The Argentine Heist of the Century

Sewers, pizza, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles –– this one has everything that's cool, comical and subterranean. It was a brilliant plan. It was executed perfectly. That is, until one fatal flaw brought the whole operation crashing down.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous crime. It's a production of Iheartradiot.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
In the flesh right over here, that's me, the one
in the flesh bag. So Hey, I got a question
for you know what, daddy?

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Yeah, I do know, it's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
What's that?

Speaker 4 (00:14):
First?

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Let me just crack open a brew. Oh, just an
old can of you who keep it fresh? Get some
warm coconut milk. The motto it was the industrial cleaner.
Uh are you familiar? I just had to crack a
beverage to talk about this.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I saw that.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Do you know Aldi? The disc story? Yeah, it's a
discount grocery store. If you look at their Wikipedia, it
says not at the top, not to be confused with
the automaker Audi. Okay for those who don't enounciate so Aldie, Right, okay,
that's that's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Below the mason that.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Wasn't my ridiculous too? Isn't that great?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
So Aldie? Did you know that they have an award
winning voove monsigner Champagne.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I'm going to know.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
I'm not even saying it right. They have a champagne.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Look at them, Look at them, discount champagne, discount dry
discount champagne.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
And so, but you know the reason why I'm telling
you this is that they they made a special keepsake
version of it, an exclusive of a discount of a
discount champagne. Give me a guess, why do you think?
And they're gonna they're gonna have it at a store

(01:36):
in Manchester.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Is it a waterproof card for a bail bondsman?

Speaker 3 (01:39):
No? Because you why why would they release a special
edition discount grocery.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm just praying this isn't a mashup.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
It's four eight pounds.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Reunion Champagne. Yes, and I'm gonna have a sip of
you for that.

Speaker 5 (02:07):
The discount Champaign in the spirit.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Of Oasis and so they say like, well, they're giving
away bottles nationwide via a free enter to enter, free
to enterprise draw. I can talk. And so shoppers can
be get a chance of winning by simply liking and
tagging a friend that they'd like to pop open a
bottle with on all these Facebook page because you know,

(02:33):
it's the cutting edge for the kids. Although I don't
know Oasis fans, they're older.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
I don't think they're the kids.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Will They're on Facebook that was between the eleventh and
thirtieth of June, so you missed it.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
But yeah, gotta start setting.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Do you know that? Okay? So that Champagne scooped top
industry honors, including the Drink's Business Global Champagne Master's twenty
twenty five and Supernova Champagne offers the same premium taste
limited edition packing.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Was the industry like places where you can find gas,
call them pal.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Julie Ashfield, chief commercial officer.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
At all the UK, gives it.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Doesn't that's what it sounds like. She was like, oy hoy,
I was like, tell me about this. She said, we're
thrilled to launch super Nova Champagne, a special limited edition
brand of our award winning vous. I don't know if
that's how you say it. We're she said, the right way.
I'm just recounting we're offering shoppers a unique and memorable

(03:30):
way to raise a glass to this iconic moment in
music history. Do you think it's actually going to happen?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Of course?

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Well, the tour is this going to be like a
Jane's addiction thing, like go to the early shows?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Definitely go to the early shows. I put money on that,
all right, So they may need the cash grab and
just muscle it out.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Are you feeling supersonic? Oh my goodness, you'd need some
of this stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
I'm over here, just a wonderwalk, want of desire for
this life.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Don't Don't look back in anger? So I thought you'd
like that. You're you know, you told us the Oate
the story that one time I love them, I love them.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, they are fun.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
And then it allowed me to crack open a can
of cook zero.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
In here, and I will admit I like a couple
of their songs. Don't tell me when I said.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
That, I love don't look back in anger, and I
love it sung loudly in public by groups of people
at the end of an evening.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Oh, the Scottish tradition.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yes, I love that.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
So there you go.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
That's I just took up a huge portion of time
to tell you.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Was ridiculous. Damn ridiculous it is. I was like family
fund size ridiculous.

Speaker 6 (04:32):
It was.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, Elizabeth, I got something for you.

Speaker 5 (04:34):
He got a second. You got a beverage cracked.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
Listen, it's sweat and it's a cold.

Speaker 5 (04:39):
Nice use it to chill your cabsa relax.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
I got a great one. You know, in fact, I.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Never put you you who in your hair?

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Have ever? It's I used to shampoo from seven to nine.

Speaker 5 (04:52):
It was the only way they get me in a bathtubs.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
You and then you.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Had ants all over you all during the day.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
They call them my helpers make clean Elizabeth. They ate
all the crust.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Now, you know, in fact and fiction mix facts always
better than fiction.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Well, I got another storytelling truth for you. It's one
that criminals should tell themselves. Frankly, I'm looking at it
for y'all. Uh Okay, here's what it is. If you're
on a heist team and you're involved in a crime
of the century. Yeah, your romantic partners are also part
of your heist team. Yeah, you better treat them right.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Who.

Speaker 7 (05:25):
Yeah, this is Ridiculous Crime A podcast.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
About absurd and outrages, capers, heist and cons. It's always
ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous
to that. Cheers Elizabeth, Cheers Elizabeth. I got this epic
heist for you today.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
I think it's hilarious that I'm just drinking.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
Oh yeah, guzzling. I'm joying it. I'm actually kind of envious.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
But you know, what carbonated beverages and telling stories?

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Oh I can't wait for like yak two you excuse
me one more? All right, produce, can you remove that?

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Wait to crush the can on my forehead?

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Not my forehead. That's good improvement from last time. Now
you like that show money Heist.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Right, yeah, the Spanish Spanish.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Language heist show. Yeah right, well, buckle up, Buttercup. I
do not know, so go to that butter Cooper. So
this one is a real deal. The story that the
show is based on, right, and this heightst doesn't take
place in Spain or anywhere in Europa. It goes down Intina.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Oh really, and this is what they did they based this.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, you'll hear it. I mean like, yeah, so what
do you know about Argentina?

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Don't cry for me. I just put that down there.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
And then there's your unstoppable love of local football legend
Lionel Messi.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Sure, yeah, and uh.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Huge, that is actually authentic.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
Good. I know some people from there they got like
they got like nine names. So awesome is it? Yeah,
it's like Maria Carmen, Yeah, like nine last names. No no, no,
they've got just their names.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, totally very cool. At in tradition like honor the
family and honor like where you're from.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Well, this brings us to the what the Argentines called
the Heist of the Century. Now, Elizabeth, I'd like you
to meet the mastermind of this epic heist, Senor Fernando.
He was fifty two years old at the time of
the heist, and he had this big, big idea. All right,
this is not uncommon for Fernando. He was what his
friends would call a free spirit. Yeah, as someone who's

(07:57):
been nicknamed a free spirit before, I know what that means.
It means he smoked a ton of pot, now, which
he did.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
Just meant that, like he dressed in like a boho style.

Speaker 5 (08:07):
Yeah, No, that's that's more boho.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
We have words for that. Email someone a free spirit,
it means they smell like weed when they walk by. No, basically,
for now, he was a dreamy pothead. Right now, This
dude puffed tough. He was also a pot grower, like
he grew the good stuff in his apartment. Oh, which
may have explained why he painted the windows of his
apartment black. Or perhaps it was meant for him to
hide from the world. I do not know. Elizabeth, But

(08:31):
what I do know sensitive? Yeah, very very could be
photovoltaically center photo sensitive, phototic. He absorbs light and gives
off energy. Now I do know what.

Speaker 5 (08:40):
Fernando was also a.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Nut for martial arts like cuckoo for it. He was
a part time martial arts instructor. Okay, And I should
point out he is not the first semi employed martial
arts instructor who's made it appearance on this show. So
maybe keep an eye out on your local martial arts
instructors because those dojos are like mattress shops.

Speaker 5 (08:59):
There's something I keep going down in there.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
I love that he's just like getting high and kicking.

Speaker 5 (09:04):
Exactly, and I smoke and I kick.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Now anyway, my man, the mastermind for Anando aroj was
a peculiar sort. Being semi employed as he was, he
lived according to his desires, his needs, his wants. He
ate when he was hungry, he slept when he was tired.
He smoked when he wanted to get high. He was
a man who lived by his own rules, Elizabeth, his
own code, one might say, my kind of guy, right.
He read Eastern philosophy, listened to classical music. He was

(09:29):
partial to my man beats.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
This is like the zeren Brunettes.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
You see why I like this.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Do you have a secret dojo?

Speaker 4 (09:35):
No?

Speaker 2 (09:35):
I cannot kick I just now he did. Also, he
loved the genius the most. I mean, the guy loved
anything that was like clearly genius. He had a mind
right that was yearning for a challenge, and like many
bank robbers who appear on this show, he did his
research by watching movies out of Hollywood.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Oh nice.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Apparently the ouvra of Michael Mann is like a graduate
program for one of the bank robbery.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
He's the popa apparently.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
I mean yeah, because they all mention it. He did
the same thing. Now they may want to watch some
other films because they all seem to make appearances on
this show, which means something went.

Speaker 8 (10:05):
Wrong, Yes, exactly, ridiculously wrong.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
So, while my man Fernando was getting high listening to
Beethoven's ninth and like watching Heat for the fifty eighth time,
he has his big, big idea, right, So what was
his big big idea? Great question was that's.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Such a good question.

Speaker 9 (10:19):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Oh my god, you're good at this.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
You're on fire now? Is it the drink is that
was keeping you fresh?

Speaker 3 (10:24):
It's the coke zero. It's got me zapping right now.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
So what if there was a bank robbery and instead
of trying to escape the bank robber stayed in the bank.
That was his big, big idea, right, So it's like
a perfect stoner thought.

Speaker 5 (10:36):
Like you can hear him be like, like, you know
how you get.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Caught when you try to flee the bank.

Speaker 5 (10:41):
What did you never left the bank man?

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Good luck catching me now, pigs, So I've lived in
the ceiling exactly. That'd be sobered up. Fernando was like, wait,
that wasn't just a high thought, man, that would totally work.
But in Spanish now, So he went and he told
his friend, to compadre he had known since high school, right,
he told his friend his big big idea. His friend
was like, well, you'd eventually have to leave, right and

(11:05):
this you started living inside the bank. And Fernando thought
about that, and he's like, oh, yeah, I see the problem.
Okay man, So he came up with the second part
of his big big idea. Okay, he asked his old friend, Okay, yeah, man,
I thought about it, but like, what if you stayed
in the bank, but then eventually you do leave through
a hole you cut in the floor. His friend's like, okay,

(11:27):
say more, pass me the joint and they kept you going.
Now the two hash out there big big idea they developed.
It seems like a fun way to kill time. But
playing a little game over what if?

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Right, we've all done done.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
This's tons. But Fernando it wasn't a game of what if.
He was planning a bank job, right, So he tells
his old friend is from high school. His name was
a Sebastian Garcia Bolster. We'll call him the Engineer. Yeah, right,
that's like his nickname is no him to crime, Right,
that's his heist team name. So unlike Fernando Sebastian aka
the Engineer, he wasn't a n'er do well, pot smoking,

(11:58):
semi employed martial law arts instructor. Now he had a life.
He was an actual law abiding mechanic. He was also
a family man. He was married, had a whole family,
the whole bit, right totally. He was turning a ranch
to pay his bills down at his own mechanic shop. Right. Wow,
he wasn't going to get rich, but he took care
of him his family. But like Fernando. He was also
a bit of a dreamer, aren't we all.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah, if you're lucky, if.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
You are truly No, he liked to draw plans for
a homemade helicopter because a dreamer dreamer, Yeah, a real
dreamer like Leonardo da Vinci level, but just not quite
there the same ideas, right, if there's a helicopter.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
Oh, there's a better world, or you know what, I
should paint that wall.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
No, no, I'm going to build myself in my shop.
So yeah, he dreamed of taking literal flights of fancy.
So that's why his old friend Fernando thought he might
be down for a bit of larceny. Right, So Fernando
pitches him his full bank job. Once he's got it developed,
he calls it. He's like, okay, I want to brief
you on this. I call it the Don Tello project

(13:00):
right now. Not as in like the Renaissance artists, more
as in Donna Tella from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
Stop that because they're going underground.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
Boom you are. Yeah, This fifty two year old, semi employed,
pot smoking martial arts instructor came to his married buddy
and told him he had a plan to pull up
an epic bank heist, and it was named after a
teenage mutant ninja turtle for a little joke.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
Donna Tella Versace and they all dress like Janis from
the Muppets, and they have streets, get their lips done. Yeah,
and then no one knows it's them.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Dude, spot you should be the mastermind.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
I'm a dreamer.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Yeah, so your spot on also about the teenage mutan
ninja turtles was the apt metaphor for his sewer project.
Right now, he's going to use this. There's a sewer
complex under beneath Buena.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
It's one thing to imagine, oh, there's a sewer complex,
but like I feel like when you're actually in the sewer,
it's not the like cartoon version.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
They see it.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Nasty, get a disease, you've never heard of the water.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah, there's stuff moving.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
Total stuff you don't even want to see moves down there.
Stuff is moving and we're in like you know, Buenos Aires.
So it's it's it's a different set of There's there's
carnivorous turtle. Tango are carnivorous turtles. There's tango rats aliens.
So mind, dude, this is two thousand and four. I
should have told you that different story, right, exactly, very
different Sowers system. So two thousand and four. So when

(14:27):
he's pitching this teenage Ninja turtle idea, there's other stuff
in the culture you can draw upon for inspiration. So
he tells him when he's pitching the Donna Tello project,
he tells his old friend, you will be my Lucius Fox.
Now that may mean nothing to you, Elizabeth. I'm betting
it doesn't because you don't watch superhero movies. Lucius Fox
is the secret weapons manufacturer for Batman. Huh, you're gonna

(14:49):
be my like utility belt maker. And so he's like,
I want to bat alibert. Yeah, it's like I want
my back copter, I want a Batmobile, I want a
batter rack. So yeah, so he's like his old friend,
this family man married once again, also a dreamer, is like, oh,
I like that. I don't want to be Lucius Fox.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
So that sounds cool.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
And also, though I should tell you this, he has
a personal angle because coming out of the two thousand
and one financial crash in Argentina, which was devastating, and
it's a culmination of years like dating back to the
eighties with the dictatorship government before that in the nineteen
ninety eight with like the financial meltdown, and then finally
in two thousand and one they get taken down. It
takes them years to come out of it. So he
watched his father and his grandfather lose their nest eggs

(15:30):
to the financial mistakes of others. Right, as he told
GQ magazine, Sebastian thought to himself, I watched my father
working all my life, and I saw how the bank
stole his money. Well I went to get it back.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yes, so generation can say that statement.

Speaker 8 (15:46):
I watched the banks.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Take my father and grandfather's money through no fault of
their own. So they did the right thing.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
Ready, we're going to be saying it.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
So he decides a bank job will be a fair
way to rebalance the scales. But he's adamant about one thing.
One thing you'll love, Okay, no violence.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
I do love that. I love no violence and logistics.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
You're gonna love this story. You really should be. So
the bank robbers, they just had to pull off their
bank job unarmed. No weapons will be allowed. That's Sebastian
the engineer's insistence and Fernando the Mastermind. He thinks about
this and this last demand he seems a bit extreme.
He's like, yeah, we need guns, man, I mean like,
come on, there are there's advantages of going in armed
or unarmed. But he's like, okay, I can see the point.

(16:30):
If we go in unarmed, it is practically guaranteed no
one gets hurt. So if we do get caught, that's
gonna look good for us. However, that requires more props
in theater to scare the potential hostages.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
It's perfect.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
I do love theater. So they get into it. They
agree no weapons, so this means he now has his engineer.
The first members of the team are a lock. So
we have Fernando Rojo, the Mastermind, his old friends Sebastian
Garcia Bolster aka the Engineer. Smartly, the Engineer didn't really
trust anyone do the most important part of his part
of the plan, digging the tunnel, So being a wise man,

(17:04):
he knew what that meant he'd have to do it himself. Yeah,
you see, these are these are great guys. I'm loving this.
They're like, oh, let me go dig the tunnel myself.
The hard part.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
He's example perfect.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Elizabeth you get it. I do for months each night,
all by himself. He digs a tunnel to the bank.
And if you're wondering how he explained his nightly absences
to his wife, she just chalked it up to he
must have a mistress. It's fine, I'm cheating with Mother Earth.

Speaker 5 (17:37):
Digging a hole, plowing at earth.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Digging a tunnels no easy feet, as you know, and
he was not an experienced tunneler, and digging being hard work. Secondly,
if you dig a tunnel and arn't meticulous, you can
easily miss your target.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
Right.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
So the engineer has a plan for all this. So
he drove down to the beach. That's where the city's
sewer system is and it dumps into like the Rio
dated Laplata, right, so that's where empties out. He goes
down to the the and he enters there, sneaks in,
and he starts wading through the sewers and figuring out
what he'll have to do if he needs to damn stuff,
what sers? He plots a map basically right, and so yeah,
totally nasty, terrible water, and he decides they'll plan to

(18:13):
dig a tunnel under the bank that connects to a
specific manhole cover in the street above. Oh, that's the key.
So for months, each night, armed with a hydraulic drill,
the engineer sneaks in hikes for half an hour into
the water, the stink, the muck. Then he gets to
work drilling chiseling into the earth. Then in the morning
wakes up and goes back to work as a mechanic

(18:36):
man to ensure their tunnel was progressing on the right path.
The mastermind, he used a bicycle, Elizabeth, what's my favorite
mathematical shape?

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Uh, the circle the.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Right triangle the good guess though, they are my two
favorite circle on a triangle. So he uses my favorite
mathematical shape to do the Pythagorean theorem, and he uses
a bicycle to measure the distance he'll need to do.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
So they calculate this story about you.

Speaker 5 (19:02):
I'm telling you, I love these guys.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
So he calculates the length of the side A and
the B side of the triangle. He calculates the distance
from the manhole cover in the street above to the
floor of the cannal below. Right. That was the height
of the triangle, so it's going to go straight down.
The distance of the tunnel traveled to the exterior wall
of the bank would be the horizontal. So we have
like going straight down from the street and then to
the tunnel right, and then he has to know because

(19:26):
he's doing an angle that will be the high pot
neess the tunnel is going to be climbing. He's like, okay,
how do we figure that out? He rigs up a
weight and a string and drops it into the sewer
that tells him the height. Then he climbs onto his
bike and he uses his bike to this brilliant effect
in order to measure the distance walking around late at night.
He measures his bike tire first, and then just like
a land surveyor, he walks the distance.

Speaker 8 (19:47):
Yea yeah, and he uses his.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Bike to measure the Yeah. Every time his air valve
came around, he counted one rotation after thirty seven at rotations,
he has his answer. He takes his calculations, does the math.
They come up with the answers. Tunnel needs to be
a hundred five feet long at a sixty nine degree angle. Nice.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Somewhere there's like a what year is it when you
learn the pythetic?

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Like fifth grade something like that. Yeah, we'll say this.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
Yeah, there's like a math teacher who's just like, yes, yeah,
it's like seeing I told you.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
I'm never going to need Yeah you are. You are
going to need that one day when you try to
break into a back in Buenos Aires.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
Exactly a squord plus B squad squad.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
You guys, now that we have all the particulars and
the math in place, yes, let's take a little break, okay,
and after these messages we're gonna bust into this bell.

Speaker 5 (20:28):
Oh you better believe it.

Speaker 8 (20:49):
Oh Elizabeth, oh seven, we're back, Yeah, we are.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Do you enjoying your time in Buenos Aires? I love
it nice.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
I never want to leave.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Well, now that our mastermind Fernando is mostly ready, he
needs to bring in the rest of the team. So
the two old friends, do you think.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
I'm sorry, is it Sebastian is the amigo?

Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, he's the engineer.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Do you think that when he comes home and his
wife thinks, thinking he's coming home from his mistress, who
is this?

Speaker 10 (21:15):
She's into some weird swamp beast, And then it really
affects her person her self esteem because she's like, why
is he stepping out with the swamp beast who's like
got crot and it smells.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
So bad in here, I will defecate on you. If
that's what the problem is.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Do you want me to stop showering, keep with the children?

Speaker 5 (21:33):
I will soil you.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
She just sisters crying, like eyes closed, turned away from
him because she's like, he doesn't understand if you were
truthful anyway.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
So yes, I've been thinking, I'm sorry. So the two
old friends, right, they're like, okay, we're gonna.

Speaker 8 (21:50):
He's the swamp beast, but I don't have.

Speaker 5 (21:54):
Sorry, they need to pick a team.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
They imagine seven guys right there to there are two
of the seven, so they need five more guys that
they can trust. Oh that'll be key.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Yeah, yeah, can you think right now of like six Okay,
you would have an engineer?

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (22:10):
Can you think of five other dudes that you would
bring into a heist?

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Trusted my life? And yeah I do. Unfortunately I know
people like I don't, and I keep a list in
my head already. So yes, I have a heighst team
ready to go in my mind.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
This interesting.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, I kind of roll like if any one of
them comes to me, they have like an easy we
got to do this one last job. I'm like, all right,
I'm gonna have to explain this.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
It feel like me, Sarah T and my dogs.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
That's a heap tight I like that. Fewer the better.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
We're a precise team.

Speaker 9 (22:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
You guys operate close inside like you don't need much.
You don't need like an external like, oh, distractions and
all that other stuff. You know, you're getting close. You
get it done. Now. These guys they may need five
guys they can trust with their lives and their futures, obviously,
and if they can do that, a fortune awaits. The amazing,
the mastermind, the engineer. They drafted their team two veteran
bank robbers, one named Ruben Alberto de Latre aka Beto

(23:09):
and his partner known as Doc. Okay, Yeah, so what's
up Doc. Back in the eighties and nineties, these two
have been in the same bank robbery heist gang that
was nicknamed on the streets superbanda Superanda. So the gang
made their name in the underworld starting back in the
eighties with the series Just Brazen Daytime bank Jobs, real
robberies like he break in, hands in the air, We're

(23:31):
taking this stuff in Spanish, and in the nineties they
graduated to shootouts with the police. Oh yeah, because they're
like keeping up with the gangster. Everything's like, oh hey, man,
I've been listening to n WA. I know what happens now.
So that caught them real heat, right, and after some
bus and some time behind bars, the pair were out
again and now looking for some action.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
In two thousand and four, A high screw that's done.
Time you have to you've screwed up before. Yeah, it's
never been caught.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Sure, that's the ideal, But I mean, like, if you're
you also want a couple of experience, man, which means
they're gonna have they're gonna be busted. We differ there,
I guess is different.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
Yeah, I mean I understand your thinking.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
I think that's really I want only pros.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
I want to toties.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Then, how do you know they really are who they
say that? How do you know they are who they
really say they are? One thing about being a prison
is somebody can.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Vouch because they let me do a ride along and
I watched it.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
You see them like, I want to see you job.
Then you can be on my team. Addition, there you go, okay,
you're like Drew Sky, you're like audition for me. Then
you can jump in.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yes, I don't even know what that means.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yes, at this point, the heist crew is four people, right,
and they round out their HEIGHTST team. They bring in
another cat name Julian, and this mystery man named Luis.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
Or a Guayan anywhere is like a mask.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
That's a that's the only thing we know is Luise.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
The one of these crews has like one loose cannon
you got. Nobody's really sure where he came from. I
don't have his phone number.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
No one knows his last name. Yeah, he doesn't have
a last name anymore. Ninety three years totally looks forty
seven exactly.

Speaker 5 (25:02):
You can do backflips.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
So, now that they have their team in place, the
HEIGHTST team needs funds to finance the list of items
that they'll need for the because you know you're gonna
need a powerful lance or the thermal jack. Oh wait,
I got that backwards, the thermal lance, a powerful jack
jack boom.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
It takes money to make money, you.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Know how it goes. So for nand to the Mastermind,
he sells his car. So but that only gets him
five grand and that's quickly spent. So they're like, we're
gonna need more than that. Got that bike yeah, and
he's like, probably sell some more pot. And they're like,
we're gonna need more than that, We're gonna need a backer.
And he's like, Okay, somebody in one of the guys
knows somebody. He's just I know, I got a I
got a money man. I know a guy. They're like really,

(25:39):
He's like, oh yeah. Also he's not just a money man.
He's a veteran bank robber. They're like, oh, perfect, he'dn't
understand what we're doing.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
Circle of life. He's going to reinvest his money exactly.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Doc's like, I know a guy, right, the perfect guy.
So this us this thief from Uruguay. Another guy from Uruguay.
His name was Luis Mario Viteti and now back in
the heyday working as a thief and a cat burglar
in Argentina. His gnome to crime was the spider Man
of Buenos Aires. Another spider Man. Yeah, exactly. It's a
common nickname. If you're on you're clutching to the sides

(26:11):
of buildings, cat burglar, people are like, only no one
metaphor spider Man. That's spider Man. So back in the nineties,
early as this is when this guy is operating. Now
it's two thousand and four. He's pretty much retired. He's
not as thin as he once was, as he points out,
and this is also the result of all the cooke
he was doing at the time that he's no longer doing. Yeah,

(26:31):
he's got his life in somewhat in order. He was
heading that direction, but he didn't get caught. No, he
he gotten caught, done his time inside, and now had
mostly been laying low, avoiding any new crimes. I see
they might put him back behind bars, but here was
the score of a lifetime, Elizabeth, and he is the
spider Man of Buenos II.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
One last score.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Pulls him in every time. Is he put it once
a thief? I guess which is true. I mean, it's
kind of like, once you cross that line, you're like,
I can always stay on this side. After he's approached,
they tell him the audacious heist plan. He thinks about
it a piece, and he's like, I'm down. So now
they got a real vet on the crew. He offers
a crew one hundred large as financial backing one hundred dollars,

(27:12):
one hundred dollars, Elizabeth one hundred thousand dollars, and now
the heightst team they're rolling. They can get all of
their powerful lances and thermal jets. I don't know why
that kills me. To the engineering he gets to work
on problem solving the particulars of his planned heists. So
the plan calls for breaking open safe deposit boxes. And
we've talked about this science. It's the challenge. How do

(27:33):
you break them open? You only have so much time.
And you've told numerous stories at bank hest where they
focus on the safe deposit boxes.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yes, he's different, precise.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Some of them are just they go in and wreckshops
big pride bars.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yeah, or they just blow it up or whatever. Yeah,
there are a lot of ways to do in each
of those boxes. Seems to be different.

Speaker 5 (27:50):
Yes, totally keep that in mind. So the engineer is
having none of it.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
He's like, you know what, I don't want a powerful
jack and a thermal lance. That's what they do over
in the UK. I need to know what we're working
with here. So he takes a trip to the bank.
They pretend to be interested in renting a security box.
He takes notes on the model and the maker of
the security deposit box. Then they contact the security deposit
box maker and they order some boxes of their own.
But he practices.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
His method is on the exact model he'll be breaking into.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
That's not suspicious. Like, I'm just a civilian going to
order three I need like six box deposit boxes. Do
you have a bank?

Speaker 2 (28:25):
No? I just I like practice.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
You needs to come install them.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
I'm a metal worker, thank you. But I felt like
an Elizabeth style answer to me. It makes me I'm
like dynamite, which is not a good answer. His answer
is like, oh, get some boxes, practice on them, see
what works.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
That's pretty smart because like.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
My idea, dynamite noisy, right, yeah, dangerous, you can blow
things up like your people.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Or and the stuff you're trying to steal totally.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
And then there's the issue of smoke in a confined area.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
That too old, you lose your hearing.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Oh my god, hearing a bad tonight. So also then
if you try, like oh the other idea, oh I
get a blowtorch, now you risk the build up of
toxic fumes in a confined space. So dynamite, monatorial plastic
both out. So what's the engineers and the disruptors totally problem?
I mean, we should always taking about integrin disruptors, who
were going to think about tomorrow's boys and their intocrine disruption.

(29:15):
No one going crime being done in banks.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
No one thinks of No, not.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
You, but you you think about the future.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
I'm the only one who cares anymore.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
So what's the engineer's answer? Great question, Elizabeth, thank you job.
He went with a jackcamer but not like a jackcammer,
you think like the guy in the streets, like going
like he went with a smaller version, like think of
it more like a cattle prod, you know, like a
cattle prods will shoot a bar, like the one where
they put cows down with the jackhammer he selected could

(29:45):
be used to punch out a lock, just like in
like No Country for Old Melons that gun to dunk.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Frond do so somewhere between that and like a nerf gudle.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Basically, so he's got his jackhammer, nerve gun, cattle prod
gun and baby he remember he's also he's a mechanic.
So he takes it apart and he breaks it down
to its smallest pieces so it won't be cumbersome to
carry it in in the slippery sewer tunnels, and then
you can remake it inside once you're in the bank.
And so he's got this modular jack and he calls

(30:17):
it the power cannon.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Power cannon. So then I love this.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
I thought you would. Next question, they have to deal
with the alarm system. How are they get around the
alarm system? None of them are the electric electrics electronics,
electrics electronics. So don't worry, Elizabeth, though, my man, the Mastermind,
he got a plan for that. Bank alarms are set
when a bank is closed over the weekends, right, we
all know this, and then it's closed at the end
of the business day and turned off at the beginning

(30:44):
of the business day. But bank alarms are not armed
when the bank is open and doing business. True, that's
when they'd strike.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
I like its logical boom.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
So that's to minimize police response. They'll need a distraction,
right because remember they need some theater, some drama. So
the Mastermind got a plan for that. They'll stage a
second robbery as a diversion. No, if it all works
out as he plans for, none of the Mastermind estimated
they could pull about sixty million from this job. Wow, though,

(31:15):
there's another problem. That's a lot of stuff, a lot
of physical.

Speaker 8 (31:18):
Stuff to move.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
How do they get it all out? Say they're lucky
enough to get all the way in, they break through
the power cannon.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Word somehow people don't hear the power can ye now.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
They totally Now they got to get out. How did
they get out? Remember? Their plan is like a hole
in the in the bank somewhere we put a hole.
That's the plan. So the mastermind's like I got discovered
guys inflatable zodiac boats.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
Love a good zodiac.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Don't drop him in the sewer tunnel and then zoom
to their escape that puppy exactly you know it from room.
So that meant they would need to also ensure the
water level and the sewer was high enough to operate
the sodet because the water levels rises and falls and
contingent on storms and so forth, so they could reasonably
count on storm waters. But they didn't want to releasonly

(32:06):
count on anything. He didn't want to leave anything to chance.
So especially with all that weight loading it down. I mean,
when they got lucky and they got a real haul
and there's like only a couple inches of water, that
could be a real problem. So engineers like I got
this one. He's got a solution what's the solution. Elizabeth
tell me, if you want to raise the water level,
you build a dam. So he's like, I'll build a
damn col Yeah, but he's like, we can't build it

(32:28):
where they'll find it. So he builds a modular dam,
just like the power can, and you can bring it in,
set it up in pieces, put it together.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Thought he was just going to call everyone on the
phone book and be like three two one flush.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's a good one, like like a New York story.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah, so this one his damn quickly constructed the sewer,
he goes, it'll be arranged just in the days prior
to the robberies, the can get the water level up. Boom,
problem solved. Now, that's all that's left to do is
rob the bank. So the date they pick is January thirteenth,
two thousand and six. Okay, it's a workday, a Friday Friday,
which made it the thirteenth day of the year, Friday,

(33:02):
the thirteenth buddy. Yeah. That morning, the heist crew went
through their well practiced moves a few members of the
ice crew and met at a coffee bar. They passed
around a tube of super glue and they took turns
gluing over their fingerprints and so their chips were smooth
and then would leave no fingerprints behind. After that, they
loaded up into three stolen cars taking that same morning.
So no reports yet. Okay, Huduliana Zella Chevria, he's the

(33:26):
getaway driver. He drove to the appointed exit spot, gets
into position. The engineer drives to the Peru Beach, which
is at the end of the sewer system. He hikes
through the stink in the fetid, filthy water, and he
tests his luck on the slippery, slimy surfaces. But he's
really careful. He makes his way judiciously into the tunnel,
makes it to the bank. Meanwhile, the rest of the

(33:46):
ice crew they enter the bank. First of the door
is Rubin Alberto de la Torre ak Beto. Now he's
wearing a white lab coat dressed as a doctor on
his way to work. Very disarming. Second through the door
was Doc who was not dressed as a doctor. He
was dressed as a bank robber. He was walked in

(34:08):
wearing a balaclava face mask. When Beatos saw Doc Enter,
he pulls on his ski mask and pulls out a
pistol and he let everyone see his gun, and he
announces this is a robbery. Now why he walked in
as a doctor all?

Speaker 3 (34:21):
You know, maybe he's like me. He likes a good costume, like.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
He wanted to just walk in.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
I think that was maybe I don't knowstory.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
So the engineer insisted that his gun was not real.
Remember that so Beato had taken a toy gun from
his nine year old son earlier that same morning. He's like, okay,
this is my gun. So around that same time, Luis
de Uruguayan and the former spider Man of Buenos Aires
Luise Bitdette aka the man who's later known as the
Man in the Gray Suit. They drive into the parking

(34:51):
lot beneath the bank. Now their job is to bring
in all the heavy tools, the jackhammer, the aka, the
power cannon, then the pears. They shut the door to
the parking garage, they lock it behind them them and
then they back the car up and block the door
so nobody can ram in. So now they got the
tools in back door secured, they bound upstairs. They join
in on the robbery already in progress. So outside the bank,

(35:12):
Fernando the Mastermind, he parks his stolen car in front
of the bank. He pops on the emergency lights, lets
them flash like I'm parking here so I'm waiting for
my wife or whatever, you know. And in the backseat
there are oil cans for an oil slick, and then
strips of nails to punch your tires for cop cars
for any high speed pursuit.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
Gadget totally.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
Now, he never plans on using any of these measures.
This is all theater. They are purely to confuse the cops.
The car is a dummy car, no yes, to give
them the sketches of a story that will make sense
to them when they see it. They see the car
parked out front and assume that's the getaway car. And
now they've got them stuck, and.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
They're like a doctor's involved something in case the hospitals.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
So once they have the setup going, Fernando the mastermind,
he walks confidently into the bank. Now they lock the
front door. Everything's going according to plan. Heist is rolling
like it's floating on German ball bearings. Phoebe's Elizabeth Phoebe,
So Fernando. Once he's in the bank, he walks in
wearing a blonde wig and a ski mask pulled over
the wig and a ball cap on top of the

(36:14):
ski mask layers layer character, right, his style is sub refuge.
So apparently they hadn't shown each other their robbery fits
because when the Mastermind walks in, one of the other
bank robbers as soon as he's a customer, puts a
gun to his head, tells him this is a robbery man,
and the Mastermind's like, Beato, it's me.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
He's like, I didn't know you were a blonde exactly, Elizabe.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
At this point you'll be able to follow the developments
because it's essentially the plot of the bank robbery from
the show Money Heist. Yeah, there's the charming police negotiator,
the presumptive team leader, Lewis Viteta aka the man in
the gray suit. Yeah, he's the one, and there's also Lewis,
the ourguayan, and Beto. They're on crowd control. So you
remember those guys the show that leaves Doc to go
downstairs and let the engineer into the bank from the tunnel.

(36:58):
So he's like, you know, they're the the high team,
but the real core team. And it wasn't like there
was a door, there was a wall. When he gets
down there and on the other side of was the
end of the tunnel that he had drilled right up
within a couple of inches. So now they have to
break down the well. The engineer awaits totally doc basically
hammers it through and then the thins the wall from
the other side of the tunnel and boom, engineers led

(37:19):
into the bank. So now the team, save for our
getaway driver, they were all in the bank doing their
pre assigned roles. Now it's time to bring the police
in to play their pre assigned role.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Oh man.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
The call to the cops come in around twelve thirty
on the Fateful Friday, the thirteenth in January. A bank
robbery is going down in San Isidro, which the cops
know is a wealthy suburb of Buenos Aires, so they're like, oh,
we better rush there.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
So it's just to the north of the city and
so the bank is this two story building with the
parking garage underneath. And so with the police arrive, the
robbers have yet to flee. I mean their car is
right out in front, but the worst flashing yeah oh boom,
they're caught inside. So Vedette, the man in the gray suit.
He's tasked with negotiating with the police. He throws himself
into the role. He loves it, just like the guy

(38:04):
in Money. Heis. He's a bigger than life character. For
his disguise, he wore a gray suit. He wanted to
be a businessman. To top it off, he added a
big fake mustache on top of that, a yamica, a
big mustache, yamaka, and a gray suit. Quite the look.
It's like he's David Byrne and Frank Zappa had a
devout Jewish love child. So meanwhile, the police do what

(38:26):
they do best. They follow their official bank robbery playbook.
They establish a perimeter, they create a command center, They
arrange snipers in case they can get a clean shot.
At this point, the man in the gray suit takes
over the show. He becomes Walter, the man in the
gray suit, and he's talking to the police. He's like
teasing them, he's flirting with them. He's doing it all right,
And there's TV cameras now arriving, so he's playing to

(38:47):
them and he's like he's making sure the cops have
good quotes, and he's just the guy is hamming it
up right. But he also at the same time is
acting like their bank robbery plants have gone south, and
he now must negotiate his way out of bloodshed because
they caught them with their car parked out front. You've
got our get on the car. We got hostages. Yeah,
so it gives the cops some proof that we are

(39:08):
good people, as he put it, he lets the security
guard go. He's like, look, take care of the security guard.
This show of good faith. It works to buy the
bank robbers time and it earns the police trust. But
to the heist crew, this move was a major coup
because now they've removed the only real gun in the bank,
right right, So now that the restaurant toys and none
of the hostages know that, but the bank robbers do.

(39:30):
So the security guard reaches the police, he tells them
what he knows. He's like, okay, there's a guy in
there with the big mustache and yamica he's in charge.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
And yeah what.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
And there's another guy he's a doctor and he joined
the heist team, I think, and he's also there. They
have guns, they're well armed, but they're very calm. But
the robberies botched. So you know, there's a lot of hostages.
Who knows what will happen. The police are like, oh darn,
this is not good. It is exactly what we don't want,
well armed, scared people who make no sense to us. Right,
So ten minutes later, some police negotiations go on between

(39:58):
the man and the gray suit. This is a second hostage,
another show of good faith, and then a third hostage,
and then a fourth hostage. He's just popping people out, right.
This is all very intentional. The Mastermind figures that the
police will think that they were doing well, they're making progress,
saving people one at a time, and this will also
lower their guard and make them overconfident. It would also buy.

Speaker 5 (40:18):
The bank robbers the time they need.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Has the police negotiate for yet another hostage to be released,
And just like in money heist, the real life Mastermind
he wanted to play into the tendencies the biases of
the police so to make them feel superior and these
robbers as inferior and idiots. So, as he told his
heighst team, the goal was quote, we must look nervous
and stupid, like we're losing control. And that's like pretty

(40:40):
much dialogue for money out.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Yeah, So this stratagem is intended to play out before
the many TV crews whose cameras are aimed at the bank.
So to the cameras, what they're doing releasing hostages tells
a different story. It's not that they are you know,
good faith or not. It shows that they're compassionate. Yeah,
so this wins them viewers back home like faith in them,
and then they start becoming these folk heros. Also they
want to save innocent people from possible violence. They look

(41:02):
like the good guys and the cops are the violent ones. Like,
we know the cops are gonna break in, so we're
gonna release people, but we have to hold some, you know,
all the real everyday Argentines. They fall for them. They
go like, as the mastermind says, they must have sympathy
for us, and boom it works. So now the free
hostages is playing out in real time and at this
point the standoff has lasted six hours. There's now twenty

(41:24):
three hostages inside the bank with the five armed bank robbers.
The man in the gray suit is still holding cart
with the police, negotiating both the release of more hostages
but also the eventual surrender of the bank. He's telling
them this will be yours. We just have to calm
to everything down. These are thrilled. They're like, okay. Good.
In the meantime, the man in the gray suit, he's like, hey,
we're kind of hungry though, could you like order a

(41:44):
mess of pizzas, have them delivered to the bank. We'll
send somebody out, and you know, the hostages, they are
getting hungry. We want to look out for them. Police
are like, O, of course, they agree. The pizzas are ordered.
Then the police they call back, Hey, pizzas they get
they are on their way. No response the police. There's
no one in the bank is answering the phone. So
they call back, Okay, the pizzas are here, send a
guy out. No response. The police of snipers, they see nothing.

(42:08):
TV cameras see nothing. The police and the command centers,
they're confused. What has happened to the bank robbers? Do
they panic and just like kill the hostages like and
then themselves and think a weird like psycho killer things?
Why are they suddenly.

Speaker 5 (42:21):
Silent with pizza on the way with the pizzas?

Speaker 8 (42:24):
Who doesn't love pizza out here?

Speaker 2 (42:27):
Well, since the cops are confused, that's where I'm going
to leave you, Elizabeth. Well, we take a break, and
after this raft of messages, we'll be back to sort
out truth from fiction and figure out what happened to
the disappearing bank high screw.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
I love this.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
We're back, Elizabeth. Yeah, we are ready to hear how
this one plays out. Yes, so where were we?

Speaker 3 (43:05):
They brought pizza in? No one was answering.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
That's right, please start right out. Sniper's in position, hostages
release get pizza's getting.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
Cold, No one's paid. The pizza guy tever.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
You guys waiting around for a tip? Oh yeah, then
he got no response. So co what's happening inside? Well
Viteta aka the man in the gray suit, the police negotiator.
He tells the hostages just before the pizza's on its way.
Pizza's on its way, I need you guys to go
get into uh, Like, you know, we're gonna have a
little meeting and then we're gonna move you guys. But
first we're gonna have a meeting, So you guys chill.
We'll move you in a second, and then we'll have

(43:36):
the pizza broad in. They're like, okay, thinking about the pizza.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Do we get any of the pizza?

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Yeah? They're like no, The pizzas for y'all right, and
he's like, but if, by the way, if the hostages
move while I'm away talking to my guys, I'll execute
all of you, right, I'll shoot that person. I'll just
keep shooting until, like you know, they're like, okay, we
get it. Pizza bullets and we'll take pizza. So that
keeps the hostages in check right now. Meanwhile, at this point,
it's about three thirty in the afternoon, right, so the

(44:01):
hostages they have to be actually really hungry and they're
hoping they can live through this, so they they're happy
to do as as they're told. Elizabeth, I also have
to tell you the truth. Just like in money heist,
there was no meeting. It was a fake. They were
faking out the hostages, just like the fake guns. It
is all part of their plane. The engineer had been
given two hours by the mastermind to clear as many
security deposit boxes as he could. After ninety minutes of

(44:23):
punching open boxes with his handmade power can, the riches
are stacking up right, and Fernando has given the signal
bag it up start our escape. Whoa right, and they're diligent.
They have like you know, real responsibility to the plan.
The engineer nods begins to disassemble as power cannon. The
others bag up their booty. They lower the bags down

(44:43):
to Luis the Uruguayan who's in the sewer balancing on
one of the Zodiac boats right, and they've got like
a pulley system arranged, so they're just lowering it down. Meanwhile,
once the power can is disassembled, the engineer he starts
assembling a few bombs to leave behind. Oh whoa, the
bombs are fake. The time consuming distraction for the police
stuff to bring in the bombs and then clear the building.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
That is smart.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
So yeah, then they clean up, they sweep up, and
they like bleach everything down, and then they join the
others in the sewer. So now Doc in the mastermind.
They after they spray the bleach to ruin any forensic
evidence they might leave behind, any stray DNA, they pop
open bags of hair that they've collected from a local
barbershop floor and they dust the area with misleading hair.

Speaker 3 (45:25):
And that's super genius, except for if you're the guy who.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Got there truly and you got a record and they
just come around here.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
Or they start using like familial DNA. So it's like
your uncle did the twenty three and me, and all
of a sudden, they got they got you, I got you,
and you just wanted a haircut.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
I just wanted to hide and tight. So lastly, now
at this point, they clean up the basement. They sweep
up there and up to where the hole was cut
for the tunnel, and this is cut in the wall, right,
They didn't cut down, they cut into the wall. So
they uh, well, they basically they pull a heavy cabinet
unit and they obscure the hole in the wall and
they've swept up. So now you wouldn't know there was

(46:04):
a bank robbery because you wouldn't find that hole in
the wall unless you knew there was a bank robbery
and you needed to move that cabinet to possibly otherwise
be huge. It could be years before you notice that
there was this hole. And so at this point it's
time to flee. The mastermind considered what the police response
would be. Remember he's got a plan for everything. He
calculated there's a police figured out that the bank robbers
have escaped into the tunnels. Naturally they'll flee to the

(46:27):
end of the tunnels out to Peru. Beach, you know,
so he has the opposite. He has the heightht crew
flee on Zodiac boats into the city service system, deeper
into the city. That's the plan. So do you think
it worked?

Speaker 3 (46:39):
Sure? Well, no, you're telling me the stories.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Rather than answer that, Elizabeth, I'd like you to close
your eyes well as I'd like you to picture it.
It's Friday, the thirteenth January two thousand and six, and you, Elizabeth,
are enjoying the peace and quiet of the Buenos Aris

(47:03):
sewer system. This may sound odd, but when you consider
the fact that you, Elizabeth, or an Argentine horned frog,
it's not that odd. Aka the pac Man frog, nicknamed
for your huge head and ever hungry mouth. Your method
of feeding is to stay deathly still, unmoving like a
statue of a frog, until you spy food flying above

(47:24):
or floating past, and then you strike but the speed
of a lightning flash. At the moment you're standing dead
still as you do because you're hungry, You're eagerly waiting
for some insect to go winging past. And that's when
you hear it, a splashing sound. You turn your enormous
head to see what the noise is all about. That's
when you spoil. Five men take turns climbing down a

(47:45):
ladder and dropping into a pair of waiting zodiac boats
floating there in the still and the dark of the sewers.
You never expect to see that. You take stock of
the situation. You're wondering if you'll need to flee, or
if they might scare up some lunch with all their activity.
You decide to wait and walk. The five men speak
in hushed tones. They move quickly efficiently. They load bags

(48:05):
of stolen loot into the second of the zodiac. It
seems to act as a trailer. One man stands organizing
the action, But sadly, the men scare up no flies
or other winged lunch for you. Instead, they pile heavy
bags of loot. When they're done, one of the men
yanks on the engine's pull cord. Yanks nothing.

Speaker 5 (48:24):
He yanks the cord again, yank again nothing. The man
yanks hard again, yanks.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Still nothing, and again yank nothing. The boat motor is
now flooded. This is when you really get hopeful for
a free lunch. Because you watch the standing man, the
one ordering the others. He seems prepared for this boat
motor failure. He has a plan for it. He calmly
reaches down and hands out paddles to the other men

(48:51):
without delay. The men splash the paddles into the fetid
sewer water and start paddling. This stirs up some action.
A mosquito take swing near you and flaps into the
air with a well practiced suddenness. You leap into the air,
powered by those spring legs of yours. Your pack man
mouth yawns open, and with one skilled gulp, down goes

(49:12):
the mosquito. It's not much of a meal, but it's
a nice light snack with a tiny splash. You land
in the shore wall just before the lead zodiac glides past.
The trailing zodiac with all the stolen loop glides over
the top of you before you resurface. When you finally resurface,
you look to see if the men are gone. The
sewer is once again dark, mired in shadow, but you
can still make out the back of the men as

(49:34):
they paddle to freedom. A bit curious, you swim after them.
Perhaps they'll scare up another free lunch. After about ten
blocks of swimming, the men stop paddling. There's a rope
ladder dangling down the side of the sewer. The men
use their paddles to slow the zodiacs. The men use
a pulley system to load the heavy bags of stolen
loop up to the open manhole above. A soft column

(49:57):
of reflected and refracted light illuminates the sewer. Once the
bags are all loaded up into the van parked above
the manhole, you watched as the five men, one after
the other, climbs up the rope ladder. The last man
pulls the ladder up behind him. The manhole covers slid
back into position. The shaft of light disappears. All is

(50:18):
dark and quiet yet again. In the sewer. It's just
you and the abandoned zodiac boats. They continue to float,
pushed along by the current that runs on to the beach.
You turn and PLoP back down into the sewer. One
there you go.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
It's amazing boom.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
They had done it. That's how the bank robbers made
their daring escape. It's so genius, right, he had a
plan for the failure.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
Everything he thinks of everything.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
So meanwhile, after their full day of negotiations, the hostage
releases the pizza. Three hours of radio silence and a
bunch of pizza left to go cold. The police in
the command center decided it was time to bust in
and see what's up with these banks.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
And you know they're so nervous about this.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Well, they've had problems in the past with like shootouts
and hostages, and so they were worried about a repeat.
And like also they're worried maybe they killed all the
hostages in some desperate political move and it make the
bosses look bad, Like it's a lot of words. A
team of militarized special Force police officers assemble and the team, uh,
they go over their breach plans. They didn't dare want
to risk any of the hostages, right because, as I said,

(51:19):
that had happened in the past. Yeah, So at seven pm,
the police bust through the doors. They enter the bank.
They expect a response, like perhaps a shootout. There's nothing,
no response. The police they look for the hostages. They
locate the hostages. No one's hurt. But they're in three
different groups and three different floors of the bank. As
I said, none of them are hurt. That's good, right.
The police. Now they search for the bank for the

(51:39):
HEIGHTST team, Like, well, where are these guys? Yeah, we
got all this pizza. So they check all the floors,
they find Nana down in the bank's fault. They find
the emptied security deposit boxes. They're like, ooh, one hundred
and forty three punched open. The score is likely huge, right,
but no one knows for sure because as we've said
in the past, and people won't say what was in

(51:59):
that now what the cops did know for sure, but
there was absolutely no signs of the bank rubbers. I
mean na. The bank had two exits, the cops had
had both of them underwatched the entire time. The banks
had windows, none of which have been opened or broken.
There was no clear evident way for how the thieves escaped.
The cops double checked the hostages. I bet that's where
they're hiding. They're hiding in there, so maybe the bank rubbers, right. Nope,

(52:21):
they pull off some magic trick apparently and just disappeared.
So the only real clues that the cops find is
just a pile of toy guns and a note tacked
up on the wall. The handwritten note reads, in a
neighborhood of rich people without weapons or grudges, it's just money,
not love. Oh my god, that's it. That's all the

(52:44):
cops have to go on, this little phrase of poetry
and some toy guns. To say that the cops are
embarrassed is an understanding. It's all on national TV at
the same being aired live, and they come out empty handed,
like we don't know everyone's expecting this culminating end.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Focus on the hostages are all alive.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
Exactly, we saved everybody, Like where are the don't we
saved everybody?

Speaker 3 (53:07):
Don't come in here, you don't want to see what's
in here.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
So the heighthst crew meanwhile had made it safely back
to their crime lair and they were like, you know,
their underground like teenage mutant ninja dojo, and they were
like watching the news of the bank robbery as the
eight you guessed it pizza and they celebrated this with
their success, right. They they'd done it. Most importantly, they
gotten away with it without leaving a single clue. The

(53:30):
next day, the engineer he took all the stolen credit
cards that they pulled from the bank job and he
sprinkled them around the city. This was to create a
false trail for the police to follow, because every time
some kid or street punk used one of the stolen cards.
The police send out an investigative team. This muddy is
the water.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
He was keeping credit cards and they're safe deposit books.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
I'm thinking he took them from the hostages that any time.
That never made clear in the news stories, but I'm guessing.
So meanwhile, the Argentine press they report on this story, right,
and then they're loving it. It's such an embarrassment and
it's such as great ratings grabbers. The news was that
the high crew walked off with an estimated twenty million
in cash and jewels and other valuables. Quite the hall.

(54:11):
They also they pulled from the rich. So most of
the Argentine people had just come through this crazy you know,
monetary collapse, or they don't feel bad about the victims.
It wasn't that they went and you know, rated a
local bank. Yeah, it was like from a really nice
part of towns. We're like, oh, well, they can afford
to lose it. Nobody got shot, so they become these
folk heros, right, and it seems like they're gonna get
away with it. The police have no leads. They even

(54:32):
admit it.

Speaker 5 (54:33):
We got Zilch right, and it sure seems like the
mastermind the engineer.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
They had done it. They pulled off a perfect heis, Elizabeth,
we never talk about this. Their teenage mute Ninjab Turtle
Donna Tello project worked brilliantly like Cowabunga.

Speaker 6 (54:46):
Dude.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Now we may be asking yourself, but Saren, then why
are they on this show?

Speaker 3 (54:52):
Did they just call you and tell you their story?

Speaker 2 (54:54):
I just read, yeah, I heard from in the underground, Aaron,
you should tell this story. So one time where we
got away man.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
You're bad boy, Robert guy meetings.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
My turn to bring sliced oranges.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
They were the keynote speakers.

Speaker 8 (55:07):
They were it was we.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
All wanted to hear like somebody did it right. So
the issue is, by the way, great question, Elizabeth, that
you eventually see that they did get caught and how
it all came undone was one hundred percent ridiculous. Do
you remember what I set up top? Like I said
something if you're on a high crew, so is your
romantic partner? You remember that?

Speaker 6 (55:25):
Oh yeah?

Speaker 2 (55:26):
So the bank robber nicknamed Beto, he had a wife.
Trouble was he also had a girlfriend, and after he
made a big score, it wasn't his wife who we
planned to run away with instead, he selected his girlfriend.
Trouble was, his wife knew it. Furthermore, she knew all
about the bank job and the heist crew. His other
big mistake was he showed her his take, so when

(55:47):
he discovered some of it missing, he accused her of
stealing from him. Now she's got evidence that can place
him at the crime, which is just a bustle, a
tat ironic that he's mad that someone stole from him,
but she denies it. She says, it wasn't me, baby,
I do know what you're talking about. It must have
been one of the kids or whatever. I don't know
what she said. Right. The couple a fight after that.
He's like, you know, I don't know how bad it was,

(56:09):
but they fight, and after that he left her in
a position where she was looking for some kind of revenge. Yeah,
and she knows he's going to leave her. So five
weeks after the bank job goes down, Beato's driving around
with his girlfriend in the car. He sees police lights
in his rear view mirror. He didn't run, he didn't
like slam it, yeah, tear off. No, he pulls over
and that was all she wrote, Elizabeth.

Speaker 6 (56:30):
Maybe maybe he started the fight with her and accused her,
like falsely accused her in order to have cover of like, whoa,
we're fighting now I'm walking out and then he has
the girlfriend.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
Yeah, no, it didn't work. She knew everything.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
Yea, His wife, Alicia di Trulio, had turned him into
the police to get her revenge. She told the police
what her husband was driving where they could find him.
Boom first of the crew to get busted. But not
only that, she knew the names of the rest of
the crew. Stop. She id'd the getaway ever Chevalria, and
she ided the man the gray suit. She also ideed
the mastermind and the engineer, all of them. The reason

(57:06):
why she knew all this was they had come to
her husband's garage to prep their getaway van.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
How if you're going to tell someone all about this,
she got to cut them in right, and the minimum.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
She's on the heist team. She knows the heist team.
She's on the reason to be loyal exactly, and she's
not getting a peace So yeah. The only ones she
hadn't met were Doc and Luisa Raguayan, which is why
we don't know Luis's last name.

Speaker 5 (57:31):
Yes, or because they get away, they're never caught.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
But when the police came for Zealochevalria, he saw them
coming just the same he had. He had that unmistakable
feeling folks were watching them, you know, that creepy sensation.
But these cops were mean mugging him. They were literally
staring him down right, and he ignored the feeling of like,
I think, I feel like I'm pray. He ignores that feeling.
He climbs into his car and he's like this probably
not me and drove away. And then he was stopped

(57:56):
at the end of the block, just like in heat.
He was like, exactly, so they're switching to they which
have known from the Michael Man movies but forever so
the others from the Ice Crew, they all get caught
with similar ease. I won't get all the details, but
when they were busted, the Het Crew, they didn't have
most of the stolen loot. The cops were like, where
is it? I don't know, has has Beto put it?

Speaker 4 (58:14):
You know?

Speaker 2 (58:15):
When they arrested me, I got a big knock on
my head. I can't remember if you also asked Beto
about his wife snitching on him and the rest of
the Ice Crew. Interestingly, he doesn't blame himself. Instead, he says,
I will always be angry for the rest of my life.
And I don't get the idea he's mad at himself.

Speaker 8 (58:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Yeah, Anyway, he didn't do anything wrong.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
No, no, of course he was trying to do He
was doing it for love, Elizabeth, how can that be wrong?
So anyway, the man in the Great Suit, Luis Vitete,
he was also caught, busted, tried, convicted, the whole bit,
sentenced to prison, but then his lawyers got him released
thanks to the legal loophole. Since he wasn't in Argentine,
he was eligible to have his sentence cut in half

(58:57):
if he promised to leave Argentina and never come back.
Oh wow, that's their rule. He's like, of course, I'm down. Sure.
So the one time Spider Man of bounced back and
he took off. He did four years of prisons and
went back to Uruguay or somewhere else outside of Argentina.
Now what about the mastermindy, good question, Elizabeth. After he
was busted, he kept his mouth shut and he did

(59:17):
his time in prison, and now that he's out paid
his debt to society, he's free. To brag about his masterpiece,
which he does often books movies the whole. Yeah, as
he told GQ magazine an interview, great works of history,
you know exactly who made them, not by the name
on the side, but by the artwork itself. And now
he is satisfied that his great work is known to

(59:39):
be done by him. So yes, exactly. Yeah. But they
also they never got the money, so they they got
the They also got away with the money. They had
to do some time for one of the guys deciding
to do the absolute dumbest possible thing when they all
got away with it. So what's a ridiculous takeaway here, Elizabeth?

Speaker 3 (59:58):
You know you come up with this notion of Okay,
I got five guys, I'm going to bring in everyone's
got a beto, Yes, who's like good at it, but
also the like the weakest link.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Yeah, and likely lacking impulse control.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
Yes, yes, it just doesn't think it's not loyal.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
In the way that one would want to be exactly
loyal to himself.

Speaker 3 (01:00:19):
Of those, if you're assembling a high screw, be careful
of those. What's ridiculous?

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
Thank you for asking totally. I'm sure surprised. I barely
have one. Mine is if you're gonna name your secret
project after a teenage mutant in turtle, like, why not
Michael Angelo? I know Dona tell is probably his favorite,
and he's like, oh, that's one, But I was like, dude,
you gotta go Michael Angelo because sixteen Chapel. That's the
great work with the biggest master, with the biggest.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
Great I don't know what the other one's doing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Raphael Donatello, Michaelangelo and two in Guido. Yes, so that's
all I got for you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
It's excellent.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Thank you for a talk back. Oh yeah, can you
wash this all down with the delicious talk bag?

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
Hello, jeep, Hey, producer, Dave Zaron and Elizabeth.

Speaker 9 (01:01:17):
You know it's ridiculous. I've been listening to you guys
since day one, and I'm just now realizing if you
take the first initial from all of your names, it's d's,
as in d's nuts.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
Keep doing the great job that you're doing.

Speaker 9 (01:01:33):
Thank you so much for the entertainment and the laughs
and just getting me by on a daily basis.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
You're very very always our pleasure. We do d's for you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
Thank you for pointing these out. I appreciate that as always.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
You can find us online and Ridiculous Crime with social media.
We have our Ridiculous Crime pod on YouTube. Go check
that out. It's got a school animation and stuff. Got
a pod totally totally pot it up. And we have
our award winning website, Ridiculous Crime dot com big news
website just beat its ten year lipper average.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
So wow, and as you know, no way, I'm hearing
this for the first time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
You excited. Huh, I'm so excited your average. We love
your talkbacks. Please go to the irt app downloaded, leave
us a talkback. Maybe you'll hear your voice here. We
want to hear it. And emails if you like a
Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. We like to hear
from you there as well as please start a dear
producer d and tell us a funny tale. Thanks for listening.
We catch you next. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Tutton,

(01:02:39):
Mzar and Brunette, produced and edited by the indigenous donkey
Kong Frog of Rhode Island, Dave Houston, and starring Analyish
Rutger as Judith. Research is by Spanish language crime enthusiast
Marissa Brown. Our theme song is by Teenage Mutant Ninja
musicians Thomas Lee and Travis Dunney. The host wardrobe provided
I Bought You five hundred guest Heart Macup, Vice, Sparkle

(01:03:00):
Shot and Mister Andre. The executive producers Our Teenage Mutant Ninja,
Turtle Truthers, Pen Bolan and Old.

Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
Brown Redicus Crime Say It One More Timeous Crime.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.