0:02

A Listener Production. Take

0:08

it away, my slightly

0:10

younger

0:11

dulcet-toned darness.

0:13

Hello, everybody. That

0:18

was good. So, guys,

0:20

this is my nephew, Muhammad,

0:23

who we've talked about quite a lot over the years. He's

0:25

a little bit famous on the pod.

0:28

And today he is

0:30

helping me do a little record. So welcome.

0:34

Welcome, friend of the pod, Muhammad, and

0:36

welcome, Gistners, to Just

0:38

The Gist, a weekly-ish podcast

0:40

where I, Rosie Waterland, normally give

0:43

my co-host, Jacob Stanley, the

0:45

gist of what he needs to know about

0:47

a story to make him sound interesting enough to share

0:49

at a dinner party. But he's still

0:52

off gallivanting around the globe,

0:55

the Australia part of it, at least. So

0:58

I've got little Muhammad here to fill

1:00

in today. And we're going to do a little

1:03

deep dive back into the archives

1:05

again and bring you some greatest hits.

1:07

What's your favourite episode we've ever done, Muhammad? Favourite

1:10

episode has to be The Junkman.

1:12

The which one? Oh, The Trashman. The

1:15

Trashman. Oh, yeah. Everybody loves

1:17

The Trashman. I love that you call it The Junkman. I

1:20

mean, it sounds kind of like it. It

1:23

does. That sounds better. The Trashman is

1:25

a favourite. And then a lot of people

1:27

liked the one last week about

1:29

the guy at the bottom of the ocean. Have you listened to

1:32

that one yet?

1:33

No, but I've heard about it. Is he stuck in

1:35

the bottom of the ocean in a shipwreck? Yes.

1:37

And he survives for a few

1:40

days? Yes. How do you... Did you

1:42

see that on TikTok? You watch too much TikTok. Yeah. I

1:45

saw it on TikTok too. That's

1:47

where I got the idea to do it. But

1:49

everyone is saying that that one's kind of similar to The Trashman.

1:52

So today we

1:54

are going to dive into the archives

1:57

and do some live show greatest

1:59

hits.

1:59

because not all of y'all got to go to the live

2:02

shows and we did some really great

2:04

stories at those. So

2:06

we want to bring them to you now

2:09

if you missed them and if you saw them, well, here

2:11

you go. Have another Gisson, you're

2:13

lucky. So sit back and relax

2:16

and get ready to dive into the captivating

2:18

stories of the Balloon Boy and the Hoax

2:21

of the Hillbilly Heist of 1997. Good

2:24

job, except it's the Balloon Boy

2:26

Hoax

2:27

and the Hillbilly Heist of 1997. Well,

2:30

it's so similar. All right, here

2:33

we go. You will find out the shocking truth

2:35

behind the supposed airborne adventure of

2:37

young Falcon Heen, Balloon

2:40

Boy. Recording is brought to you by the live

2:42

studio audience. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

2:47

OK, here we go. Ahem.

2:51

The year is 2009. Oh,

2:55

yeah. Special year for... Someone

2:57

just went, ooh. LAUGHTER

3:01

Um, we'd only just recovered

3:04

from those fabric belts from Supray.

3:07

LAUGHTER We'd moved into

3:09

those chunky side fringes that

3:12

we hairsprayed down and took selfies

3:15

of with our Sony Cybershot cameras put

3:18

on MySpace. And

3:19

the Beyoncé Quiff. Yeah, the Beyoncé Quiff.

3:22

That was big at the time as well. Do you know what a bumper

3:24

is? Of course I do. Yeah, it's give you hair... ..like,

3:27

thing under your head, volume, height, volume.

3:30

Like, predominantly used by Karens now, but back

3:32

then, all of us. LAUGHTER Avatar,

3:36

the movie we all saw, but don't remember a thing

3:38

about, was in cinemas. LAUGHTER The

3:41

poetic lyrics of Lady Gaga had

3:43

just started hitting the radio like,

3:45

My, my, my poker

3:48

face. My, my, poker

3:50

face. And my personal

3:52

favourite,

3:53

Let's have some fun. This

3:56

beach is sick. I want

3:58

to take a ride on your...

3:59

disco stick. 2009

4:04

was also the year that for one tense

4:06

day we all got caught up in

4:09

the drama of a little boy floating

4:12

into space in a giant balloon. I

4:14

am giving you just the

4:16

gist of the balloon boy.

4:18

Here

4:21

we go. Strap in

4:23

mofos. October 15

4:26

2009 the Heen family

4:28

in Colorado USA filming

4:32

a test of this giant helium

4:34

balloon that they've been building in their backyard

4:36

as kind of like a family project.

4:39

The Heen family is made up of... I

4:43

don't know. Yeah. Sounds fun. My parents were drug

4:45

addicts so it's way above my head.

4:48

This is not a normal

4:49

thing for families to do. The

4:52

Heen family is made up of dad

4:55

Richard, mom Mayumi and

4:57

three sons Falcon who was six,

4:59

Rio who was eight and Bradford who was ten.

5:02

Now the dad Richard fancied himself

5:06

a bit of an inventor so

5:08

like he's always like patenting

5:12

crazy things and this

5:14

giant balloon was a prototype of something he'd been working

5:17

on that I guess

5:19

is what today is

5:20

what drones are. Like in his mind

5:23

he was building towards a drone and

5:25

this balloon was like his first

5:27

kind of prototype of it so it had a basket

5:30

down the bottom that is kind of the size of this

5:32

table here and then the

5:35

balloon on top of it was about like

5:37

the size of a trampoline with the net around

5:39

it like kids have today because they're wusses.

5:44

And the whole thing like the balloon itself was

5:46

kind of made out of tarpaulin stuck together with

5:48

duct tape and then the entire thing

5:50

was covered in aluminium foil.

5:53

So it looked like a kind of like a giant

5:55

flying saucer and

5:57

that's what the family had been doing like for.

5:59

for

6:00

lols, I guess, fun. They

6:03

filled it with helium that they got, you know, like that

6:05

you just get from, you can get it from like Big W

6:07

today to fill up party balloons or whatever, but just

6:09

like a lot more than that, like a lot

6:12

more than that. A lot of helium

6:14

went in to fill up this thing. And

6:16

so the family's in the backyard, they're really

6:19

excited, they're filming this experiment, it's the first

6:21

time they've tried filling this thing up with helium

6:24

and they're gonna see like if it floats.

6:27

And it does, it starts floating,

6:29

it rises up,

6:31

but then it just keeps rising

6:33

and rising and floats away. And that's when

6:35

Richard realizes that someone cough

6:38

him,

6:39

forgot to tether down the balloon,

6:41

forgot there's a rope and he forgot to tie

6:43

it down. So this thing starts

6:46

like floating away up into the sky

6:48

and they're all screaming like, oh no, because they've been working

6:50

really hard on it. And they're like, how do- No,

6:54

it's not like a drone, it is like his

6:57

prototype. It is just a balloon

6:59

with a basket.

7:02

There's no steering. What invention? Yeah. Wow.

7:05

And so

7:06

they're all screaming, trying to get this thing back because

7:08

they work really hard on it and that's like a lot of foil,

7:10

I guess.

7:12

And then while Mayumi and Richard

7:15

are freaking out about how to like get

7:17

this thing back, Rio

7:19

says, hey guys, Falcon's

7:24

in the basket. And

7:27

they were like, what? And Rio

7:29

and Bradford go, yeah, before

7:32

you started putting the helium in,

7:34

like

7:34

we thought it would be really funny and he climbed

7:36

and hid in the basket. He's in the basket.

7:39

And so then Richard and Mayumi

7:41

freak out. He

7:43

immediately calls 911 and you can

7:45

listen to the recording, it's this bizarre call

7:48

where he's like trying to explain to

7:50

this woman, like

7:51

I built this balloon, it's like out of Tarpollins

7:54

and it's covered in foil and we filled it with

7:56

helium and there's a basket and my son's in

7:58

the basket

7:59

floating away in a balloon and this woman's like,

8:02

your son is floating

8:04

away in a balloon and he's like,

8:06

yes, it is literally

8:08

really well built and it is floating

8:11

away and you can hear Mayumi screaming

8:14

in the background like, and

8:16

so once

8:18

the 911

8:20

woman realizes like, okay, this is, it's

8:22

not just like a kid holding a balloon

8:24

on a string who's like, you know, it's,

8:27

it's, it's something's happened here.

8:30

They are like, okay, we need to get rescue

8:32

crews on this and because all journalists

8:35

have like, you know, I

8:37

don't know, I see it on TV. They're

8:39

like, they've got, they have police scanners,

8:41

they're connected to the wire and

8:44

so they're like, journalists, local journalists

8:46

hear this call and they're like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,

8:49

like a six-year-old kid could plummet to his

8:51

death, let's

8:52

get out there. So literally

8:53

news choppers fly around, find

8:56

this balloon straight away, so

8:58

there's, it's on TV within minutes,

9:00

like it's, it's already all around everywhere

9:03

and it goes viral, like not just in the,

9:06

not just in Colorado, not just in the US, but across the

9:08

world immediately, like I remember

9:10

watching it in real time in Australia,

9:12

like watching the news and being

9:15

like, there is a giant balloon

9:17

up in the sky and there's a six-year-old boy

9:19

in it and he could plummet to his death at any

9:21

moment, like best

9:22

TV ever. Because it's real, it's

9:25

real. You

9:27

can't like, create ratings like

9:29

that man, you can't create drama like that,

9:31

not even the maths producer could do

9:33

that, like that's tough.

9:37

And so this thing, it was

9:39

high in the air, like I'm not talking like,

9:41

you know, the ceiling here, this thing at

9:43

its highest

9:45

reached heights of over 2000 meters, like

9:48

that's two kilometers in the, that's

9:50

in space, that's space. That's freezing bright and

9:52

there's no oxygen. What do they call it in cats?

9:55

The, the, yeah,

9:58

the heavy side layer. Yeah, you know.

10:01

That is space. And

10:04

also,

10:05

while it's going, it

10:08

travels like almost 80 kilometers the

10:10

whole time. So it's going fast and it's high,

10:13

this thing. So the rescue squads

10:15

are on it,

10:16

but like there's not really a lot

10:18

they can do because you

10:20

can't put any other aircraft over

10:22

near it because it's made of foil

10:25

and tarpaulins. You can't like

10:27

shoot it. So all that

10:29

was happening was the news cameras were

10:32

following it, rescue crews

10:34

were kind of just driving along, watching

10:37

it like

10:38

maybe we'll catch him. There wasn't

10:40

really any plan, like just wait for it

10:42

to come down hopefully before

10:44

he gets sucked into space and his face

10:47

explodes like Arnold Schwarzenegger in that movie. So

10:51

it's like the weirdest thing to think that we were

10:53

all like literally people were glued

10:55

to their screens. It kind of took over every channel

10:57

and it's like what are you watching? It's like oh my

11:00

god I'm just waiting to see if this small child

11:02

plummets to his day. Like this

11:04

is what everyone was watching. No, no

11:06

one wanted to miss it. So the

11:09

balloon in the end is in the air for almost

11:11

two hours and like I said travels 80 kilometers

11:14

in that time. It ends up

11:17

kind of floating down I guess when helium

11:19

farts

11:20

out, I don't know, like exits

11:23

the balloon. It started floating down and

11:26

it lands in kind of this desolate desert

11:28

area which reminded me a lot of because

11:31

there's so many news choppers

11:34

and rescue vans and there's like

11:36

a thousand people there and it but

11:38

it's like this empty desolate space

11:41

and so it reminded me of that last scene in Thelma and

11:43

Louise when they're in the desert but there's like a thousand

11:45

police cars there. So it kind of floats

11:48

down and

11:49

this man from the rescue team runs

11:51

over and grabs the rope

11:53

that the dad Richard was meant to tie down but

11:55

he didn't.

11:57

And so he grabs onto it and then more men run over.

11:59

onto the rope and the balloon kind of

12:02

just gently loops on

12:04

the ground. And like

12:06

the news, like, voiceover guy's like, okay, okay,

12:09

that was a pretty soft landing. So

12:11

we're assuming that he's fine because he couldn't

12:13

have been injured. Hopefully no bad injuries. Like, he's fine. He's in

12:15

there. That was a soft landing. This is the best we could

12:17

have hoped for. And so all these men

12:20

run over and they rip the foil off

12:22

and they open the basket

12:24

and it's empty. Fathoms

12:26

not in the basket. And

12:28

then someone in the media reports

12:31

that, like, when the balloon was really high

12:33

up in the air and they couldn't get a good visual,

12:36

they could see like a shadow in their footage.

12:38

And so they think something fell out of

12:40

the balloon. And so then

12:42

the news starts reporting like, okay,

12:44

when this isn't a rescue operation anymore, we're

12:47

looking for a body. And so then

12:49

they start going, okay, from point A

12:51

to point B, it's 80 kilometres. We need to start

12:53

looking, this kid has fallen

12:55

out of this thing. And so the

12:57

media back at the Heen House are

13:00

going nuts because they've had media there the whole time, like

13:02

cameras on the family. And

13:04

the sheriff's there and they're like demanding answers

13:07

from him and they're like, oh my God, we think he's

13:09

fallen out. This is awful. This is the

13:11

worst possible scenario. And

13:13

then all of a sudden the sheriff gets a call and

13:15

he turns to all the news cameras and he gives

13:17

a thumbs up and he says, we found

13:20

him. He's in the house. And he goes over

13:22

to the car and he's like,

13:24

he's

13:26

got cameras and he says, apparently

13:29

the boy's been in there the whole time. He's

13:31

been hiding in a cardboard box in the attic

13:33

above the garage. And then he says, I

13:35

don't want a conjecture, but this is not the first time

13:37

we're searching for a kid. And once he realises

13:40

everyone is looking for him, he hides because he's afraid

13:42

of getting in trouble. So

13:45

everyone is thrilled

13:46

because honestly, 10 minutes

13:49

ago they thought this kid had died. And now

13:51

they're like, thank God. We found

13:53

him, he was in the house. Like what a happy

13:55

ending. What a cheeky little kid. But

13:58

still he's alive.

13:59

This whole search and rescue operation at the end of the

14:02

day cost $2 million. But

14:05

this kid is alive. So best

14:07

possible scenario, he was safe.

14:09

Thank God. Everyone across

14:11

the world wants to talk to this family

14:14

after this. And so the next

14:16

day, the whole family sit down for an interview

14:18

with CNN. And this

14:21

is the infamous interview that a lot of people

14:23

have watched. And

14:25

this is the interview that a lot of people know this

14:27

story from. So they're

14:30

asking Falcon, what were you doing up in the

14:32

attic the whole time? And he said, well, I went

14:34

up there, and I

14:36

was playing with some toys. And then I took

14:39

a nap. And then when I got bored,

14:41

I just

14:42

came out. And the news

14:44

anchor says to him, but did you hear

14:46

anyone calling out for you? Because everyone was

14:49

looking for you. And he says, oh, yeah, yeah, I heard

14:51

people calling my name. And his mom turns

14:53

to him, and she's like, you heard people, sweetie? Oh,

14:56

why didn't you say anything? And

14:58

then Falcon looks really confused. And he turns

15:01

to his mom, and he said, well,

15:03

because you guys said that we were doing

15:06

this for a show.

15:07

Oh! Oh! Oh,

15:10

the parents of the parents. Record

15:12

scratch. Oh! Oh! Oh!

15:16

So. This felt fishy. Yeah. So

15:18

Richard and Miami look like deers in the headlights when

15:20

he says this.

15:22

And the two other brothers were like, they

15:24

knew that

15:26

he wasn't meant to say whatever he just said. And

15:29

so the interviewer presses, and he's like, wait,

15:31

wait. What do you mean doing it for a show?

15:33

What does that mean? And his dad's like, oh, he doesn't know

15:35

what he means. He's a kid. He doesn't know.

15:38

And so at that moment, the whole world was like,

15:40

oh, my fucking god, you guys

15:43

staged this. Anything

15:45

for attention. Yeah. And the fallout happens

15:47

fast. They were loved for about 24 hours, but

15:50

life moves pretty

15:52

fucking quickly when people think there's going

15:54

to get some short and frata out of you. So they

15:56

were like, get them.

15:59

So the media digs into the Heen family,

16:02

and it turns out

16:04

that Richard and Mayumi are

16:06

failed actors who met at drama school.

16:09

How pathetic. Don't see how that's relevant. What

16:11

losers. Take a touch,

16:14

length for attention, let it go.

16:23

What losers. Anyway, they were failed actors

16:26

who had met at drama

16:28

school. They

16:40

had been on the reality show Wife

16:42

Swap twice. And

16:48

after that, Richard had spent some time

16:50

as

16:50

a salesman for a segue company.

16:55

No, I'm kidding.

17:01

I'm kidding. They

17:03

were on Wife Swap twice. They were on Wife

17:05

Swap twice. Every

17:12

time I think it will be funny, and every time it

17:14

just ends up disruptive. Are

17:16

you readjusting your balls? Do

17:20

you need a moment? Did

17:23

they just come up out of your mouth? I

17:26

don't understand how all that works,

17:29

so I don't... Okay. Keep

17:32

going, keep going. We're good to move on? Attention

17:34

seekers us? We're on Wife Swap twice.

17:40

And for the last six months before

17:42

this incident, Richard had been

17:44

shopping around a reality show

17:47

kind of like about their kooky

17:49

family and like their fun science experiments

17:52

that they do together, and they hadn't been getting any

17:54

interest. And so with that

17:56

history, it didn't take long for everyone in the

17:58

world to be like...

18:00

when Falcon said you did this for a

18:02

show, it's because you two,

18:05

Richard and Mayumi, set this up as a publicity

18:08

stunt to try and get interest in selling

18:11

a reality show. And I

18:14

think they would have got it.

18:16

Because these three kids, the three boys,

18:18

were so cute. Richard was

18:20

kind of a weirdo and they did all these experiments.

18:23

Like they, if Falcon hadn't, you know, if

18:25

not for that pesky kid, they

18:28

would have got a reality show, I think.

18:31

But like with all this in hindsight, you look

18:33

back at the footage they were filming that day of the

18:35

balloon, and you realize like how bad

18:38

the acting is. Like the kids

18:40

are like, oh no, Falcon's

18:42

in the

18:43

basket. And Richard's like, what?

18:46

And he's like, I've got to call 911. And

18:48

Mayumi's like, my son, my son. And

18:51

like, you just watch

18:52

it in a whole different light when you know

18:54

this. So

18:56

there was an investigation and

18:59

the sheriff in town announced soon

19:01

that yes, they had decided after

19:04

investigating that they think the whole thing was a publicity

19:06

stunt. Both Richard and Mayumi

19:09

were interviewed and charged. And in

19:11

that interview, Mayumi admitted that

19:13

she knew all along that Falcon was hiding in the

19:16

attic. She also

19:18

said that they'd planned The Hokes about two

19:20

weeks earlier.

19:22

And they instructed their

19:24

three children to lie to the authorities

19:27

and whoever asked them about it, which is really

19:29

horrible because most people have seen

19:31

the CNN interview where Falcon says

19:33

the thing about the show. But what they

19:35

don't realize is the family at first didn't realize

19:38

how badly that had landed. So they did a bunch of interviews

19:41

after that one that day. And a

19:43

few interviewers said to Falcon, like, what

19:45

did you mean when you said that thing about the show?

19:48

And he threw up because

19:50

he was so nervous because he knew it screwed

19:52

up.

19:52

And he, you know, like the pressure on a little

19:55

kid. So

19:57

Mayumi admitted we told the kids they had to

19:59

lie.

19:59

and it was all like

20:02

to market themselves for you know media

20:04

TV opportunities but Miami

20:07

also later said that she was a Japanese

20:10

resident she was married to Richard but she wasn't

20:12

yet an American resident and she said she

20:15

that was all lies she only admitted it because

20:17

they threatened her with deportations so she

20:19

like took back

20:21

her admission but

20:25

Richard and Miami

20:27

both pled guilty which again

20:29

later they both said because they were worried

20:32

maybe we would get deported but the authorities said that

20:34

we were never gonna do that but whatever Richard

20:37

got 90 days in jail

20:39

a

20:40

hundred days community service

20:42

he had to pay $36,000 in restitution

20:45

which like

20:47

it cost two million whatever and

20:50

he had to write an apology letter to all

20:52

the agencies that search for Falcon

20:54

that day most devastatingly

20:59

though the

21:00

two wife swap episodes they

21:02

were in were never aired again

21:04

now

21:08

there was a lot of attention on the family over the years

21:11

but they kind of did just

21:13

not do any interviews until

21:17

Richard started suddenly doing

21:19

a lot of interviews in the media and he

21:21

was saying you know I only pleaded guilty because I

21:23

had to I did it for my wife this wasn't

21:26

a hoax it was a genuine accident we really

21:28

thought he was in there oh and by the way

21:30

while I've got all these cameras here my three sons

21:32

have formed the world's youngest heavy metal band

21:35

and you can book them out this website

21:38

so he kind of just started marketing

21:40

for his kids and they they

21:43

did form what they say is the world's

21:45

youngest heavy metal band it's called

21:47

heen boys boys with

21:50

a Z you can still go to their

21:53

website right now if you google it

21:56

and they have a video clip on YouTube

21:59

where they're like like singing and head thrashing

22:01

in front of this really dodgy green screen that

22:03

has images of the big silver balloon

22:06

on it. And the song

22:08

is called No Hoax. Oh,

22:12

they're trying to keep the lie alive. I guess.

22:15

They're now like Falcon, I

22:17

think is about 19 and the other two are about 22, 24. And

22:21

yeah, you can if you if you would like

22:23

the world's youngest heavy metal band to play

22:26

No Hoax at your next birthday

22:28

party or bar mitzvah.

22:29

You can book them online

22:32

and that is just the gist

22:34

of the balloon line.

22:45

Now fasten your seatbelts

22:48

as we transport ourselves into the year 1997 and deep

22:50

into the heart

22:52

of the Appalachian Mountains in

22:54

a small town tucked away from prying

22:56

eyes, a group of audacious thieves

22:58

carried out what can only be described as

23:01

a hillbilly heist. With

23:05

meticulous planning, cunning tactics and

23:07

a dash of audacity, these rural

23:10

bandits managed to steal an astonishing

23:13

fortune.

23:13

So join

23:16

us as we follow the twists and turns of

23:18

this robbery, looking into

23:20

the jaw dropping outcome that left authorities

23:23

and locals totally dumbfounded.

23:26

This, my friends, is

23:28

the hillbilly heist.

23:35

All right. So

23:38

strap in, I'm going to tell you a story

23:40

about some naive rednecks who

23:42

managed to steal.

23:43

Oh, we've got some fans in the house.

23:48

These particular rednecks were

23:50

successful in stealing $17 million

23:53

worth of cash in the US

23:56

in 1997. So we're talking about $41

23:58

million.

23:59

of Australian currency today.

24:02

A lot. And they could have got away

24:04

with it if only they'd followed the plan

24:07

they'd set up for themselves. Sadly,

24:09

they did not. Things ended badly.

24:11

This is just the gist of what's known as the

24:13

Hillbilly Heist of 1997.

24:16

Now,

24:19

you can probably guess it's given that name because

24:21

everyone involved lived in trailer parks in

24:24

North Carolina. No crack-a-lacky.

24:26

They all ate biscuits and gravy, breakfast,

24:29

lunch, and dinner, and drank sweet tea. And

24:33

the main character is a guy called David Gant.

24:35

He was 27 at the time, and he was miserable. He

24:39

was in a marriage that he felt was pretty loveless.

24:42

He was barely making ends meet despite

24:44

working 70 to 80 hours every

24:46

single week at his job as a supervisor

24:49

at a company called Loomis Fargo that

24:51

transported cash around the city. The

24:54

only excitement he had in his life was

24:56

this flirtatious friendship he had

24:58

with an ex-colleague called Kelly. And

25:01

in David's mind, Kelly was the perfect

25:04

woman because she loved NASCAR,

25:06

and she rode quad bikes, and

25:08

she watched action movies. So

25:11

he was smitten with her and completely worshipped

25:13

her. I bet she's

25:13

one of those girls who's like, I

25:16

don't even like one. I like beer. I'm

25:18

not like other girls. I like beer

25:20

and sports.

25:21

Very much acted like one of those. I love

25:23

those girls. She was married

25:25

herself to a man named Spanky.

25:29

Spanky. Spanky. But she led David on

25:31

because she really enjoyed the attention she got

25:33

from him. Now,

25:36

David's miserable job at Loomis involved

25:39

moving money around all day long in this armored

25:41

truck, taking it between banks

25:43

and ATMs and the giant vault that they

25:45

had at the base for

25:48

Loomis. And he was handling millions

25:50

of dollars every single day, which meant that he was having to

25:52

wear body armor and carry a gun everywhere he went. So

25:55

it was a super dangerous job. But

25:58

he was only getting paid $8 an hour. because

26:01

America. And every

26:03

single day without fail everyone at the company,

26:06

David included, would make dumb jokes

26:08

about taking some of the money home at the

26:10

end of the day, hahaha. And

26:13

no one believed that anyone would ever actually

26:15

go through with that until in March of 1997 a

26:17

Loomis employee down in Florida made

26:21

off with a truck full of 19 million

26:24

dollars in cash. So

26:27

all of a sudden it seemed possible

26:29

and

26:29

that got folks pondering. What year

26:32

was this again you said? 97. Yeah. Okay so it was like.

26:35

The spice world came out

26:36

round about that time. I completely

26:39

understand the context now. But it's

26:41

like things like you know people

26:43

weren't didn't have a super sophisticated understanding

26:45

of things like the internet, GPS. You

26:48

felt like if you're at a truck with 90 million bucks you could

26:50

just

26:50

drive to a farm and no one would find

26:52

you. Loomis didn't have GPS yet so he literally

26:55

just hid the whole truck in the storage

26:57

space. He ended up getting caught

26:59

because he was a terrible liar sadly

27:02

but he managed to hang on to the money for a few months.

27:04

Hey that's impressive. Yeah.

27:06

Anyway one day Kelly called Dave up

27:08

and said her friend Steve had come up with this

27:10

foolproof plan to rob the vault

27:13

at David's branch of Loomis. They

27:15

just needed an inside guy who had

27:17

all the keys and all the codes which was Dave.

27:21

And Dave laughed it off. He had never broken

27:23

the law in his life. He was a war

27:25

veteran and he was not interested in becoming

27:27

a criminal. But Kelly kept pressing

27:30

every couple of weeks when she'd speak to him and

27:32

then when September of 97 rolled

27:35

around Dave got a credit card bill and

27:37

he worked out the maths and realized it was gonna

27:39

take him more than 30 years just

27:41

to pay off that credit card bill. That

27:44

hurts. So he started picturing himself

27:46

entering his 60s probably

27:48

still living in that trailer still in debt

27:51

still married to Tammy who he really

27:53

was not fond of.

27:54

Tammy. Tammy. Oh I

27:56

love it. And so he figured he had nothing

27:58

to lose that he gave a shit out of.

27:59

about. So he called Kelly up and said, you know

28:02

what, I mean, let's do it. And

28:04

Steve's plan was really very simple

28:06

because Dave from time to time could

28:09

be alone at the base. So he

28:11

just needed to identify one of those moments.

28:14

And when he found that occasion,

28:17

he'd then move all the money from the vault into

28:19

one of the Loomis armored trucks. He'd

28:21

simply drive away, then leave

28:24

all the money with Steve so that Steve

28:26

could hide it, keep it safe. And

28:28

then Kelly would help David get out of

28:30

the country as quickly as possible. She'd

28:32

been eventually go and meet up with him in Mexico

28:34

and then start a happy new life

28:37

together.

28:37

Oh, like

28:39

Melissa Caddick did it. Oh my God. Sorry,

28:42

I just remembered. Sorry, sorry,

28:44

sorry. Is it out already? Yes. There's only two episodes.

28:47

Terrible. It was clearly a rush job,

28:49

but they do in the end show her

28:51

biting down on the leather strap and someone has a chainsaw

28:54

and it's a hole to do. And then the

28:56

final scene is her on this yacht with

28:58

this super hot sex idiot with this really sleek

29:00

prosthetic leg.

29:01

We knew it.

29:03

We knew it. Highly

29:05

record worth it for the last 30 seconds.

29:09

Oh my God. I'm so sorry. That just for a

29:11

moment. Nine streaming service, nine

29:13

now.

29:14

Okay. All right. I'm gonna go home

29:16

right now and watch out. I mean, I'm not gonna,

29:18

I mean, I want nine now's money one day, so I'm

29:20

not going to tell you I only watched the last five minutes, but I

29:22

saw the bit that's worth

29:23

it. It was

29:25

good. Should we get back to the story?

29:29

Me interrupt too much. So they'd

29:32

start their new life down in Mexico. Steve would

29:34

split the cash up evenly between them, somehow

29:36

get it to them in secret. They would all

29:38

agree to keep the money hidden for at least

29:40

two years, which is when the case would go cold

29:43

and the FBI wouldn't be looking for them. And then

29:45

they could just start living like Kardashians

29:47

for the rest of their lives. That's tough for all to

29:49

follow. As we'll see. Now

29:52

Steve was thrilled to have Dave on board.

29:54

Didn't want to waste a moment. He got him a fake

29:56

ID as soon as he could. The name

29:58

that David was going to start

29:59

going by was Michael McKinney and

30:02

they were then ready to press go on the plan

30:05

in early October. The

30:07

night this all went down was a Saturday night. It was just

30:09

Dave and one other guy there at the base

30:12

and at the end of their shift Dave pretended

30:14

to lock the bolt and the other guy

30:17

was a trainee so he didn't notice that there was anything

30:19

shifty going on. They walked out

30:22

to their cars, said good night to each other,

30:24

David watched as the other guy drove

30:26

off into the night and then he went back into

30:28

the building and started moving all of

30:30

the cash from the vault to the truck.

30:32

Oh it was that easy. Wow.

30:35

Meanwhile Kelly and Steve and a few other

30:37

accomplices that Steve had brought

30:39

in, most of whom were his cousins,

30:42

they were all waiting outside the fence.

30:44

And were half of them married? To each

30:46

other, yeah.

30:48

Dave expected it was going to take

30:50

him like 20 minutes, maybe 30 to

30:53

empty out the vault but he'd really underestimated

30:55

the volume and weight of the paper money

30:57

that was in there. He didn't know it

30:59

yet but he was going to be moving more than a metric ton,

31:02

it weighed more than a standard

31:04

car.

31:05

More than a ton? How

31:08

many dollars is

31:10

it? 17.3. Weighs more than a ton, 17.3

31:12

million dollars. Because a lot of it was

31:15

fairly small bills as well, we're talking everything

31:17

from a one all the way up to a Benji. It

31:20

took him well over an hour and

31:22

he was dripping in sweat because he had to

31:24

do a hundred days for an

31:26

hour. It was exhausting

31:29

and meanwhile Steve and Kelly, they're outside

31:31

absolutely freaking out about why it's

31:33

taking so long, they're thinking something's gone horribly

31:35

wrong, we should abort the mission,

31:38

get out of here, just keep our hands clean.

31:40

Kelly kept sending pages today, remember

31:43

when people had pages? Or

31:44

like a beeper. Yeah. Right,

31:46

yeah, yeah, yeah. And she'd send a message saying, I

31:48

love you but hurry the fuck up please

31:51

or give us some sort of update. Finally,

31:53

when he had every last note out

31:55

of that vault because he had a real no man gets

31:57

left behind policy on this job.

31:59

He set a time lock so it would

32:02

be impossible to open the vault for the next

32:04

five days. And then he went

32:06

to the manager's office and pressed eject

32:08

on the two VCR machines that

32:10

captured all of the security footage.

32:12

Took the VHS's? Took the VHS tapes with

32:14

him. Why wouldn't you eject them first?

32:17

Don't let it record at all. Let's

32:24

talk after this about coming up with a better plan.

32:28

Before he got into the Loomis truck to drive it away, he

32:30

walked over to his personal car and left

32:32

his wedding ring on the driver's seat as sort of a poetic way

32:35

of saying goodbye to his old life and

32:37

to his wife. So it's beachy. Oh yeah,

32:39

shade. Yeah, that's

32:41

so shade. What shade is that? That's

32:43

so like, I switched baristas. Very that.

32:46

That is very that, isn't it? Super dismissive,

32:48

yes.

32:49

He wanted to just then drive

32:52

off in triumph, but he couldn't because the electric

32:54

gate was broken and he couldn't get

32:56

it to open. And so he started to panic, but then he

32:58

thought, oh wait, there's the other gate. I'll just go use the other

33:00

gate. Couldn't open that either. And

33:03

he was there thinking, oh my God, it's all

33:05

over. And I haven't even made it out of the car park

33:07

yet. This is so upsetting. He

33:10

really was panicking and started contemplating,

33:13

could I put all the money back and then

33:15

just act like none of this ever happened?

33:18

Yeah, yes. He can't.

33:19

He's set. He was screwed. He's

33:21

got to go or do something.

33:23

Thankfully for one of him, one of Steve's muscly

33:25

cousins came over and forced

33:27

the gate open from the outside. So

33:30

they were back on track. Yeah. And they

33:32

all drove to the rendezvous point and

33:34

Dave handed his giant

33:36

key ring to one of the cousins and said,

33:39

this is the only key that opens

33:41

the back of the truck. Do not lose

33:43

it.

33:46

And then he filled up a bag with

33:49

stacks of $20 notes. He figured it was probably

33:51

around 40K that he had. And that was going to

33:53

tide him over for the next couple of weeks while he

33:55

was waiting for the rest of his share. And then

33:58

he jumped in Kelly's car and off they went. to the

34:00

airport and they were giddy. This was the biggest

34:02

thrill of their lives. They couldn't believe

34:05

they'd pulled this off. Kelly asked

34:07

him how much he thought they'd gotten. He said, I think it's

34:09

somewhere between 15 and 20 million. And she

34:12

cackled and screamed

34:13

out, who I'm a rich bitch now.

34:18

They were absolutely elated.

34:20

But then as they started to get near

34:22

the airport, and this is around 10

34:25

p.m. at night, Dave was like,

34:28

all the lights are off. Looks

34:30

like the airport might be

34:31

closed. Oh, they hadn't booked tickets. What

34:33

time is the flight you booked for me? And

34:36

Kelly was like, I didn't book you no ticket. Oh

34:38

my God. And he's like, that

34:41

was your one job. You're in charge of transportation.

34:44

And she

34:45

was like, I am literally driving you right

34:47

now. What more do you want?

34:51

And so then he was like, well, I'm going to need to get to a

34:53

24-hour airport. The nearest one is

34:55

in Atlanta. And she was like,

34:57

I am not driving you all the

34:59

way down to Atlanta. I will take

35:01

you to the bus depot and you can get a Greyhound.

35:03

And so that's exactly

35:06

what he did. He had to catch a bus to

35:08

Atlanta to get a plane. Kelly

35:11

kissed him goodbye before he left and

35:13

said she promised she was going to meet him down

35:16

in Mexico. She had absolutely no

35:18

intention of doing that.

35:20

So does she get a cut of the money without him?

35:22

That's agreed. Because she was meant to take

35:25

care of transportation.

35:26

She fulfilled her obligations

35:28

as far as she was concerned. OK. All right.

35:31

Meanwhile, back at the truck, pure chaos.

35:33

Because Steve's cousin had not been paying attention

35:36

when he was handed that key. So

35:38

he was frantically trying to try out

35:40

more than 125 keys to

35:43

try to get one of them to work. Meanwhile, all

35:45

the rest of them, because they were running so far over schedule,

35:47

they're freaking out. Steve's throwing rocks

35:50

at this bulletproof vehicle.

35:53

One of the cousins is trying to headbutt it open.

35:56

It's just 15

35:57

minutes of sheer panic before

35:59

they get there. They finally managed to get the doors open

36:02

and they start moving the cash into these

36:04

big tall blue plastic barrels

36:07

that they'd brought along.

36:07

Okay, I have a question. This is because I watch Breaking

36:10

Bad. Mm-hmm. And I know that because

36:12

they're stupid and they have paper money, it's

36:15

really hard to keep it from like going mouldy

36:17

and bad and you have to like treat it with special

36:19

mould stuff and take care of it and did

36:21

they think of any of that? No.

36:23

I doubt that very much. Yeah. Yeah.

36:26

They're just putting it in barrels. Just putting it in barrels so that they

36:28

can move it from A to B. Problem was, they're not going to bring

36:30

enough barrels. So

36:33

by the time all their containers were filled,

36:35

they still had like two-fifths of the volume

36:38

of cash sitting there. Oh, no. And

36:40

they started having this big fight over what they were going to do with

36:42

it, whether they just like shove it in the back seats

36:44

of their cars and try covering it up with a blanket

36:47

or something. Stick

36:47

it down your pants. Yeah. They

36:50

ended up deciding that's too risky. They were just

36:52

going to have to leave the rest of the money. They didn't know

36:55

it, but they were leaving behind $3.5 million when they ditched the

36:59

truck in the middle of the woods.

37:03

The next morning, Loomis employees

37:05

showed up to their shift. Dave's

37:07

car was there in the parking lot, but there was no

37:09

sign of him. One of the armored trucks

37:12

was missing and the vault was impossible

37:15

to open. So something was very, very

37:17

wrong. They called the cops and the

37:19

FBI. Tammy had also called the cops

37:21

to say her husband hadn't come home the night

37:23

before. Oh, Tammy. Oh, Tammy.

37:26

I do feel for Tammy. Someone

37:29

told the cops that they really believed Dave

37:31

must have been robbed, possibly

37:33

kidnapped and maybe even killed

37:35

because he was a model employee. They

37:38

could not imagine that he would have stolen

37:40

the money for himself. They said he must

37:42

have had a gun to his head. When

37:45

the branch manager got there, he told the FBI

37:47

that he had a secret third VCR

37:50

set up to capture all

37:52

of the security camera footage. So together...

37:55

This is like a map

37:57

screen. Hahahaha!

37:59

They watched the one hour

38:02

of footage, yes they fast-forwarded as much

38:04

of it as they could. They could

38:06

see Dave moving the cash out of the

38:08

vault and it seemed possible maybe

38:10

there is someone off-camera who's

38:13

got a gun pointed at him but

38:16

then they got to the end and saw

38:18

that Dave did a little victory dance

38:20

when he finished emptying out the

38:22

vault. Yes, he

38:24

celebrated his win. He

38:27

did not look like someone who was under duress

38:29

in any way. So the

38:31

FBI felt comfortable starting a nationwide

38:34

manhunt for David Gatt. But

38:37

he was already in sunny Cancun.

38:39

So he'd

38:39

made it. He'd made it all the way to Mexico.

38:42

He smuggled his $40,000 of $20

38:45

notes in his cowboy boots and he strapped

38:48

some of it to his torso using a pair of pantyhose

38:51

and when he got there it was the most amount

38:53

of money he'd ever had so he wanted

38:55

to start enjoying it. He

38:58

checked into a luxury resort under his new name

39:00

Michael McKinney and switched straight

39:02

into holiday mode. He spent the first few

39:04

weeks doing every activity they had available.

39:07

Scuba diving, horse riding.

39:09

But that's the thing, if you've never had money

39:11

and then you have $40,000 you think you're a millionaire. You

39:15

can't afford to stay in a luxury resort.

39:17

No. Yeah, like that's not gonna last

39:19

long.

39:20

I mean he thought he had at least $4 million

39:22

coming his way at some point. Yeah but not for two years they

39:25

said. No, no he would have it but

39:27

then he wouldn't be able to spend it on American

39:29

soil. Right. I think he's what they were thinking. Okay.

39:31

Yeah. He really wasn't. The whole point

39:34

of this story is these hillbillies. He doesn't know

39:35

what he's doing. He's just like I've got

39:37

endless money forever. That's pretty much

39:40

it. He was eating four very decadent

39:42

meals every day. Oh my god.

39:44

Not thinking at all about Tammy who

39:46

he'd abandoned with bills that she

39:48

was never going to be able to manage on her

39:51

own. He was too busy playing water

39:53

sports.

39:53

I am, man.

39:56

He was only in contact with Kelly

39:59

once or twice a week.

39:59

send her a pager message saying

40:02

to go to a payphone in town that

40:04

he'd call. And their conversations

40:06

would, in the early days, always go along the lines

40:08

of, when are you coming? I'll miss you

40:10

so please get down here soon.

40:13

Are you even sure that's how they talk or did you just

40:15

pick that accent? I just went with

40:17

Surther and I'm not quite sure how

40:20

regional this is. And

40:24

Kelly'd be like, yeah, yeah, soon, soon,

40:26

soon. Steve's just, you know, getting the money

40:28

sorted out. Right. Yeah, I'll get down there

40:31

whenever I can. Yeah. No intention of going

40:33

to Mexico. But it was true. Steve did have

40:36

control of the cash. He was portioning it out

40:38

to all his cousins that have been involved

40:40

in instalments and telling them you

40:42

have to be very, very discreet. Hide

40:45

the money if you absolutely must spend

40:47

some of it. Make sure it's only for

40:49

essentials. Don't go making any

40:51

extravagant

40:52

purchases because that could get the attention

40:54

of the FBI and then we'd all be screwed.

40:56

And of course, all of his cousins were

40:58

like, yeah,

41:01

totally.

41:01

Yeah. Mm hmm. But once they

41:04

had the cash in their hands, they just could

41:06

not resist. That's a big ask of anyone.

41:08

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Within like

41:11

a week, Kelly had bought herself a brand

41:13

new minivan. She

41:14

moved out of. Not

41:17

like a Ferrari minivan.

41:22

The best we can say about Kelly, she's practical. Practical.

41:25

She moved out of her trailer and into a nice big

41:27

old house and she took her entire family

41:30

on a vacation to Florida.

41:31

Florida, America's penis.

41:34

One of the cousins

41:36

paid for his wife and his sister,

41:39

who I hope are two separate people

41:43

to each get breast augmentation.

41:47

But the biggest purchases

41:49

by far were made by Steve and

41:51

Michelle. They completely ruined everyone's

41:54

chances of getting away with this. The

41:57

FBI started monitoring Michelle pretty

41:59

early on in the.

41:59

because a few days after the heist,

42:02

she'd walked into a bank with a big bag

42:05

of cash and asked, how much

42:07

can I deposit without you having to notify

42:09

the police? And

42:12

the teller was like, $10,000. And

42:15

she was like, great. And pulled $9,500 out of

42:17

the bag,

42:20

handed the stacks of cash over, still

42:22

wrapped up with the Loomis Fargo seal. Hi!

42:25

Hi! And

42:29

she winked

42:29

at the teller and said, don't you worry,

42:31

it ain't drug money. So

42:35

the teller submitted a suspicious

42:38

activity report. The second Michelle

42:40

left the branch, within a couple

42:43

of weeks, that report had made its way

42:45

to the FBI team who were investigating what

42:47

had gone on with this Loomis case. And

42:50

so they started looking into Stephen Michelle's

42:52

financial activities and turned

42:55

out some of their recent purchases included

42:57

a white convertible BMW that

42:59

they'd purchased with cash, a brand new

43:02

motorcycle... Better than a minivan. Oh, motorcycle.

43:04

Vroom, vroom.

43:06

Matching suntanning beds.

43:09

Cos you can't go at the same time. A

43:14

grand piano, $200,000

43:15

worth of Cuban cigars. They

43:20

were renting limousines to take them to

43:22

New York City to go on shopping sprees

43:25

around Manhattan and they'd

43:27

just moved out of their trailer as well and

43:29

had moved into a million-dollar mansion

43:32

in a gated community that they'd paid for... Oh, my God.

43:35

With cash. So

43:38

the FBI were monitoring those guys very,

43:40

very closely and also they were monitoring

43:42

Kelly because like all of Dave's friends

43:45

and family,

43:45

she'd been brought in for questioning that

43:47

she was the only one who refused to

43:50

take a polygraph test. So they were

43:52

like, okay, you're guilty of something. We

43:54

will start monitoring you quite closely and

43:56

they've started surveilling her 24-7. Yeah,

43:59

yeah, yeah, yeah.

44:00

And while this is going on, Dave's just naively

44:02

enjoying himself south of the border,

44:04

assuming everyone's following the plan back home,

44:07

right?

44:07

Dave. Weeks, months.

44:10

What about poor Dave? Because then you think about Tammy and you're like,

44:12

no, fuck you, Dave. Okay, yeah, that's fine.

44:15

He started getting low on funds and he was really,

44:17

really missing Kelly. So he arranged one

44:19

of their calls and he was like, honey bear, it's

44:21

been six weeks. Come

44:23

on down. She just rolled her eyes,

44:25

promised, yeah, yeah, she was going to come and she'd get

44:28

Steve to send him some more money. And she went

44:30

to Steve to say, hey, can you just send him some

44:32

cash? And Steve was like, look, I've been

44:34

thinking we could

44:37

send David his cut of the money

44:39

we could, or

44:42

hear me out. We

44:44

could have him killed and just split that cash

44:46

between you and me. Yeah. And

44:48

Kelly was like, oh no, we could never, we could

44:50

never. Absolutely not. How would

44:52

we even do something

44:53

like that?

44:56

And Steve was like, oh, easy. You

44:58

just go down there like he's been asking you wait till

45:00

he falls asleep and you just inject him with a syringe

45:02

full of bleach.

45:08

And she's like, well, absolutely

45:09

not. If we're going to do this, we're going to hire

45:12

a professional. And Steve's like, you know what? That is a great

45:14

idea. Let's go ahead and do that. I

45:16

know a guy. So he called up

45:18

a hit man who happened to be the real

45:21

Michael McKinney and offered to pay him $250,000

45:23

to go down to Mexico and kill the fake Michael McKinney. So

45:28

he's the kind

45:29

of guy who sells his ID. He's probably the kind

45:31

of guy that kills them more than I mean, that's... Oh yeah. Yeah.

45:34

This wasn't his first hit that he'd taken out. Closet, just like, yeah, total crimp. Yeah.

45:38

So he sent Michael McKinney down

45:41

to Cancun with a big wad of cash

45:43

that he was going to use as like bait to get him close

45:45

to David. And then when they were alone, he was going to

45:47

snuff David out. That

45:51

ends up falling apart.

45:59

at least $50,000. Kelly

46:02

hung up before he could get to any of the I miss

46:04

you, I love you sort of stuff. Aw.

46:07

Like

46:08

when I talked to Caleb on the phone. Yeah.

46:11

Bye. Bye.

46:13

When Bruno got to Cancun, he

46:15

was looking for a skinny, pale, redhead.

46:18

But by this time, four meals a day, David

46:20

really filled out. And

46:22

he dyed his hair a dark brown. And he was

46:24

using buckets of fake tan.

46:27

Aw, like people think you do. Yes. He

46:30

doesn't.

46:31

It's all real. It's real.

46:34

Pure sun damage. It took a few days

46:37

for Bruno to find Dave.

46:39

And in that time, he just went

46:41

ahead and used the cash that was in the wad he'd

46:44

been given on strippers and drugs

46:46

and booze. So he was having a really good

46:49

time, kind of disappointed when he finally

46:51

did find Dave and handed over what was left

46:53

of the money. Dave was furious because

46:55

it was only $8,000 that

46:58

he was handed. And Bruno was like, well, that sounds

47:00

like a you and Steve problem. And off he

47:03

went. Next day, Bruno

47:05

rang Steve and said, I just

47:07

didn't get an opportunity to kill this guy. I

47:10

guess I'll have to come back again in a week

47:12

or so.

47:12

So he's trying to milk. I was going to ask,

47:14

why didn't he kill him? Because he wants another holiday.

47:16

Yeah. And so

47:18

that pattern just kept repeating

47:21

over the next couple of weeks. Bruno would

47:23

fly to Cancun with a wad of cash

47:25

for David. He'd blow through half of it

47:27

partying. And then he'd report back, oh, failed

47:30

again. Better luck next time. And

47:33

Steve was really frustrated, but he didn't know

47:35

any other hit men. So he didn't have a better

47:37

plan. And Dave was getting

47:40

really angry. Because he could see he was getting played.

47:42

It was going to take forever for him to get his $4 million

47:45

in installments of $8,000.

47:48

He also started to get very, very scared

47:50

for two reasons. Firstly, when he was out

47:53

one night, an American tourist came up to him and

47:55

said, you look a lot like that guy

47:57

who robbed that Loomis Fargo vault back

47:59

in the morning.

47:59

It was all over the news and stuff. Oh

48:02

yeah, America's Most Wanted every week. Oh,

48:04

love that show. And back then it was

48:06

like everyone watched it. That was free day TV

48:08

was it. That's right. So

48:11

Mike was like, oh shit, my disguise is not working. But

48:13

no, I'm sorry David was like, oh no, my

48:16

name's Mike. Yeah. I

48:18

sell software for computers. And

48:21

he's thinking, oh my God, my fake tan and dye

48:23

job is not really doing the trick. Oh no. And

48:26

the tourist was like, oh dang, I could have

48:28

got that $500,000 reward if I'd turned

48:30

you into the FBI if you were that guy. And David

48:32

was like, oh shit, the bounty hunters are going to be coming

48:35

after me. Also I love how does

48:37

all tourists from America talk like that now? That's

48:39

just your American accent. Forever and always.

48:42

Yeah, OK.

48:43

The second reason he was scared, one of the resort

48:45

staff had told him that Bruno

48:47

had been asking around town about where to get a gun. And

48:50

so he thought, oh, this guy's dangerous.

48:53

So Dave moved, started

48:55

lying low, stopped doing all the fun

48:57

activities he'd been doing previously. He just stayed

48:59

in his hotel room, watched movies, ate M&Ms

49:01

and noodles. If he ever did leave his room,

49:03

he was carrying a knife, really paranoid.

49:06

He arranged a call with Kelly and he was like, this is whole

49:08

shit. I want my money. I'm lonely. I

49:12

need you to come down here

49:13

this very week, Kelly. And Kelly

49:15

was like, oh yeah, OK, well, we'll figure

49:17

something out. Where did you say

49:19

you've moved to? Where are you staying now?

49:22

Don't tell him. And

49:23

she hung up on him. None

49:25

of them knew that

49:27

the pay phone, Steve's phone, Kelly's

49:29

phone, all their phones were bugged by the FBI

49:32

at this point. So, of course, the feds

49:34

heard all of this. They knew exactly where Dave was

49:36

now. They also overheard Kelly

49:39

calling Steve to tell him Dave's

49:41

new location, where to send Bruno to finally

49:44

finish the job. And they decided, OK,

49:46

it's time. We have to move in and arrest everyone

49:49

who's involved in this. So it was March of 1998 by

49:51

the time they made their move. Their

49:54

sting operation went very, very smoothly. They

49:56

arrested Steve

49:57

and Michelle and Kelly and all the

49:59

cousins within the FBI. minutes of each

50:01

other. So they can't page each other.

50:03

No opportunities to warn. Almost

50:06

all of them were naked when the FBI turned

50:08

out by the way. Just a fun detail

50:11

there.

50:13

Dave meanwhile

50:14

was on his way to a laundromat down

50:16

in Mexico when he was approached by this group

50:18

of very well groomed Americans

50:20

and he was like, oh these are either assassins

50:23

or they're bounty hunters or they're feds.

50:26

And he went to pull out his knife but before

50:28

he did he said, you FBI?

50:31

And they were like, yes sir. He was like,

50:33

oh praise the Lord. Well yeah, they weren't killing

50:36

him. He was so relieved. Yes, he

50:38

really thought he was gonna wind up dead. He

50:40

knew that the maximum sentence he was gonna get if he

50:42

was arrested was 10 years. He

50:44

could live with that. Totally fine. Surrendered,

50:47

happily went back to the US to the safety and comfort

50:49

of a federal prison.

50:52

So this was of

50:54

course a very big news story

50:56

because the details were just so delicious

50:59

and when Steve and Michelle's home

51:01

was raided, camera crews from every network

51:04

were there to capture the detail of all the tacky

51:06

stuff they'd been spending their money on,

51:08

especially the artworks, erotic

51:11

sculptures, paintings

51:14

of dogs wearing army uniforms.

51:18

And one of the things that got the most attention was a painting

51:21

of Elvis Presley on black velvet.

51:23

People were dying over that because

51:25

it's just such a cliche of white

51:28

trash or into that type of thing. And

51:30

because the case had such a cult following,

51:33

when all of the repossessed items went up for

51:35

auction, the bids for these things like

51:37

the Elvis painting were outrageous.

51:40

Everyone wanted a piece of history. Everyone

51:42

wanted some memorabilia. Even the big blue barrels,

51:45

they sold for thousands of dollars.

51:47

Just like a cool story. Like

51:49

a cult item to own. That's right. And some

51:51

of the people who purchased the stuff would then charge people

51:53

to come and see it in their homes. Well,

51:56

it's like how I paid Carol Baskin $350 to

51:58

give you a birthday. Yes,

52:00

the equivalent of Cameo back then. Yes, it

52:02

is. Yes, totally. Now,

52:05

behind the scenes, everyone who'd been arrested

52:07

was just ratting each other out, hoping that

52:10

they'd get a more lenient sentence for themselves.

52:12

They all ended up pleading guilty, because

52:14

they could see there was just far too much evidence

52:16

against them to not. Dave

52:19

was pretty crushed to watch Kelly testify

52:21

that, yep, she participated in a plot to

52:24

murder him. They

52:27

all ended up going to prison for obvious

52:29

reasons, the ones who had the longest sentences were

52:31

the ones who were involved in the murder plot, including

52:33

Bruno, who said he didn't realize

52:35

until he was arrested that

52:38

he could have turned Dave in and got a $500,000 reward, rather

52:41

than the $250,000

52:44

he was being offered to kill him. Didn't

52:47

do the math until then. Dave

52:50

ended up serving just over six years. He

52:52

was like a hero in prison. They

52:55

worshipped him because of what he'd managed to pull

52:57

off. And when he was released, he moved to Florida,

52:59

got remarried, had a daughter, and he has

53:01

a really, really happy life. He's been in a bunch

53:04

of documentaries where he's very candid

53:06

talking about his experiences. He

53:08

also got to act as a consultant, unpaid

53:11

for obvious reasons, can't profit from a

53:13

crime. On the movie Masterminds,

53:15

some of you might have seen

53:16

that. Yeah, but it was very loosely based

53:18

on this story. It wouldn't have been unpaid, because

53:20

they said Anna Sorekin was unpaid,

53:23

but they pay it to a trust that goes to

53:25

another trust that goes to another trust, and then all of a sudden

53:27

she has the money. They would have paid him.

53:29

That could well be the case. He honestly

53:31

said that he was just happy to eat at the craft services

53:34

table every day and make friends with Zach Galifianakis,

53:36

who played him in the movie.

53:38

He

53:40

says he wouldn't change a thing

53:42

about his life. He's so happy now. Everything

53:45

that's happened has led him to this point. He

53:47

ended up writing a self-help book a couple

53:49

of years ago called

53:51

The Book of Dave.

53:52

The Book of Dave. With all

53:54

the lessons he's learned throughout

53:56

his life, it's full of Southern wisdom

53:58

and personal anecdotes. and

54:01

advice. And I do have one little piece

54:03

of advice that I think I'll share to wrap things up

54:05

here. Let's hear it.

54:07

In Dave's own words,

54:10

we all need a good friend who will tell

54:12

you when you're being a dang idiot.

54:16

They will tell you, yeah, you

54:18

know what? This is going to go poorly

54:20

for you and no, I am not going to

54:22

hold your beer. LAUGHTER

54:25

APPLAUSE

54:29

Solid advice. Solid

54:32

advice. So that, friends, is just the gist of

54:34

the hillbilly highest of 1997. CHEERING

54:36

AND APPLAUSE