The Great Chinese Lottery Heist

Ren Xiaofeng thought he had a good life –– married, blessed with two twins, a good job at a bank. But it wasn't enough. He needed more. So he came up with a plan: what if he robbed the bank where he worked and then plowed that ill-gotten capital into his quick-cash investment strategy? He thought with all that newfound money he'd be a shoo-in to win a huge lottery prize. His plan had obvious flaws, but you can't win if you don't play.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime. It is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
There she is, Miss Elizabeth. Hi, Saren, how you doing.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
I'm great. First, congratulations, I know I got here super early,
four buses to get here.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm impressed. I got a question for you. Do you
know what's ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
I do. It's a mashup between me and some email.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh this sounds promising. It is.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
We got this ridiculously cool email from a guy. I'm
going to read it to you. Hello, Zed and furry
four legged intern and occasional two legged intern furries. I've
done it. I have been listening to true crime podcasts forever.
In a random search for Winnipeg crime, my hometown, unfortunately,

(00:54):
I came across your episode The Great Jewel Thief. I
actually remember the CIBC bank robbery as I was a
young lad in my early twenties when it occurred. I
thoroughly enjoyed the chemistry you both have and decided quote
I think I'll give this podcast a shot. So on
March twenty first, twenty twenty six, I started listening from

(01:16):
the beginning from six am when I left for work,
all day at work ups delivery driver until ten pm,
when I arrived home sixteen hours a day, six days
a week. I even re listened to the throwback episodes
because you guys are hilarious. I gotta say I was
absolutely destroyed by quote I want to lick that Adams Apple.

(01:41):
I'm happy to say today April twenty ninth, twenty twenty six,
I have caught up and now well now I'm lost.
I don't know what to do with my days, looking
forward to many, many more episodes.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Ham Dad, Ham Dad.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Well, we had the assistant right back, can say like,
can we read this okay?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Nice?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
And you know, you know, can we use your name?
And he said, well, you can call me ham Dad
and then gave the sweetest, coolest reason explanation of the nickname.
He said, it's my favorite life story. When I got married,
my wife had a young child. When he was eight,
he said he thought it was disrespectful to call me

(02:24):
by his verse name because I raised him and it
would be rude to his dad to call me dad.
So we squished everything together and I became ham Dad,
and for almost fifteen years that has been my gamer tag,
theater company name, in pretty much my whole identity. Hope
you have a great day, keep being ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Oh my god, I love that. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
That made me so happy. Ham Dad's kind of the
coolest we've encountered in a long time. Yeah really, And
I just am shocked that you could listen to our voices.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
That much time.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
My family is like, you need to stop talking. And
I don't talk to him all about often, so hats all.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Sometimes I'll be on the phone to say and I
can hear my own voice and I'm like, I need
to get off this call. I'm getting tired of hearing
my son.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
I can't stand listening to myself. I have dad, you're
a trooper.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, that is definitely ridiculous. I mean, sixteen hours a day, bro,
I'm impressed.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah, and let's talk about working sixteen hours a day.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Six days a week. Shout out to the working man,
shout out to our ups driver.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yes, oh my god, so yeah, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
I'll certify that one, Elizabeth, I got one for you. Yes, Okay,
this is definitely ridiculous. Okay, Like sometimes a person will
do one crime in order to do a different crime,
like until they realize they should have just stuck to
the first crime. But by then it's way too late. Yeah,

(04:11):
this is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free
and one hundred percent ridiculous, reridiculous, Elizabeth Z. We don't
cover a lot of crime stories that take place in Asia.

(04:31):
I've noticed that we did cover the Tibet and India
with the Jimmy Stewart and the stolen yetty hand.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Very true.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
And of course we did cover the North Korean Godzilla
movie and the kidnapping and daring escape by the director
and star actress. But I don't think we've ever covered
a story that takes place in China.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
No, I don't think we have.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Today. We're going to change that.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yes, I love it.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
As the Taipei Times reported in two thousand and seven, quote,
two ordinary bank workers have committed one of the most
bizarre bank heist in recent Chinese history. Not only was
it bizarre, it was also the biggest most lucrative bank
robbery in Chinese history.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Oh you're kidding, Yes, and bizarre and bizarre.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Now, most of this story comes from a really excellent
write up by David Gouve Herbert or Harbear called Jackpot.
You can find it on the platform medium. It's fantastic.
And Elizabeth, you may be wondering, what's the story, then, Zaren, Zaren,
what's the story? Great question, Elizabeth, way to come out
of the gates at a full gal. I'm so first,
let's identify our players. And I need to say throughout this,

(05:31):
I looked up and listened to all of the pronunciations
in Chinese. I'm going to be trying my level best.
I'm not a native Mandarin speaker, so please give me
a little latitude if I don't get my tonality exactly correct.
I'm really trying.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
You're trying, and I think that you know we do that.
We do our best. Yes, it's never malicious, No, it's
always with great respect.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Now, this story features two bank Vault co managers who
had a truly wild style and approach to crime. There
is shun Xiao Fung is age thirty four at the
time of the crime, and he was the mastermind. And
then there is Ma shin jiong He aged thirty seven
at the time of the crime. They both worked at
the Agricultural Bank of China in Handan City in the

(06:14):
Hubei province in northern China. Now Shun Xiao Fung was
the youngest of four in a family from the Hubei Province.
Local boy right now. Shun was also reportedly a cute kid,
think like Rosie cheeks, bright curious eyes. Some even called
him handsome. He was the lucky member of his generation
because growing up in the nineteen eighties, his family had

(06:35):
moved from the rural north and relocated in the more
prosperous south relative to where he'd started now. The time
Shun was born, the family was living in a city
called Deming, and that's where Jun enjoyed a childhood filled
with games and play and free from the rural farm
work times. And he gets doted upon. He's like, you know,
the joy of the family.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
He's a little cherub that everybody loves totally.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
And he went to a preferential school located in the
old walled section of the city. That it's important to know
his family was not wealthy, but rather his father was
a member of the Communist Party, and as a member
in good standing in the party, his father had some
juice so he could guarantee his son went to good
schools and later got a good job, which is what happened,
and Shun eventually finds employment at the most profitable branch

(07:19):
of the Agricultural Bank of China, which is one of
the big four banks in China. So it's to be
like if I don't know Bank of America, sure, all right. So,
as it turns out, Shun had a natural gift for
counting money. Now, while a standard every day bank teller
could count, say like eight hundred bills and then double
check it, banned it, stamped the amount on the stack,

(07:39):
and they say that they could do that in like
five minutes time, Jhun could do the same operation for
two thousand bills.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, he had some light fingers just right.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Did they ever make him race that counting machine?

Speaker 2 (07:52):
No, But they do a competition in China where bank
tellers compete to see who can count the most money
the fastest. They have a intern branch competitions like mar
Bank versus your bank. We're sending Jun right, and he
went out. He won his local contest, and then he
went on to compete in the provincial regional tournament against
all the other Yes, and he placed second in regionals.

(08:16):
I don't know about that. Now, all this to say,
June was good with cash, and his bosses at the
bank they notice, right, so soon enough they promote him,
and Juhn works his way up the ladder at the bank.
Eventually he joins the ranks of like the junior executives
or whatever. Now with his newfound prestige, he then is
able to find the nerve to ask out a woman
he worked with. She agreed, and then the two hit

(08:38):
it off and.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
He eventually proposed showed off by counting money.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Let me see how much for that bill? So again,
she agrees to go out with him. Right, they hit
it off. They eventually get married. Things are looking good
for young Jun right now. Some time passes and next
thing you know, the young married couple they welcome their
first child, but not just one kid, Elizabeth. The couple
had twins, boy and a girl, fraternal twins.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Very happy.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
So I had to point out to myself, oh my god,
because the whole identical thing. Yes, I thought you could
have identical twins that are a boy and a girl.
That would not be how that works out. So anyway,
the married couple, they have their twins boy and girl,
and as I learned in China, they celebrate the birth
of fraternal twins. When it's a boy and a girl,
they call it a dragon phoenix twins if you're wondering,

(09:27):
the boy is the dragon, the girl is the phoenix.
So now, at the time, China was still operating under
its one child policy, so by having twins it was
like skirting the rule without any penalty. When when right,
So at this point, the married couple and their dragon
phoenix babies are living in a modest apartment. He's getting
by on his bank salary.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Around what time is this?

Speaker 2 (09:47):
This would be like the around the year two thousand. Yeah,
So things are rolling smoothly like a you know, like
a magic like a ball of mercury rolling down like silk.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Right, I can see that smooth, I can see that.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
So then Juhn has run of good luck all of
a sudden comes to an abrupt end. Yes, at the bank,
the leadership decides to cut back on some executives. Juhn,
who was thirty three at the time, gets demoted. At
this point, this is two thousand and six, We're in
two okay, right, so no longer a junior executive. Now
Shun is now taxed with processing cash withdrawals from the vault. Right,

(10:21):
he's a step down he used to be on like
the management.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
Lists set behind the test.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Fingers count money right, oh man. So the demotion also
comes with a reduction in salary. So his take home
pay is cut in not by a third, not by
a quarter, by half. Big time. Two young babies at
home along with his wife himself a lot to take
care of. So Jehn is faced with an economic crisis.
But get this, one of his colleagues at the bank

(10:47):
thinks he has a solution to his new money troubles. Okay, Elizabeth.
The advice was not maybe you should get a second job.
The advice was not maybe start your own business. Advice
was not maybe your wife can get a well paying
job and work outside the home. No, his colleague was like,
have you ever considered gambling?

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Hey? Listen.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
So the trouble with this plan is that after the
Communist Revolution, the Kaimum and the Communist took power in
forty nine, the outlawed gambling. Oh really, yeah, So Shun
was told to start gambling by his colleague at the
only legal casino which was in Macau. Or there were
the racetracks at all, right, but both McAll and Hong
konger and southern China, and June lives in northern China. Okay,

(11:24):
so I don't know if you know this, but China
is not small.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
No, right at all.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
So basically it's like if you told me you're having
money troubles in Oakland and I said, maybe you should
start gambling in Atlantic City. There is like a whole continent.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Between a lot. There's a lot there.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah, it was not the strongest proposed solution. Now, but
there was a third option for legal gambling somehow. Despite
the Communists ban on gambling, there were still state run lotteries.
Oh so Shuan wanted to he could always play the
scratch off lottery tickets. The reason why the Chinese had
state run lotteries was simple. The PRC needed to raise

(11:59):
funds a big projects. They would ask the people to
pay for it through lotteries like you can win a.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Little too, like here for education lot exactly.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
And they had a really big project coming up called
the two thousand and eight Beijing Olympics.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Oh yeah, right, So in two thousand.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
And six, when June's considering the idea of getting deep
into gambling, the Chinese Sports Lottery and the Chinese welfare lottery.
There are like two of the biggest. They are hugely profitable.
They're just raking it in. There's advertisements everywhere, right, they're
pulling in like ten point four billion dollars in a
year in profits. No, yes, So Jun tries his luck
at the lottery. He buys a two wan ticket, which

(12:33):
is equivalent to about twenty five cents. Then he plops
down in front of the TV that night to watch
the nightly lottery results and so on state run TV
they would broadcast the lottery poll. So it's the same thing,
lottery balls jostling around inside like a giant bubble or whatever. Yeah,
the balls get pulled one at a time. Winning numbers
are announced, and June sees that he lost, but he's

(12:55):
been super lucky up till now. So he's like, well,
maybe I just need to play a little more lottery.
So same thing.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
He buys a cheap tick slippery slope.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
He comes home and he watches the live drawing of
the numbers, and he loses again, and then the next
and again and then again. Apparently it's good fortune did
not extend to lotteries. Well, buddy, So however, you can't
win if you don't play, Elizabeth. We say this all time.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
That is so true, because I'm like desperate to win,
but I don't play.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, it's really impossible, it would.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Honestly, I feel like winning the lottery would solve a
lot of problems for me.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Really you think so?

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, I'm total Seeing.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
The record for lottery winners. It's not pretty, no.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
I know, but I'm different, native, different stuff, And I
have a plan.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Okay, I like this, Yeah, Okay, I do.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
I trust fully, a fully developed plan.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
The only thing missing is me buying a lottery ticket.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Okay, well that's probably step one on your plan, it
should be.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
See, I don't play the lottery because I know I
would just ruin my life.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah you would, you totally.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
So anyways, June, he keeps at it right, He's got
a new daily routine. He stops buy some crappy little
shop that sells lottery tickets, He buys some home, and
he waits for the broadcast to see if he's won.
You know, it's like my lookie numbers come up today.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, but it's like I only make half the money
I used to make. Let me just bleed some out
every day.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Twenty five cents at a time. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Still, well he final he counts.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
He wins one night, Elizabeth. But when he takes his
winning ticket back to the store where you know we
bought it to like cash out the ticket, he learns
that he just want some paltry little sum like twenty
five cents, like make two dollars or whatever, So so
much for that. Anyway, one day, Hun has a big idea.
Maybe he's not playing the lottery hard enough. Maybe he
bought more and more tickets. Yes, he would, you know,

(14:36):
up his odds of winning. He gets that big payday,
so enough for his and his wife and his dragon
in Phoenix twins future to be squared away. So in
order to buy more and more tickets without taking food
out of his family's mouths, he would need like a
credit line, oh my god, kind of something, maybe a
new source of money to gamble. Right, there's a bit.

(14:57):
This is where his big idea comes into play.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
This is what we call gambling addiction.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Well it gets here. It's a serious thing, think about it,
definitely is. You know, like I've seen the little writing
on the bottom of all those ads for big draft
kings or whatever. Now because remember he's like, he's a
smart guy. You know, he's got a lot of luck
as he thinks. So he's like, you know what, I
work at a bank. What a banks have, That's right,
plenty of cash. So what if I, you know, borrow

(15:21):
some of the bank's money, use that to play the lottery,
and then whenever I win a big payout, I'll just
put that back whatever I borrowed. I mean, you know,
boom boom boom.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
Well it beats taken out a line of credit.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, stealing money from you the bank for you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
If I if I had to choose between the two,
steal the money, well.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
I respect it, right, I mean it's one of those things.
It's like, Okay, that's a choice.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
He is a choice. But debt, man, you want to
avoid carrying debt?

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yes, you should. Your advice crime over debt, Yeah, definitely.
Well I was thinking about it another way, which is
it's basically a solid business plan. If you think about
like using someone else's money to pay for your gambling,
and then when it all works out, you promise to
pay them back. I mean, that's basically the business plan
of the whole AI industry. So the trouble for John
was if you asked the bank about his plan to

(16:08):
borrow their money too so he can play the lottery.
The bank would call that a bank robbery. Yeah, they're
a real particular She.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
Didn't want to bother them. They have a lot going on.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
I know, right, But it just goes to show one
man's business investment strategy is another person's felony. Anyway, Joan
loves his new idea. He's like this, this is a winner.
So he decides it's time to borrow or rob whatever
the bank's money so he can win a big, big
prize in the state run lottery. It's what you and
I would call a fool proof plan. I'm sorry, I
misread that a fool hearty plan. Sorry. Either way, that

(16:42):
Juhn's play, which leaves the question how can he rob
his bank?

Speaker 3 (16:46):
Oh, I'm sure he'll come up with something right.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Old fast fingers, you know it.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Oh yeah, I forgot.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Let's take a little break now, we got this heated up,
and when we get back, Juhn robs a bank un

(17:19):
and we're back. Elizabeth. You're ready to get to a
crime in with Jean Shelf?

Speaker 3 (17:23):
Oh yeah, I'm there. I'm totally there.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
So Sean is a bank vault employee. I've told you that, right.
So he knows the routine for the money counting system,
he knows where the money is kept, he knows all
the ins and outs of the bank vault operation, so
it wouldn't be super difficult for him to pull off
a bank heist. He knows all the loopholes and like
you know, a weak points.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
That's what we would call an inside job, right.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Except he's not the only one working the bank fault.
That's the one problem for him, which means if he
wants to pull off his investment strategy slash bank robbery,
he'll need to recruit at least one, no, make that two,
of his colleagues in order to pull out.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Oh that's rough. Oh that's rough.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
So Jean gets to work recruiting a fetter to help
them rob the bank where they both work. And the
truly tricky part, as I said, is that he doesn't
need just one bank employee, he needs two, not just employees,
vault managers. Yes, the co managers they called them, because
the vault requires two bank vault managers to use their
two keys at the same time to slide open the

(18:19):
vault door right right. It's like like a nuclear sub
where they got to turn the two keys at the
same time to launch a nuclear missile. All right, So
in this year we're in at this point, it's two
thousand and six. Still okay, Jun approaches a bank vault manager,
this cat name Choo Shunn, all right, and when that's successful,
he approaches a second bank vault manager, a cat name
Jiang Cheng. Now both agree to help them rob the bank. Huzza, yay.

(18:43):
No one saw that coming. There was no problem is
he just asked the me, hedn't want to rob the bank.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
I hate this job town.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
You want to rub the bank? Totally?

Speaker 3 (18:49):
What have they just been like constantly buying lotto tickets
and bringing their family closer and closer to bankruptcy. And
they'd been thinking about it at home and.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Then we got potty brought us.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
He's like, Jinks, buy me a coke. I was about
to tell you I have the same plan. And then
they just like skipped around did a montage.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
And also in the backdrop of all this, China is
going through this economic expansion. They've been doing it for
a while. In two thousand and six, with all this
money floating around getting ready for the Olympics. Everybody's watching
their friends suddenly get rich off of private property, and
they're like, how do I get involved? So that I
shouldn't mention that as part of the MOTI mention that
in October of two thousand and six, on the thirteenth
of that month, the three men strike for the first time.

(19:34):
They stole roughly one hundred thousand one Now that would
be about a twelve five hundred dollars US. Okay, no,
it's not a big haul, right, it's it's but it's
enough to buy a shipload of lottery tickets.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
The way they go back to the lotter ticket.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yes, that's the whole plan, Elizabeth. Steal money from the
bank to buy lottery tickets to win big and like
a big, big prize, so.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
You get the big money. If you go to like Macau, yeah,
well the people will steal the big money.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, there's got to travel there. There's lots of cameras
and security, and it's like, if you go to the lottery,
you can just win like a ton if you just
have enough tickets. People have proven that if you buy
enough tickets. You reduce the odds anyway, Shun. He uses
his kind of the proceeds to buy twenty thousand wand
in lottery tickets for roughly twenty five hundred dollars. Then
he went back to his previous routine. He went home,

(20:21):
he watched on TV for the live drawing of the
lottery balls from that big plastic ball that's tumble on them,
and the lottery music's playing. The sunny faced host is
alcohol excited, reading off the numbers one by one. Jun
checks his many mini mini tickets in front of him. Yeah,
and wouldn't you know it, Elizabeth, he had the winning
numbers on one of his mini mini tickets. His plan

(20:41):
had worked perfectly. He won, but he didn't win the
Mega prize. Instead, he won like one hundred thousand wand
which is almost exactly the same amount he and his
co conspirators had borrowed and stolen from the back.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
No stolen at this point is not bar stolen.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
So it's also about five times more than the twenty
thousand he'd used to buy all the lottery tickets. So
he's thinking he's a genius, his lifelong good fortunes. Yeah,
so what does he do now.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Elizabeth, does he tell them that he won? Who his buddies?

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Oh, I know they're in on it.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
Everyone knows that he won that money, and they're not
gonna I'm gonna guess they're not gonna go put it
back in the vault like he promised.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
No, you're right. He plowed all of his winnings back
into the lottery. Yeah, hoping like hell that he'd win
the Mega Prize. He's just right there. But he did
not win the Mega Prize. It was further than he
could reach. So he proceeds to get back all of
his winnings and he went on a seemingly endless streak
of losing. He got that first caste. He's like, see
my plans work in business.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
Heartbreaking.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
So at this point, what does he do now, Elizabeth, Well,
he and his two co conspirators decide they're going to
need to rob the bank where they work again.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
They's no, not these two for three.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
They just need to get a little more cash for
the lottery. Boom boom boom. They're bound to win again. Right.
Trouble for this plan is one of his co conspirators
chickens out.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, so Jang Chang. He's like, no, son, we're gonna
get caught. We can't be out here rob the bank
where we work, like it's a kiddy's piggy bank, and
where daddy gonna go put the money back once we
win the power ball. Yeah, they're like, you know, Jeong's
making sense right, So at this point, Jeong he's out
plus to clear them of all suspicion. He also informs
Shun and the other cat chow that he'd used his

(22:20):
personal savings to replace the original one hundred thousand wands
if they had robbed for the bank before anyone could
figure out what they had done.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
He's such a goody two shoes.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Totally, and Shun's like it okay, cool, cool man. So
that means no one's looking for any missing money. So
that's fantastic news. That means we can hit it again
so I can buy more lottery.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Tickets, Oh my god, which is.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Exactly what he does. And when you know what, Elizabeth,
the gambling gods once again smiled down on Jun. He
was able to win again a big prize this time.
In fact, this time it's it's a really big score,
like two hundred and ten thousand, one like double what
he's won before, basically twenty six thousand, five hundred dollars.
Sure that would have been enough money to return earn

(23:00):
what he'd stolen the second time. Yeah, and to pay
back Jong for what he'd replaced from the first robbery.
So do you think that Jun did the smart and
honorable thing or do you think he did the stupid
and selfish thing.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
I think, because we're talking about him, stupid and selfish.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah, you don't need to answer that because you already
know the answer since he's on this show. So what
Jun did was to lie to Jang and he who
had paid back that first money, right, Yeah, and then
he and the third catch how they they they lied
to Jang, They tell them that they lost, They don't
tell them they But I saw coming.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
I thought that they'd start splintering off like that totally.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Now they don't have to split the proceeds with him.
So and at this time they were smart about one thing.
They did replace the money they'd stolen from the bank
that second time.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
That's good.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
So at this time both robberies have been successfully covered up. Okay,
and they've won twice, and they've managed and said to
hide the hole and no one's found out. So as
long as these three guys and they are all guilty,
so none of them can turn on each other by Yeah,
but then Old Jung's luck helps him out. After they
returned the stolen cash from the second robbery, Jeun has

(24:03):
made a bank vault co manager. Oh no, Now he
doesn't need the other two guys because he has one
of the bank vault keys. Now he just needs one
other co manager. So he drops both Chao and Jiang
and he finds a new bank vault co manager, fresh freshy.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
He doesn't stick with them.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
I think they can transferred out because he takes their position. Yeah,
so you know, he just needs to do with a
little more grit, maybe a criminal backbone like him, because
he plans to go big Bong bong.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Right.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Enter Ma shen Jong in early two thousand and seven.
In March, he's named to be the vault co manager
with Jun so the same rank as Jun. Right, So
Ma shen Zong was slightly older, as I said, thirty
seven up top right, Shun is thirty four. Now. Ma
was also a local boy, but he was from the

(24:55):
country and he'd worked his way out of his rural village,
he'd come to the city, he'd made good. Now he
gets promoted to be a co manager at a bank. Basically,
my man Ma was ambitious, hard work, and he had
known hardship and he had no plans to taste that
life again.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
Also, he's exceedingly honest in all his business dealings. Like
for one time, a bank customer left the bank and
they dropped two hundred thousand and one, which is about
twenty five thousand dollars, and Ma finds it. He doesn't
pocket it, he doesn't, like you know, do anything hinky
with it. Instead, he locates the customer makes sure they
get back their lost money, knowing what a big hit
it would be for.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
The sure, what a good person.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Right, So, on paper, he does not seem like the
ideal candidate to approach about helping you rob the bank
where both of you works. But as we've established, Jun's
a gambler. So he sidles up to Ma and he
gives him his pitch for have the two of them
to co managers with the bank vault keys. They could
score some easy loot if they rob the bank. It's
a hugely risky move on Sham's part, right, Yeah, he

(25:55):
could all collapse right.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Here because he hasn't worked with him.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
No, he's brand new at the bank. Nobody knows much
about this guy. He just started.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
He could just be like, let me show you how
we do it at this branch.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Hmm.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
I'm the co manager who has to take the money
out and go and clean it, like physically scrub it
at night at my house, and then.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Bring it back, get the ironing board out. I got
a crisp these.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Bills, yes, and then I bring it back. They didn't
tell you about that other trainings.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Right with the banks you've worked at brand Wow, slackers.
So what do you think happens when Juhn approaches Mad
Does MA go for the pitch to become co conspirators?
I don't know?

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Does he there?

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Shockingly he does well. The former military veteran and ambitious
country boy. Here's the plan about using their two bank
vault keys to rob the bank, and he's like, bet,
let's get that paper son.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yeah, He's like, I'm not paid enough, let's do this.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Two days later, they got the power to the camera
and the bank vault and they get to work as banks. Yeah,
Like I said, he was like, bet, let's get this paper.

Speaker 3 (26:53):
Now did he know Did Mad know that Jin had
done this before?

Speaker 2 (26:58):
I don't know. I don't know if he like, no,
he'd probably just pretend.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
You know, I just had this crazy idea and I
have a binder that I put together about it and
don't ignore the other guy's names. And there that was
just me, like, you know, spitballing it this morning.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
But of course, you know, like before, they don't go big.
They just steal fifty thousand and one, which is roughly
sixty five hundred dollars. Yeah, he goes off without a
hitch perfect. They're like boom, boom boom. And then John
takes the money, hits up the lottery shops, buys a
boatload of lottery tickets. Yeah, that's still once again primary plan.
He's just bankrolling his lottery play. And then together Jun

(27:35):
and Mas sit down before the TV and together they
watched the live drawing of the winning lottery numbers, and
together they see that they lost none of their many
many mini tickets had the winning numbers. Oh well, so
I guess they can always rob the bank again replenish
their investment capital, which is exactly what they do.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
Oh man, they use.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
Their two bank ball keys to open up the vault.
They pill for some more cash, they buy more lottery
tickets and they watched the live drawing again, and this
time they also lose. They still they.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
Were getting so good at us, they were so close.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
They still had enough money though, from that this robbery
to buy more lottery tickets, which they did, and yet
again they sat down before the TV the live drawing
of the winning numbers, and this time, Elizabeth, they won.
You're kidding, yes, however, was no mega prize it was.
It wasn't even a big prize. They won like twenty
thousand and one, roughly twenty six hundred dollars. That was
less than they'd spent to buy all the lottery tickets,

(28:31):
left far less than they stole, so it cannot cover
the whole they've created. So now they're they're in deep
right now. They're like, we got to keep doing this,
We got to replace the hole. So you if you
were wondering, like what do they do now, Zarin, well,
I'm happy to tell you, en pre questioned Elizabeth. I
know they keep criming, brother, of course, and because you know,
they go back to work, they rob the bank again

(28:54):
and again and again, and still some more. They robbed
the bank nearly every day for two weeks. What they
just keep taking money out like it's their own at
every time, every day. They're just getting the backup, and
they keep buying lottery tickets and they keep losing, and
they're now the holes is getting bigger and bigger. They're

(29:16):
creating a black hole in this bank vault. They'll be
They don't squad for two weeks while robbing the bank
nearly every day, unbelievable. Finally, on March twenty nine, two
weeks after they started robbing the plays blind, some employees
at the bank have to conduct the monthly audit of
the vault.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Wait, these two are why the opening ceremonies at the
two thousand and eight games were so great. Yes, they
funded it, personally funded it.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
So now the employees at the bank are supposed to
do an audit of the vault, which they do now. Normally,
the audit would require the employees to count the cash,
review a security cam footage. But these employees, Elizabeth, were
apparently extra lazy because what do they do. They just
walk into the vault, they decide everything looks right, they
close the door. They call it good. They don't do anything.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
They don't notice there's two weeks missing the cameras well.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
No, they don't look at any of the footage. They
just open the vault door, look inside. Yep, they're like,
that looks.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Clean, Clerk Griswold at the rim of the Grand Canon.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yes, exactly. So Jean and Ma they get super lucky
they don't get caught. Meanwhile, John has been keeping his
own records of how much they've been borrowing slash stealing
from the vault, and he knows it's a lot. He
just doesn't know exactly how much.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
He is.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
He still is lost track of how much they've taken.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, well he has a pretty good tabulation, you know.
But he's mostly focused on the hope of replacing the
money they've stolen when they hit it big. So he's like, tomorrow, man,
it's going to be tomorrow. Right to this point, though,
he knows that they've stolen probably around two million one right,
about two hundred and sixty thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
It's a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
But Jean, he really needs his good luck to come back.
So in April two thousand seven, lottery officials notice that
the handan sports lottery is raking big profits. Right, It's
basically what you said. They're like, man, suddenly there's a
lot of players buying a lot of tickets, so.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
We're gonna have so many extra ribbons, get like ten
more drums. This is great.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
So lottery officials started capitalizing their good fortune. They put
out ads to further popularize the lottery. So now when
Jon's on his way to work, he's like, I gotta
play that lottery because he sees the ads everywhere unavoidable.
So John and Ma they learned that the bank regulators
are gonna swing by and do an official audit.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
Like a real one.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yeah, unlike the lazy employees who just opened the bank vault,
peeked inside and called it good, the bank regulators are
going to do a professional level audit. Right. So keep
in mind they were about two million wand in the red.
But since then it has grown and grown because they
kept robbing the place. So by April, Jean had, as
I said, lost exact count, but he had a pretty
good idea. You know, he may have been off by

(31:51):
a couple of wand here there, but he knows it's
about thirty three million wand, which would be about four
point three million dollars that they've now stolen from the
vault and spent on the lottery. What, yes, it's a
you and how much lotter?

Speaker 3 (32:05):
I mean they got what like, they got like twenty
eight dollars to show for it.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Well if they win little bits, but.

Speaker 3 (32:10):
Not that they fold it back in.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, totally. So any bank regulator worth their calculator is
going to find this hole. And so it's also, by
the way, more than any major lottery win could wipe away.
They now need to win like multiple big mega prizes. Yes,
so Juan and ma are good and properly screwed. So
Joan has to come clean to his wife, well partially clean.
He tells her half truth. He's like, look, I bought

(32:32):
ten thousand and one worth of lottery chickerts. I didn't win. Now,
I'm a little worried. That's why I've been acting funny
at home. Yeah, And she's like, okay, Well she laughs
in his face. He's like, oh, that's so cute, you know,
you know, it's all one big joke, but just with
no punchline. So she reasons that at worst, you know,
like what is it like a few months of your salary.
We can take care of that. So I've saved money.
So she's like, you take the money I've saved, you

(32:53):
buy more lottery tickets and that should make up the
money you load. Right, She's like, we can get by.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
I think I'm familiar with the statistics.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
No, not at all, And I don't think she realized
how much money she would have had to have saved.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yea like a month of your salary.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
So at this point, Jen has another one of his
big ideas. He knew it was likely that the bank
regulators would discover the thirty three million wand that was
missing from the bank and he'd be facing a lifetime
behind bars, that is, if he wasn't like executed by
the state. So remember play about corruption.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
They don't.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
So Juhne's big idea now is the classic move. We
need to pull off one last big job. Always always
to make matters worse. They'll need to pull off their
one last big job by robbing the bank while it
is open.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
Right Wait, okay, so their plan is the.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
One last big job that they buy a ton of
lottery tickets because they were sure but they had enough
talking like millions of wand then they could win the
Mega Grand prize, replace the thirty three million wand that
they've already stolen. And then he was about four point
three million, and so hopefully, you know, maybe they even
have a little extra so they can get a taste.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
Are they are? They just going to get up from
their desks and then walk outside and then walk back
in and rob the place.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
Practically, they're playing simple.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
Guys, we know who you are. Yeah, well, it's not
disguising their voices.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
They decide to steal eighteen million wand now one wrinkle
is that the lottery shops can only sell fifty thousand
wand in tickets to any one buyer, So they'll need
to have hundreds of thousands of tickets printed up from
shops all across the area, or they need to find
some like hinky corrupt lottery dealers will just keep printing
out stuff and then not admit who they're four. Yeah, so,

(34:38):
but they're focused on that Mega Grand prize. These are
all details, right, figure it out. Everything will be fine. However,
first they would need to rob the bank. Now, rather
than me tell you about.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
It, Elizabeth, close your eyes as a clue.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
I want you to picture it. It's April fourteenth, two
thousand and seven, Saturday, and you, Elizabeth, are waiting to
be pressed against the cheek of junshiel Fung because you
are a goodbye kiss from his wife. It's your big moment.
As Jun grabs his keys and waits by the door,

(35:11):
his wife approaches him, all smiles, and then she leans
forward and boom, she kisses him goodbye. You pass from
her lips to his cheek. Naturally, you stay with him
as he opens the apartment door, closes it, and walks outside,
and so you're still with him. When Jun gets in
the family minivan and starts it up. You also hear
him honk his horn to his neighbor and wave goodbye

(35:31):
as the neighbor opens the gate to let the minivan
out of the courtyard. You also stay with him when
he arrives at work at the bank. He walks purposefully
across the tile floor to the bank vault, opens it,
and when he does, he accidentally trips a burglary alarm.
The alarm goes off. The surveillance cameras record his presence,
but he seems cool with it. Rather than panic, he

(35:52):
just waves at the camera. A bank security guard sees
Jun on his screen. Recognizing the bank's co manager of
the vault, he shuts off the alarm. The vault falls silent,
but in there, still pressed to his cheek, you can
hear Jun's nervous breathing, and you also hear the approach
of his co manager, Moth. The two men share a
quick greeting expressed in grunts, and then, working together, they

(36:15):
move eighteen million one which would be about two point
three million dollars in the US, and they pack the
money into safety deposit boxes. They then load the boxes
onto a hand cart and they push the boxes into
a cash counting room. The wheels of the hand cart
make a rhythmic sound as they roll over the tile floor.
The two bank managers leave the money in the cash

(36:35):
counting room, and unexpectedly, they leave the bank altogether. Outside,
they climb into Ren's minivan and they drive to a
local restaurant. On the patio outside the restaurant, you see
the two co managers meet with a group of three
lottery vendors. The men exchange pleasantries and then get down
to business. You hear Jun tell the three lottery vendors

(36:55):
that a local iron tycoon wants to purchase a very
large bundle of life tickets to give away to his employees.
His money is ready for them at the bank. The
two bank co managers climb back into Jun's minivan. The
three lottery vendors take a car of their own and
they follow Jun and Ma back to the bank. It's
a short drive. The three lottery vendors wait inside the

(37:16):
bank as Jun and Ma a tend to business. Inside
the cash counting room, they empty the safe deposit boxes
that they'd previously loaded with cash. This catches the attention
of a curious bank security guard who's overseeing this strange
behavior from the bank vault co managers. He asked them
what they're doing. Jun is quick to explain that a
local iron magnet is making a substantial withdrawal. This satisfies

(37:40):
the security guard, who watches Jun and Ma empty the
safety deposit boxes, read banknotes, fill several bags. The security
guard grows bored and writers off. Once he's gone, Jun
and Ma stashed some of the bags of money in
a hallway outside the vault. Then Jun and Ma walk
back into the customer service area of the bank and
call over the three lottery vendors. They escort the three

(38:03):
men over to a bank terminal where they wire funds
into their account for the mass of lottery tickets they
wish to buy. Once business is done, the three lottery
vendors leave and they drive off, headed back to their
shops to start printing up the zillions of lottery tickets
just purchased. Meanwhile, Jun and Ma walk across the bank
back to the vault area, where they grab the bags

(38:25):
of cash and a few safety deposit boxes that have
not been moved, which they then secret away and carry
out the back door of the bank, where they load
the stolen cash and the Jun's minivan. They close the
van door step back inside the bank to finish out
their day. No one suspects a robbery just happened. But
as the kiss goodbye preshed against his cheek, you saw

(38:47):
it all. Good thing you can't speak, So there you go, Elizabeth.
One part of their plan down now it's left is
the lottery tickets. But before we get to that, let's
take a little break and after these messages we will
hear how the lottery bought fall for Jun and Ma.

(39:22):
And we're back, Elizabeth, Yes we are, okay, So what's
your call? Do you think Jun's latest masterplan pays off?
Do he and Ma make good on their lottery dreams?
But now they're really large credit line.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
So they're waiting for these guys to print the tickets, right.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
They got to get the tickets from the dudes.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
And so if the dudes don't print the tickets.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
By like eight thirty when the drawing is that night,
but if.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
They just walk off and they don't even start printing.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
They're not going to do that. This is too much local,
local iron magnet who they do not know. They're afraid
of this really rich guy. They just lottery shop owners.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
They don't want to get involved with somebody who's probably
a criminal like this is. It's probably a gangster.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah, yeah, Okay, I'm gonna say.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
They're happy to have the business. This is a ton
of business. They're already winning. They have nothing else.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
I feel like, maybe not all of the tickets get
printed in time.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
No, I'll tell you this much. They do. Oh, they
get all the chick.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
And they're all duds. They're all losers.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
No, because they're picking the mid to a bunch of
random numbers. They've got to fill out all the numbers,
but like they got, they come in a big spread, right, Okay,
So do you think that you had eighteen million wand
when you're getting you know, like that's a billions of tickets?

Speaker 3 (40:30):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (40:31):
No, Well, at eight thirty pm the lottery balls began.
They're familiar, tumble and bounce. Juhn and Ma are hoping
like hell to win the Mega Grand Prize. The odds
feel like they're in their favor. I mean, they've spent
eighteen million wand practice on all. Right, So the two
bank robbers watch the drawing, each at their own respective homes.
The balls of the winning numbers are selected one by one.

(40:54):
They've got all these tickets. Now, what do you think
happens to Elizabeth last time? I'll ask, I.

Speaker 3 (40:59):
Think they all were loser tickets. No, turns out they win,
Oh the big one.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
They did not win them Bega Grand.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
They won like twenty six hundred dollars.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
They won like ninety eight thousand and one. That was
out of all the tickets, which is far from the
thirty three million one.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
Very far. That's on the other side of the map.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
That means, in crime parlance, the jig is now up.
It's time to run for their lives.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
So that night, the two men meet outside of a
local hospital to discuss their options.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
I like that they went the hospital.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
In a parking lot outside the hospital.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Just in case it goes south.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
You're already there. So they decided to split their winnings
and what they stole from the bank earlier that day,
so about three point nine million one or roughly a
half million dollars in the US. It's not an even
split though. Jun He gives his partner Moss six hundred
thousand one or about seventy eight thousand dollars, and he says,
never contact me a gun. Good luck, lose my number. Right.

(41:52):
It's like, yeah, you better run for the hill sun.
So remember you when you had a life that's all gone.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
So two days later, sixteenth two thousand and seven, on
a Monday, detectives arrive at the Agricultural Bank of China
and Hondan City. It seems that someone has robbed the
bank over the weekend, but the bank employees do not
have the two keys needed to open the vault door
because the two co managers do and neither came into
work that day, so the police are forced to bust

(42:20):
through the sixty centimeter or roughly two foot thick bank
vault door, which they do like a real ice team.
They break in that vault and inside the vault, the
police find no signs of a robbery. There are no
guards bound and gagged, there's no rifled through security deposits
are all wrenched open, none of that. What they do
find is a ton of money missing, and the only

(42:40):
clue left behind is a bag of lottery tickets, which
is just odd. I don't know if I was like, look,
I'm spending the money on the lottery, how bad is this?
I'm giving it back to the state. Anyway, word soon
spreads about the bank robbery. In a short time. The
city's cab drivers notice all this heavy police presence outside
the bank, and they spread the word to a avoid
the area, to each other right. Meanwhile, they also tell

(43:03):
their passengers, which also really helped spread the word about
this robbery. Suddenly, almost everybody in Hondan City knows that
the bank got interesting. Meanwhile, Juhn and Ma have split up.
Both men are on the run for their lives.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
And on the runs for their families right by themselves. Yeah,
so from their families they left their families behind.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
They are just like men on the lamb right now.
So the two former co managers failed to show up
to work on Monday morning and fail to answer multiple
phone calls. Image when the bank employees grow suspicious, I
think they might have been part of the ice. So
the news of the bank robbery and the two suspected
co managers hits state run media, newspapers, TV radio, they
all carry the story. The two co managers are named

(43:45):
Juhn and Ma are accused of stealing in total fifty
one million one or roughly six point six million dollars.
It's officially the biggest bank robbery in Chinese history. So
now the question is where did they go?

Speaker 3 (44:00):
Zaren? Where did they go?

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Fantastic question, Elizabeth. I know. So Ma he decided I'm
getting on a train, and he hit out on a
sleeper train. It's like dark. Shut Ma off by himself,
and he heads to Beijing.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
He's like, that's the capitols in the crowd.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah, hopefully no one notices me, you know, because it's
in northern China, so it's not like terribly far away.
So once there, he buys a ticket on a local
bus and he heads for the country. Smart move, except
it's actually a slum just outside of Beijing where he's
headed because there are many unfortunate folks who've been pushed
out of the city as it rapidly builds an anticipation
of two thousand and eight Olympics.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
Right, that happens every time there's an Olympics anywhere.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Totally so ma he goes and he links up with
an old army buddy. He's like on hard times living
in the slums outside of Beijing. Yeah, He's like, hey,
can I lay low in your apartment? And the buddy's like,
of course, man lets him like hang out, So he's good.
He's laying low. Yeah, got a guy he trusts. And
now where Jun? Great question, Elizabeth right now on top
of this, I love it. So after they split up,
Jun fleece. He uses his mini van, the family minivan,

(44:59):
to a Cape Hondan city, which is smart since the
police put out a tip line for info that might
lead to his arrest. That first day that Monday, the
police received over ten thousand tip calls.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
It's a lot to process.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Can't all be no, No, the MANI were not good,
So they were inundated with like that's my neighbor, you know. Yeah, yeah,
so at this point show it is smart. He ditches
his minivan. He rents a Volkswagen Jetta to make his
escape further. He has three point three million one on him,
a fake ID, a burner phone. He stays away from
major highways and roads because Chinese got all those surveillance cameras,

(45:33):
so he sticks to back roads. He's using like the
going the slow route, right.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
He finally reaches the city of Dujo, and he ditches
the Jetta. He hires a taxi driver to take him
to another town, a place called Rijao. It's close to
the port city of ching Dao, right, So he spends
the night there, lays low. In the morning, he hires
a second taxi driver to take him to this small
coastal city where you can like really like yeah. Meanwhile,

(45:59):
he's so nervous about getting recognized or popped. He can't eat,
he can't sleep. He looks haired. Yeah he's got he's
got that flop sweat that smells like fear. So he's
just operating off of instinct and like the dictates of
like the survival mechanism at this play, right, But he
does though, is have this driver stop a couple times?
Why does he need water? Does he need food?

Speaker 3 (46:20):
No?

Speaker 2 (46:20):
He wants to buy lottery tickets. No, he just can't
can't stop. Should later explained my hand was itching to
buy more. He did not win a big payoff, wondering,
No I had.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
I had no expectation he would.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
On April sixteenth, that same Monday, the detectives, as I said,
they discovered the banksman robbed. The news has gone out
now it's spreading across China. So now Jun Chiao fun
walks into a Honda dealership looking to buy a car. Ok.
But he's there with his taxi driver and the dealership
is about to open, so it's like five to eight
in the morning. The news has not made it to
this small coastal city. So Jun Hell's a sales manager.

(47:01):
He wants to buy a car about two hundred thousand
and one. He's interested in, like a black Honda, that
one with the sun roof. He wants to drive it
off the lot today. The sales managers like okay, So
she tries to take the measure of the man by
asking are you in town for business or pleasure? And
she gives an answer slim on details, right, he asks
how much for the black Honda? All right? Batically, Instead
of him being hard sold or them heart selling him,

(47:22):
he's hard buying from the sales manager. What's it going
to take for me to walk out of here in
his car today? So the salesmanager dress cash or credit,
so Jen's quick to say good cash. So this taxi
driver steps over like he's now his henchman, and he
holds up a duffel bag of cash, never suspicious in
a car lot.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
And like, what was the conversation in the taxi? Like
so close?

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Well, he's just basically paying him. So the guy's like,
now he's like henchman. He doesn't know for what did
he know? This guy's really rich and he's down to
work for this really rich game.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
I would imagine syncratic, like he's hiring a random cab driver.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
I had a friend who was a cab driver and
he once got picked up by a guy and the
guy paid him to drive from northern California down to
LA and then paid him enough to be able to
get back. So and it was it was not weird
at all. He had people do that to him to
take him to reno, which is like, you know, a
two hour drive, like some people will do that and
cab drivers. It happened, so it is probably not the
first time he had somebody be like, look, I want

(48:21):
you to hold my bag of money. Well, I go
buy a card exactly, So they go and up. Keep
in mind, in the double bag of cash, it's bound
stamped stacks of red cash like the official Yeah, clearly
fresh from a bank. Yeah right, so, which makes him
look rich, you know, because who else is taking money
out of a bank if you're a decent minded So

(48:43):
the salesmanager tells him he'll need to deposit that money
in a bank and have the bank draft up a
cashiers check for the car. And John is not excited
about the prospect of stepping foot inside him a bank.
The salesmanders happily tells him, you know what, we have
a branch of the Agricultural Bank of China. It's not
far from the dealership, but just a small, little delicious irony.

(49:04):
So Jehn pays off his taxi driver with a few
stacks of cash because he pays them well. Then he
hands over the duffel bag to the sales managers. He's like,
can I put this in your office for safe keeping?
And then they take the money for the car and
they go to the bank. So Jehan and the sales
manager drive over to the bank. They get the cashiers check.
Along the way, jun asked the sales manager, how's the
police presence in the city.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
No, that's not suspicious.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
So the sales manager bragged it, it's very good. And
she suspects it. He must be asking since he's clearly
a big time property investor. There's so many of them
these days, just buying up property as fast as they can.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
He looks like, you know, it's basically the sales manager
doesn't have enough negative imagination.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
No, not at all. So at the bank, Juhn keeps
his head down while the sales manager fills out all
the paperwork for the cashiers check and then the final
car sale, and then he starts rushing her. He's like,
come on, come on, come on, and he says like,
I'm hungry. I haven't had breakfast yet. She tells him, no,
chill out, chill out. I will buy you my honored
customer breakfasts as soon as we're done here at the bank, right,

(50:06):
And then this odd little moment occurs because Jun is
asked to count and confirm the money he's depositing in
the bank for his cashiers check so out to habit,
he does what he does best. His fingers start flying
across the money. Those old, competition worthy fingers are counting
money faster than most eyes can keep up.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Right, So the sales manager, the bank teller, and almost
anyone else who can see the performance is impressed with
the speed of Jun's fingers. A crowd gathers around to
watch him count out the two hundred and ten thousand
one in record speed. Yes, and there's a little small
irony floating atop this whole scene. There's a reward for

(50:43):
any information leading to his arrest, and the amount is
two hundred thousand wan so exactly how much almost exactly
how much he's counting is yeah, how much they would
make if they just called a cop.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
Anyway, we're still on Monday morning, early, you know, so
the news has not made it to this coastal city.
It's mostly just in Hondana and permeating out.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
But he said a branch of the bank that he robbed.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
No, yes, a branch of the bank, right, Yes, exactly perfect.
So then they head back to the car showroom. The
sales manager hands the keys over to John, proud of
the quick and easy sale. She watches him drive off.
You're like, oh, enjoy your car. And she even says
to this fellow salesperson like, you know, imagine like a
big smile. She's like, that guy has enough money on
him for a Mercedes Been. He's got to be a fugitive.

(51:25):
She has no idea how right she is? Right? Oh
my no, Jun drives out of town. He stops in
a suburb where he rents a garage for his new car. Yeah,
that also gives him a place to lay low for
at least a few hours, right, sure, maybe get a
little sleep, drink a little water.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
He needs it at this point.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Oh my god, does he. Now by this point word
has spread about the robberies. I said, he keeps getting
further and further at this point. Now it's on the media.
It's Monday, like ten eleven am. It's really getting out there. Now.
The news is doing it. And so the police in
this little town which is called lee enn Wingong, they're
on the lookout for a man matching his description. They've
been everybody now knows, beyond the word the biggest robbery

(52:01):
in Chinese history, it's these two guys, right and then,
So at this point, it's going to be difficult for
him to drive his new car out of town without
catching some police attention or at least maybe some like
you know, paint in the neck bystander pointing at him
from a bus stop. Right, So he comes up with
a new plan. He decides, you know what, I need
to get rid of this car. So he drives it
back to the same haunted dealership and he asks to

(52:21):
return the car. He's like, I don't need this thing anymore.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
His plans are always so good. I mean they've worked
every single time he.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Has for his two hundred thousand and one back. I think, sneakily,
he just wants to see the sales manager again, probably
because he has three point three million wand he does
not need the two hundred thousand.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Now, since the news is now, as they said, beginning
to spread, if that same sales manager had happened to
catch the TV news while he was gone, she would
have seen pictures of him on the news. And then,
you know, being a gambler at heart, shunned, he just
chances it. Drives back to the car dealership. He speaks
with the same sales manager. Lucky for him, she had
not seen the TV news, nor had any one else
in the showroom, So the sales manager does still have

(53:03):
some bad news for him. Yeah, they don't accept returns
of a car once it's been sold. Yeah, it's not
permitted by sales regulations or whatever. So Jehen tries to
bribe her.

Speaker 3 (53:13):
Oh hey, sure, battle works.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
That's great, right, just constant better plan on top of
the better plan. So he offers her five thousand and
one to take the car back. She politely turns him down. Yeah,
he ups it, he doubles it. He offers her ten
thousand and one, and she's like nah, She's polite about
it and refuses again. And this is why I think
he had a little crush on her, because he's like, well,
do you want to go to dinner?

Speaker 3 (53:37):
How about that bribe? Let me sweetly forget the cat again.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
She politely declines, So Juen goes and he eats dinner
alone that night on the side of the road in
his new Honda, just him and a bowl of takeout
noodles with the sunroof open. I hope yeah, since the
sales manager told him about the police presence in leanne
win Gong, being top notched, decides maybe it's a good
idea to lay low in the city and not move

(54:04):
around too much. So once things cool down, he can
send for his wife and they're Dragon and Phoenix, twin
boy and girl. They can, you know, play house down there,
so maybe he can grow a beard and who knows,
So he rents a place fit for a family, a
three bedroom apartment in leanne win Gong. Again, this is
why I think he had a crush on that sales
manager at the Fonda, because he goes back a third time.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
No, this time he.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Tries to return the car. Only this time he's like, yo, okay,
I understand you can't take it back, but can you
sell the car for me? And I don't know if
she's like, I just want to get rid of this guy.
She's like, yeah, sure, just just leave the car, so
she agrees she'll sell the car and consignment. He leaves
the car at the showroom and he heads out to
like the beach because remember it's the coastal city. He
plans to relax, kick his feet up in the sand

(54:50):
hill out what bank robber would be at the beach
right exactly. So after his day at the beach, Shun
goes back to his rented apartment and then he's like
feeling lonely, I guess about his life and his choice.
He stares at a photograph of his two kids and
is like, oh, what if I done. Meanwhile, the news,
as they said, the bank robbery is fully broken, So
now it's they've don a whole day of people watching

(55:11):
the news and hearing about it all across China, and
the police and Leanne Wing Gong. They start to receive
tips from folks who were certain that they saw somebody
who looks like Jun Chiao fung ye in their city.
Reward posters go up. The police receive a tip that
seems super credible. It's from a sales manager at a
Honda dealership. She calls the cops, now fairly certain she's

(55:34):
had sold that bank robber a new car earlier in
the time. Her story commences the local police she's the
credible witness. Roadblocks go up, they shut the city down,
dragnets put in place. Officers check the local hotels, motels,
internet cafes, Meanwhile, Jun stays inside land low watching TV,
not going out. He's watching the latest news, of course,
and that's how he learns that his co manager Mashin

(55:57):
Jong has been arrested busted in Beijing. No, so Jun
watches his accomplice get purp walked by the police, and
he prays like hell that his good fortune can hold
out because he seems a little while longer something to work,
because it's not like Ma knows where he is, he
can give his name, they already know his name. There's
nothing he can really do to help him out. His

(56:17):
accomplice can only tell the police so much. So, Elizabeth,
his good luck did hold out for a little while longer,
like about thirty hours longer, because roughly thirty hours after
he watches Ma get purp walked, the police and Leanne
Win Gong are at his door. But they don't thirty
hours yeah, thirty hours later, right, it's like a day

(56:37):
in a couple of hours.

Speaker 4 (56:38):
Right.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
It turns out both the sales manager and his taxi
driver called in tips to the police, and unfortunately, so
did his new landlord.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
He didn't engender a lot of loyalty.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
No, not at all. You can't buy that. No, she
told police that her new tenant looked a lot like
the bank robber she's seen on the news. So after
these three tips, the police set up a sting operation.
The wait through the night outside his rental three bedroom apartment,
and then the next morning at around eight twenty am.
Because unlike the FBI, they don't just kick in the
door wave in the four four right, they just wait

(57:10):
outside and when so.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
A decent hour, two totally, not a five am, No,
not at all.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
But eight twenty am. Joan steps outside, stretches his arm
and as soon as he does, a cop grabs him,
lifts him off his feet by his neck, throws him
to the ground. What and the cop barks at him,
are you shun fung? And then the showing stammers yes, yes,
I'm cooperating.

Speaker 4 (57:35):
Right.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
I feel like it's only going to get worse from
there for him.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
Oh, he's promptly arrested, thrown in the back of a
police car. The manhunt is over. Everyone's excited. He's taken
to the station for an eight hour investigation interrogation. Yeah.
I don't know if brutality was involved, but I imagine
he got a little roughed up. Yeah. Apparently, when he's
asked about his family, he's very little to say. But
when the police bring up the lottery, suddenly Jon's eyes

(57:59):
light up. Oh no, He regales the cops with all
sorts of info about the bank robbery and the lottery tickets.
You played is big plan to win the Mega prize
Like he's just all of a sudden.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
Geeks, tell us about your favorite thing, exactly your thirt
the lottery.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Later on, he's allowed to speak with the press. Finally,
Jean tells our reporter, I really regret that I've been
so stupid in doing such a dumb thing. We were
going to pay the bank back. We never intended to
rob the bank. Bro You robbed it so many times
that it's pond rob So that Elizabeth is where we
will pick up the needle on this record, because, as

(58:36):
I said earlier, in China, they don't play about corruption.
And old Jehan and his partner Ma received sentences that
were harsher than a life in prison. They receive sentences
that are more like no life in or outside of prison.
Oh yeah, it seems the state wanted to make an
example of them that way, in case anyone else got
anse similar big ideas. They quashed that down real quick.

(58:58):
So Elizabeth, what's a ridiculous takeaway?

Speaker 3 (59:00):
Yeah, wow, don't gamble, you know. And it's like we
keep upping the ante with this. You have casinos and
lotteries and then you reference DraftKings like every every sport
is just solid gambling stuff now, and then you put

(59:23):
polymarket and Calci in there, and you can bet on
absolutely anything. And it's so destructive, oh terribly, so destructive.
So I mean, I know there are people out there
who have fun with it and they like to gamble
and have a good time, but you know, goodness gracious,
it destroys people eating things.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
There's reasons why we have so many stories of don't
do this.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
It hits that part in your brain. It's like, oh
maybe just a little bit, maybe just.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Oh yeah, you know, it works your pleasure center into
a froth and then it obliterates your ability to have
a good like chain of thoughts. Yeah, you're like, see,
I just if I get this one. You see the
kid there's a college football quarterback who just got basically
put into rehab for gambling because he was making like
thousands of bets, sometimes like hundreds in a day, but
probably more than that crazy and he was like a star.

(01:00:11):
I mean he's like going to be like who's NFL
like on the track? Yeah, so what's ridiculous? Thank you
for asking.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
Very welcome, is uh?

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
I love this is what as I said, one of
our first stories, our first story to take place in China.
I love how relatable this is, Like you just could
have been anywhere. Just shows that like cultures, yes, are
very different around the world, people are not very different.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
Around the world exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
So you're in the move for a talkback.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
I love talkbacks.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
Produce a d could you favor us of one? I
got just a thing. Oh my god, did I like?

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
Hey guys due Chris from Bristol, Virginia here. Just listened
to John macka episode. Wanted to say, how great to
hear another redemption story. I was high for thirty years
and locked up for eight. I'm in recovery now and
working towards recovery and prison reform. I just wanted to
say to all my rood dudes in similar places to
stay strong and never give up. People like us and
John will change the world one day. Love you all.

(01:01:18):
Love the shows. Aaron and Elizabeth, love you too. Thanks
for an episode about redemption. Hope it impacts others the
way it did me.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
You're not gonna change it one day, You're changing it
right now. This is incredible. I am so so supportive
and so proud of you, so proud.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Yes, my goodness, good work. And wait did they grab
the like the whole conundrum by the horns and say,
you know what, I'm gonna work on prison reform and
I'm gonna work on getting people a sense of recovery,
redemption and also reclaiming the sense of who they are
as people and their ability.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
To change exactly. I have nothing but applause and love
for you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Yeah, thank you for that. That was really well as
all ways. You can find us online at The Diculous
Crime on email. That's the if you want to send
us an email.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
The slot Bucket of the Internet.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Also, we're on blue Ski and Instagram. I don't know.
We may get a thread's account one day. Who knows.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
I got us kicked off threads.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Oh did you Okay?

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
They don't let me do any of any of the
social media stuff anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Oh, they take away the keys. It's like, give me
the keys back and give them back to our assistant Terry. Terry,
Poor Terry.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Yeah, Terry does not like me. Well.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
We do have also the account Ridiculous Crime pod po
d on YouTube. You can catch all the same shows there.
They got like a fun little animation for you to watch.
And we have our website Ridiculous Crime dot com and
uh you can get merched there and you can check
out a bunch of gifts and it's just a fun
little quick hang for you. And obviously we love your talkbacks.
We love hearing for y'all. We loved to connect with

(01:02:52):
the rude dudes and we'd love to hear your voices.
So please go to the iHeart app downloaded, leave us
a talk back and uh, you know, we maybe you
get to hear your voice here. As I said, we'd
love to hear it. So please do it. Do it,
do it, do it, and as always, thank you for
listening and we will catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime

(01:03:15):
is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zion Burnette, produced and
edited by the Beijing Bandit Dave Coustin, and starring Annale
Rucker as Judith. Research is by the Marauders of Macau,
Marissa Brown and Jabbari Davis. Our theme song is by
our house band, Hong Kong Fuey aka Thomas Lee and
Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Bondy five hundred producer,

(01:03:37):
Dave's wardrobe provided by Mister Guy of Beverly Hills. Guest
hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andre Executive producer
are the World's Most Dangerous Car Shoppers Ben Bolin and
Noel Brown.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
Why Say It one More Time? Equeous Crime.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.