Are you weak, Mr. Holmes? What turned out the idea of self-confident raiders who decided to rob a bank on Baker Street (11 photos)

Creative citizens who demonstrate a non-standard approach to business and a specific sense of humor, no number. Just a demo always turns out to be beneficial for them.





An ordinary autumn day in 1971 was slowly moving towards its end. Robert Rowlands spent Saturday night listening to radio broadcasts. Closer to the night, the man accidentally caught a wave where two people were talking guy. Simple human curiosity did not allow him to leave immediately. A then the civic consciousness kicked in. Since Rob I realized with surprise that the interlocutors were discussing a bank robbery.



Robert Rowlands

A call to the police did not give anything: the duty officer counted the man joker. But still, just in case, I advised you to make a record. And then Rowlands called Scotland Yard. There, Robert was already listened to attentively. And they made a good audibility conclusion that the bank is located somewhere near the radio amateur's house.



Branch of Lloyds Bank at the corner of Baker Street and Marylebone Road

On Sunday, financial institutions were closed. The police drove around the area, but did not notice anything strange. strange More precisely, the already expected began the next day, on Monday: employees of Lloyds Bank on Baker Street opened the vault door, surprised to find a huge hole in the floor and with regret more than 250 cells were opened.



Tunnel in the vault



Opened cells

On the wall of the vault, the creative bandits left an inscription: Let's see how Sherlock Holmes will reveal it! It is on this street, house 221b, Arthur Conan Doyle "settled" the literary detective, who became legendary.

But mockery is mockery, and the missing money and valuables amount to about 4 million pounds (about 40 million dollars in modern equivalent) it was necessary to look for ordinary police officers, not book detectives.

And here the recordings of an amateur of night radio programs came in handy. Soon came to the first character - Benjamin Wolfe, mentioned in conversation. Then came the turn of three more, who became Anthony Gavin, Thomas Stevens and Reginald Tucker. The latter rented a cell in the bank and, taking the opportunity, accurately measured the storage area. Gavin in the past was a military man and supplied the gang with the necessary set of tools, walkie-talkies, gas cutter and jack.



The experts rated the quality of the tunnel as excellent



Reverend Mr Wolfe (Benjamin was 66 years old) rented a Le SAC genuine leather shop in his name. The bank was located one building from the store.



Tools and trash in the shop building

And the criminal community began to implement the plan. From shop dug a tunnel. Work was carried out exclusively on weekends. To dig a tunnel 15 meters long, had to take out more than 8 tons earth. On September 10, everything was ready.

Another seven years were looking for the rest of the defendants. But the search is not were crowned with success. The police did not rule out that the community a lady entered. But the arrested kept dead silence and did not give out names. accomplices. They disappeared in an unknown direction, like the loot. The caring radio amateur received an award of 2.5 thousand pounds.

And the criminals received sentences from 8 to 12 years. Having served which released and disappeared like phantoms. Indeed, it was relatively recently - in 2015, one case - a major robbery of a storage facility in London's jewelery district of Hatton Garden. The thieves got inside elevator shaft, and then drilled a hole from the inside.



Brian Reeder

They took the creative bandits. And they turned out to be citizens age, 60 and even 70+. Ideological inspirer and organizer recognized Brian Reader, who at that time was already 76 years old. Albeit without proof, he was considered involved in the Lloyds robbery. He had already spent some time in prison for similar crimes, so the version looks quite real.


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Shot from the movie "The Baker Street Robbery"

The bank itself declined to comment on the information. Was even an unspoken ban on publications in the media, which the press ignored due to its advisory nature. On terms anonymity, one of the participants in the robbery agreed to talk to journalist for The Mirror in 2008. An elderly man reported that vault they found not only money and jewelry, but also weapons and pornographic materials. Left everything in plain sight the police revealed the identity of the owners. Of course, the veracity of these information is debatable, because they were voiced by the criminal. There were even rumors that the cells kept dirt on famous people. But again, it's true Or not, no one has confirmed. But he didn't deny it either.



Shot from the movie "The Baker Street Robbery"

Roger Donaldson's 2008 film Robbery Baker Street", which was based on both a few facts on this case, and a huge amount of speculation.