
you choose me?
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Why? He wanted to know, my family is notoriously not
the spendee.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah. They told him that they picked him for the
abduction after reading this book called The Rich and the
super Rich, a book chronicling the lives of the wealthy.
It was like a catalog for them.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Didn't know who to go.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Yeah, they're chatting it up by now and they're they're
letting THEO read the paper, listen to the radio, and
he's like advising them on negotiating, Like he's basically acting
as his own negotiator with them okay, yeah, and he's
like trying to Yeah, you know, he's not like, hey,
get more of it exactly.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
You know, I'm much more.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Remember, THEO came from a devout Catholic family, so in
times of trouble, one leans on one's face, and Theo's
family quietly involved the Catholic Church at this point. Once
the ransom letter was received, they reached out to Bishop
Franz Hangbock of Essen and he agreed to mediate.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Suggesting okay, the cooler heads prevailed, right, So.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
For three days communications continued via letters, phone calls. The
police were cautious, they ran surveillance and they kept the
negotiations going. They feared for Theo's life, like if it
dragged on too long, the family and then all the
all the executives. They worked to keep the case out
of the press for as long as possible.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Oh interesting, and the police.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
They had the bishop pass along a message to the kidnappers.
If they produced THEO unharmed, the cops would give them
twenty four hours lead time to make a run for it.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
They give him a head start.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah, I'll give you a twenty four hour head start,
and then we're.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Going to come after you you know, this is like
a Ron Howard movie.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah, So the fifteenth of December, an agreement was reached.
CEO had been in captivity for sixteen days. The family
put seven million Deutsche marks in banknotes into two large suitcases,
and the police had like prepared, they had marked all
the notes, like there were covert tracking things, but like
it's nineteen seventy one technology, so there are limits. But
(34:02):
all of the cash was marked. On the seventeenth day
of his captivity, the plan went into motion. It was
the sixteenth of December nineteen seventy one. So in the
dim light of the evening, Bishop Hengsbach drove to this
rural area outside of Duseldorf. Following instructions he was given,
he put the two suitcases filled with ransom money out.
(34:23):
The kidnappers collected the cash, and then the next morning,
THEO was released near Essen, physically unharmed but like obviously shaken.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, cops standing on the corner.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
The cops lied. They immediately began the man hunt. They're like,
you're stupid for falling for that.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Wow, and like they had it was kind of a
ridiculous thing. We'll give you twenty four hours don't worry.
We're making a game of the day, like.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
You promise, you like to tell you wants to do this.
They had recordings of the phone calls and they played
them for the public and asked the public he recognized
the voice and oh my god, so many people called in.
But that wasn't where they got their first break. It
was the money in the wild, oh, betting spent. It
was only days later after theo got freed that Diamond
(35:10):
Paul drew attention to himself by paying a shop debt
with five hundred Deutsche mark notes that came from the
ransom handover. So the tip from the dealer gave police
this concrete lead. Diamond Paul right arrested in Germany on
the twentieth and December nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Did the dealer like know Paul, Like there's a regular
place he went, I'm like yeah this time.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Yeah, the lawyer Oleenberg he fled. He figured Diamond Paul
was going to rat him out, and so the cops
like rushed to Ollin.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Now.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Remember, so he's this lawyer. They go to his law
office in Duseldorf, but he's already in the wind. There
was evidence there that implicated him and the kidnapping, since
that's one of the places they kept THEO in the office.
So this manhunt follows. Ohlenberg gets picked up in Mexico
City who and flown back to Germany by around New
Year's So this is like end of November, beginning of
(36:06):
December and it's New Year's they bring him back. This
is German efficiency.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Soon enough, the pair stood trial. I'm going to pause here,
check out some ads. Hopefully there's good deals. I hope
they're not too offensive to the senses. And when we
return court time Zaren Elizabeth, welcome back.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Man the bush Us. I could not believe.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
I'm still kind of like tripping out that they didn't
have any like wherewithal to not spend the money. I mean,
I guess they didn't have I guess Diamond Paul didn't
have it like that.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Well, Diamond Paul was like, he's not like the best, No,
even though he's Diamond Paul.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yeah, Well, nicknames don't always tell you it's true.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
That's true. But let's talk about the law. Part of
law and order court. So the kidnapping case of THEO
Albrecht was heard in Essen's regional court by three professional
judges plus two lay judges. Apparently, as was the custom
of the day. The trial opened in January of nineteen
seventy three, so like thirteen months after the abduction. The
(37:29):
newspaper Der Spiegel they described an absolutely overflowing press and
public gallery because here you've got this family that's so
secretive and then there's this huge event, so everyone wants to,
you know, to learn more about.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
It, crack open the walls of the family, what's going on.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
In contemporary coverage, like they classed it as a robbery
style extortion plus unlawful deprivation of liberty. So that was
basically the kidnapping for ransom pairing in German law at
the time, and there was a statue tory maximum sentence
of fifteen years. The prosecution had key evidence, right, so
there were those marked ransom bills. Remember, just days after
(38:09):
the release, he goes to the shop. He's like, here,
here's some five hundred deutsch mark bills. And then that
was the tip that led to his arrest. So that's
part of the evidentiary chain. Then there was that runner
that Ollenberg did, and then there were the confession slash
partial admissions.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
From both men.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah, so the court noted that both men were quote
vit Gen gesstendis largely confessed. Oh, I'm not saying any
of this right, and I was going to just skip it,
but I thought, why not aim for the stars. Elizabeth
was in your life. Dershpiegel's week one report paints this
super vivid scene, like the courtroom is packed with TV crews, photographers,
(38:51):
the two defendants are sparring over like who masterminded what,
and then the article also records testimony about how the
targets were selected because he was like they had others,
just just those two, because they had that they're rich
and the super rich, and then pressless that they found.
Then THEO shows up, so like the regional coverage marks
(39:12):
like his own testimony mid January, and there are photographs, captions,
but there's so little information about what was said, and
I think that they could maybe manipulate the press into
not talking about it too much. And so in the end,
each guy gets eight and a half years in prison.
About half the ransom was recovered in bank accounts and
(39:34):
safe houses, only half, but yeah, three to three and
a half million Deutsche marks vanished without a trace. So
there's so much speculation around that. There's talk about offshore
stashes dimonds. No, not that I know of. So we
have to keep in mind who we're dealing with in
terms of the victim. Right. So THEO lifelong account and son,
(39:55):
notorious miser. His family had just shelled out all that
money and he wanted justice or at least financial balance.
So old THEO tried to deduct the unrecovered ransom as
a business expense on his taxes. The government, I want
to write it off. So the government was like, no,
(40:16):
we don't agree with that or that course of action.
So the Duseledore Finance Court ruled that it could not
be classed as a business.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
As a business loss essentially, well, they did.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Allow it as part of a quote extraordinary burden against
income tax. Oh yeah. So this very unusual action by
the court and the new president drew wide attention in
German legal and financial circles because there's all sorts of
ways that you can, you know, ful with that fake it.
So anyway, already known for his secrecy, THEO became even
(40:49):
more reclusive. He rarely granted interviews, he avoided photographs, seldom
seen in public his addresses and movements were really tightly guarded.
Hero in an armored car to work and he changed
his route every day. Yeah, lightning striking twice according to Ye. Yeah,
so this reinforced all these culture of anonymity, like the
(41:14):
executives also stayed low profile.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Everyone really all potentially learned from his loss.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yes, And then there's four four in the nineties, the
brothers Theo and Carl. They retreated to a remote North
Sea island. Four is one of the North Frisian islands
off it's the second largest German island.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Yeah, you're another nothing against you. Your pronunciation was throwing.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Oh it's terrible. So it's well, here's the thing, Like
I go online, I get online. Yeah, you know, I
surf the web, I surf the net, and I was
doing the pronunciation for how to pronounce his place and
they are like six different ways and none of them
are right, you know what I mean, Like he hit
won and it's off. No, that's on how they are four.
Speaker 6 (42:02):
F O with the two little like yeah, h r
fu su I think it'd be like I think it
is fures.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Oh yeah, okay, so fure he's on fear O, he's
on fear Hey, little girls, your daddy home. So seriously,
it's a great song. The boss maybe go back and
fix them. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (42:33):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
So Fure is this second largest German island. It's this
quiet thatch roof cottage kind of place with like this
long North Friesian cultural history and a twenty seven hole
golf club online, but like discrete. Uh it's in an
area called the Frisian Caribbean. Oh yeah, it is to
(42:57):
their aim and high accounts describe this as like semi
retirement living from that. Yeah, so from like the nineties onward,
because like THEO stepped back from daily operations in ninety
three and Carl in ninety four. They just like puttered
around the island. They went back and forth to like Essen,
but they were mainly there and like the intense privacy
(43:17):
that they had makes it really hard to pin down dates,
but like you know, you can kind of guess based
on obituaries and stuff like that. Okay, So the sources
that we have like link this island life to these private,
really low key hobbies, golf collecting, antique typewriters. That was
like a long running THEO quirk.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
That's a Tom Hanks quirk too.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Yeah, all like, so THEO did that for a long time. Orchids.
THEO was also super orchids. Yeah, they both like to
go hunting. That's fun. So THEO. He died in July
of twenty ten in his hometown of Essen. The family
provided no details about it and they delayed reporting it
for a while, like delayed telling the press. Carl passed
(44:03):
away four years later in twenty fourteen, and that year
he was listed as one of the richest people in
the world, with an estimated net worth of twenty three
point one four billion.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Damn lost count grocery.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Yeah, so when he died, he was named the richest
person in Germany and the fourth richest in Europe.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Ceo and his wife silly. They had two sons, Theo Junior.
He went on to work Aldi Nord and then Berthold
and his branch of the family remained involved through like
foundation work. So control of Aldi Nord was vested in
three family foundations, Marcus, Lucas and Jacobus. I don't know
(44:45):
where they got the names, so there's so little information
on their background and they're thinking of stuff. So this
was designed for like tax reasons. And to enforce long
term stewardship. So after Theo's death in twenty ten and
then his son Berthold ied in twenty fourteen, a fight
broke out among the heirs. So these like disputes became
(45:07):
really public, and they were overwhelmingly on the Aldi Nord side,
and it centered on the control of those foundations that
you know, Aldi Nord and then Trader Joe's by extensions.
Oh yeah, So there are very specific, let's call them
like flash points in this. So first was Theo's death
and then a couple of years later his son, and
(45:28):
it was later revealed that his son blew out his
liver drinking himself to death. But at the time of
his death, like it was just this mysterious he's had
fifty but when he died, he and his brother had
an estimated net worth of almost eighteen billion dollars.
Speaker 5 (45:44):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
Yeah. So the next flashpoint was the resignation of the
Aldi Nord CEO Mark Heiberger in twenty eighteen because there
was all this like shareholder turmoil. Now, then there was
silly the mom's will that accused Berthold's will Babet and
their five children of siphoning more than one hundred million
euros from one of the foundations.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Not bad, bet ba.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Bet love that. Why wasn't I named Babet? That'd be
so much more fun.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
People call you Babs. You'd hate that. I could do that.
You could do that, Babs.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
No, I couldn't do that. Think So then the next
year there was a criminal complaint this is twenty twenty,
filed by the grandson Nikola against his mom and his sisters. Yeah, yeah,
he's like babbet uh. Prosecutors later dropped an embezzlement probe
and to like check everything out open books. By January
(46:37):
of twenty twenty three, the camps like they, you know,
they we've put our feud to rest.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
Yeah, it's crossing us to legal fees.
Speaker 3 (46:43):
But not before more than a decade of like reporting
on the feuds in the tabloids. It's like the Daily
Mail had a field day, mainly because of all these
popularity in the UK. They always mentioned that in the
articles and the details were wild. There's like the drinking,
all these accusations and then is incredible eye popping amounts
of money.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Are they doing like that underground German stuff? Or they
do the sword fighting and cut each other's cheeks.
Speaker 3 (47:05):
Probably Now let's say they did. It is like perfect
tabloid father, which is exactly what THEO would have hated. Yes,
like this would have been He's he is spinning in
his grave. He's like crypt He's yeah, like just drilled
a hole.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yeah, further, you could play a record.
Speaker 3 (47:22):
Hated it. Another major scandal touching the air was the
Helge Achenbach art fraud case in twenty fourteen. If you
say so, right, bless me, a prominent art dealer was
convicted of defrauding Berthold and then drunk son.
Speaker 6 (47:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:38):
Later civil rulings awarded damages to the heirs on the
Aldi suit side, Carl the heirs bit to Hayster and
the late Carl Arbrick Junie. If they had any disputes,
they kept it private. Oh real quiet. There's no comparable
public legal brawls over controlled.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
No, yeahind closed doors with lawyers.
Speaker 3 (48:01):
The Theo's abduction is one of post war Germany's most
infamous crimes. I met, and it really hardened corporate Germany's
security culture and made the name synonymous Albrecht not just
with like frugality but secrecy. What about the kidnappers.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Arin what about them, Elizabeth.
Speaker 3 (48:19):
They both died in twenty seventeen, together a few months apart,
so Paul Diamond Paul he passed away in a care
home at the age of eighty seven, and heinz Olenberg
he died at the age of ninety three same year.
So they kept really low profiles after their release. And
regarding the ransom, Diamond Paul said that Ollenberg was the
(48:41):
brains behind the abduction and only gave him like a
few thousand Deutsche marks for his participation in it. Ollenberg
the lawyers like no, no, no, no, I beg to differ.
He swore they had split the money evenly, and when
he was busted, he returned his half. That's the half
they got.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Oh, and that's why they were That's what they have
and so that's that's why we have.
Speaker 3 (49:03):
Yeah, that's why they have the three and a half
deutsche marks missing Diamond Paul. But here's Diamond Paul. He
talks to the press and he's like on a pension,
like a pensioner's allowance.
Speaker 4 (49:14):
Like he's not rich, but does he have some like
you know, this is forgive me for being a romantic,
but does he have like someone who he's like protecting
an illegitimate daughter and he's just giving her all the money.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
I have no idea, And I'll tell you what's really
interesting is like, I really think that the Albrecht family
had such a grip on German media that they could
get these little bits and pieces. But the details are
just scant, and it gave me the impression that a
lot of it was just clamped, that they don't want
too much stuff out there. But Diamond Paul, he said,
(49:46):
he told the press, quote, Honestly, I don't know about it.
I only got ten thousand Deutsche marks from Ollenberg. He
was cleverer than me.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
Who do you believe in this between the two of them.
Speaker 3 (49:57):
I believe I believe Diamond Paul. I want to you
know that, like, yeah, he got stiffed, he got ten grand.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Oh, I believe it the other way. I believe that
he was like, I guess I split it. I guess
I don't believe him. That's the better way of saying it.
Speaker 4 (50:11):
I believe that Oldenburg split it with the Diamond Paul,
and that Diamond Paul is not telling the truth about
the ten grand or the ten thousand he got, and
that he is he's hidden it away somewhere, but for
somebody else who he doesn't want anything bad to happen,
and he's going to live as a pauper.
Speaker 3 (50:25):
Olenburg. He was living out by the Polish border and
he was living in this like spare life.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yeah, East Germany.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
He would not talk to the media at all, had
nothing to do with them. But like local talentspeople they
like had the whispers about, like stash money in Switzerland,
like that was the rumor. So in twenty twenty five,
the police in Essen, they announced that they had recovered
a box of misplaced case files in the basement the
(50:52):
cellar of a station.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
A misplaced pop had like total for the most.
Speaker 3 (50:56):
Important Yease, it wasn't just them, there's a bunch of
but in the box we're records from the all record kidnapping. Sure,
so they think the files might shed light on the
ransom handover and the fate of those missing millions, and
so like the publics that getting all jazzed up about it,
you know, more than half a century later.
Speaker 2 (51:14):
And if they're marked, they're still marked, I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (51:17):
So stay tuned, Saren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 4 (51:21):
Oh man, like this couldn't be a more German story
the way everybody is involved in like, and I'm not
trying to like, I know that it's a wide culture.
Not every German falls under the stereotyps. What I'm saying
is our understanding as Americans of the German cultural personalities,
if you will. This is very much like I'm like
wow at every turn, like that he drives himself in
(51:43):
his own car, and then that they judge him for
driving himself, like we would have thought you would have
a better suit to driver, and he's like, well, you
would be wrong, you know. It's it's just very interesting
to me. And then also the family splitting in the
North and South. I have to admit, just because of
understanding of latitudes and the tendencies of latitude, that the
(52:04):
South family would be the messier one in the North family,
and it flips. I find that interesting too.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
What about for you, Elizabeth?
Speaker 3 (52:10):
I again, I love the I know a good number
of Germans and those who are from there live there,
those who are immigrants. Yeah, and it's and it's it
is a very German story. They're all these really endearing
coat qualities of it. And I'm fascinated by having this
money and like his house, like you can only I
(52:32):
was able to kind of like sneak away to find
his house with these like coordinates. Oh, but you can't
do a street view. It's just like there's a huge thing,
but like from the footprint above, it's not. It isn't
a mansion. I mean it's huge, so I mean i'd
put it at maybe like eight thousand square feet. It's huge,
but it's not this palatial estate and it's not like
(52:53):
got huge grounds around it. It's in a neighborhood and
there are smaller houses around and all that kind of
thing a neighborhood to it's I find that fascinating. This
guy is like a billionaire and this quiet life and
that he and his brother too, their joy was finding
this like isolated island and so all of the stuff
that they lived through and saw and like fought through,
(53:17):
you know that, Uh, to come out with that in
this frugality. That then the secrecy is also like a
huge thing, like to keep their name out of the press,
and then how their family blows that entirely. Yeah, I
mean there's the Daily Mail articles are nuts. So that's
my takeaway. I would really love a talkback.
Speaker 2 (53:39):
Hell yeah, oh god, I went get.
Speaker 5 (53:52):
Zaran. This is story from Asto, Minnesota, home to three people,
and you need to take your Bluetooth pack into Elizabeth Forrester.
Get over to Krispy Creton right now, because happening for
a limited time only is Harry Potter Donuts. That's right,
pick your house of ill repute, grab a ratchet and
(54:17):
get over there now. Thanks guys, Bye.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
Round trip for coming to.
Speaker 4 (54:24):
See you, babe, and thank you for the deepole on
the ratchet. I need to get Elizabeth properly. I do
need to get a ratchet and Bluetooth.
Speaker 2 (54:30):
That forester.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
Is so good. Uh. That is it for today. You
can find us online at ridiculous Crime dot com. I
was just named employee of the month there really so
thank you Saron. Congratulations, Thank you Eric. I'm so proud
of you. Thank you. Uh. You were also a Ridiculous
Crime on blues Crime Instagram. We're on YouTube at Ridiculous
(54:54):
Crime Pod. You can email Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.
Leave a talk back. God you love the talkbacks on
the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by
Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett. Produced and edited by loss
Albreck brother Dave Kusten, starring Annale Rudger as Judith. Research
(55:17):
is by Frugal shopper Marisa Brown. The theme song is
by Discount Musical Instrument Emporium pioneers Thomas Lee and Travis
dunt Post wardrobe is provided by Botany five hundred. Guests Haron,
makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andre. Executive producers are Scheming
Kidnappers of the One Percent, Ben Bowleen and Noel Brown.
(55:42):
Disquime Say It One More Time, Gee Crime.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more Podcasts.
My Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
Elizabeth Dutton
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