“Mr Ginger, Mr Strong, Mr Montana, The Gent, The Tall Man and The Old Man.” No, not the cast of a cheap Reservoir Dogs rip-off, but the names with which the press have christened a team of thieves behind one of Britain’s most recent jewel heists. That’s right, it’s time to take a look at another audacious robbery, and this time it turns out we don’t have to look very far; the already infamous Hatton Garden heist happened just over a month ago and quickly hit the front pages.
Well, we say quickly, but it actually didn’t get to the papers quite as rapidly as you might have expected. Although the crime was carried out over Easter, it wasn’t discovered until staff at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company returned to work after their long weekend. That’s right – the gang was able to break into a safe deposit facility with premises underground, make away with between £60m and £200m worth of loot, and get away without the crime even being discovered for several days. So how can that have happened?
The Operation
The story begins on Thursday the 2nd of April – when the building’s staff lock up and prepare to spend a four day Easter break at home. After they leave, three men pile out of a white van and try to look inconspicuous as they drag wheelie bins into the building.
Very little is known about how events unfold after they disappear inside, however the evidence points towards the burglars entering through the lift shaft and then drilling into the vault, using an industrial drill to create multiple holes in a wall which was 50cm thick. This drilling must have taken several hours, and although it seems incredible that nobody on the outside heard what was happening, that’s not the most unlikely part of tale – what seems especially amazing in hindsight is the fact that the alarm was tripped, and yet nobody responded to stop the thieves.
That’s probably because the police usually base their response on the alarm company’s recommendations, and if resources are tight and there’s reason to suspect that the alarm was tripped accidentally then it shoots to the bottom of their priorities. Most of the facts that we do have about what happened across the four day heist comes from CCTV footage released by the press on April 10th. The glimpses of activity we’ve seen show three gang members chatting and loading items into their van on Good Friday, a man – Mr Ginger – returning on the Saturday and entering the vault, later joined by two more men, and the gang returning early on Sunday morning before spending approximately 20 minutes loading their equipment into the van.
The crime is discovered on Tuesday morning, when the staff arrive to find their building in a state of chaos.
The Pay Off
So what did these criminals actually take from the building? After the four day period spent raiding the building, they made away with diamonds which are probably worth around £60million, although upper estimates have put that total much higher, at a cool 200 million. Either way, this makes it a crime which will go down in memory as one of the big heists of the 21st Century – perhaps big enough, and certainly intriguing enough, to one day be commemorated in the movies. In fact, the loot itself adds one more layer of mystery, as the gang ignored hundreds of boxes, ultimately only opening 72. Could this suggest that they were after one particular prize?
The Consequences
To date nobody has been arrested in connection with the case, although many have begun to ask whether the shadowy ‘King of Diamonds’ – a criminal who robbed a diamond store in 2007 – could have been behind the crime. One consequence we have seen is an insurance boom, with double the number of customers now insuring the items that are placed in safety deposit boxes as everybody tries to avoid seeing their valuables disappear from under their noses.
It’s a fascinating crime, and one which reminds us just how important it is to make sure that top quality security measures are in place. If you’re looking for a locksmith in East London who can help you do exactly that, then we’re here for you – contact AFS Security at 0208 471 9000 to find out how we can take your security to the next level.
