In a plot three years in the making, three men broke into the vault of the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit building in London’s jewelry district during a long Easter holiday weekend. They entered an elevator shaft and climbed down to the vault, where they used heavy equipment to drill through a thick concrete wall. Initially thwarted, they returned the following day and ransacked 73 deposit boxes, stealing jewels, gold and cash worth £14 million ($20 million). Only about a third of that has ever been recovered, including some that was hidden under headstones in a London graveyard. Because most of the perpetrators were senior citizens, they were dubbed the “Grandpa Gang." Brian Reader (76) actually rode a bus to the crime scene using a senior citizen free travel pass. Other gang members included John Collins (75), Terry Perkins (67), Daniel Jones (58), William Lincoln (60), Carl Wood (58), and Hugh Doyle (48). Despite their old-school planning, the gang was tracked down by police using modern surveillance, CCTV, vehicle tracking, and hidden listening devices. Most of the members pleaded guilty and received 7-year prison sentences in 2016. The mastermind was an alarm specialist known only as “Basil.” He evaded capture for nearly three years before being identified as 58-year-old Michael John Seed, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
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Top row: John Collins, Daniel Jones, Terry Perkins, Michael John Seed Bottom row: Carl Wood, William Lincoln and Hugh Doyle |
