Robberies, burglaries and heists are frequent throughout history, and perhaps one of the most famous robberies in history was the Great Train Robbery which took place in Buckinghamshire, England on 8th August 1963.
The Plan
It was a 15-strong gang that intercepted the overnight Glasgow to London train, and this gang was said to have based their robbery on information from someone only known by the pseudonym Ulsterman until 2014, when his identity was revealed as Patrick McKenna, a General Post Office worker from Salford.
Ulsterman provided the gang with inside knowledge on how the train operated, as well as the amount of money typically carried on Royal Mail trains. The raid was devised over a series of months, and although the gang had no prior experience of carrying out robberies, they had devised their plan by summer 1963.
The Robbery
On the night of 8th August 1963, ringleader Bruce Reynolds and the rest of the gang intercepted the Royal Mail train from Glasgow to London in Ledburn. The driver had stopped the train at a red signal, which the robbers had tampered with.
The thieves moved the train to Bridego Bridge, where the gang then attacked the High Value Packages (HVP) carriage. Train workers were made to lie face down in the corner of the carriage while the robbers removed 120 sacks from the carriage, running away with approximately £2.6 million, which is the equivalent of around £40 million today.
The Getaway
The gang drove along minor roads to their hideout, a farm that they had purchased two months prior to the robbery. They arrived at around 4.30am, about 45 minutes after they had left the scene of the crime, and over VHF radio they heard the first reports of the crime being made.
They divided their stolen loot into equal shares, with some extra money left for associates of the gang. Meanwhile, as the gang heard over their radio, the police had narrowed their search to within a 30-mile radius, which was based on a statement given by one of the train workers who was told to not move for half an hour after the robbers left.
Although the gang had planned to destroy the hideout, the man they hired to burn it down failed to do so, and soon the hideout was found by police.
We hope you enjoyed reading about the Great Train Robbery. At AFS Security, we are committed to crime prevention and making all of our clients feel as safe as possible. We offer a range of security services as well as being leading locksmiths in Essex. For more information, contact us today by calling 0208 471 9000.
