WEBVTT - Everyday, Everyday I Steal the Book: Three Major Book Heists 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:04.440 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zaren Burnett. 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:07.160 Hey, Elizabeth Dutton, how are you? I'm doing all right? 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:07.960 Does my hair look good? 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:15.320 Looks amazing? It looks so good. Oh it's really nice. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:16.919 You know, it's ridiculous. 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.319 Oh my god, do I MRI scans? You know about 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.880 those them? Okay? Yeah, so they're magnetic resonance imagery. They 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.560 getting that two the magnets inside. You know, they're really 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.360 strong right there, two hundred times stronger than your average 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:33.040 magnets you have for that size. Now, Americans, you know 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.720 how they are, right? They love their guns. So this 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.360 Wisconsin woman she was getting into an MRI and they 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.159 asked her, oh, ma'am, do you have any metal you 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:43.280 in your pockets? Because it'll be a problem for the magnet. 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:45.880 She's like, I do not. Turns out she was lying 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.320 or wrong or forgot, who knows she had metal on 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.520 her pockets? Elizabeth, she had a gun. 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:53.559 She had a gun on her and oh yeah, you 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:54.200 know what happened. 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:57.720 The MRI machine It triggered the gun. The gun shot 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:02.920 her in that she got shot her own gun, and 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:05.080 they had the MR right there to watch it happens. 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.360 I would love to see the imagery of that a 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.399 gun shot recorded that. We found out about this because 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.000 a report got submitted to the FDA's Manufacturer and User 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.920 Facility Device Experience, a voluntary reporting site for accidents involving 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:20.520 medical devices. That's how we find out about this. Yeah, 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:22.640 so she was fine, only a flesh loan. She had 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.000 plenty of butt for the bullet to hit. And no 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:26.760 one else was hurt either. So there you go, boom, 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.560 ridiculous bringing a gun into a hospital. I don't care what. 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:30.160 Happens to you. 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:32.240 And the question do you have any gun? Do you 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:34.760 have any metal on you? Nope, no, nope, it should disaswered. 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:36.760 Do you have a gun on you? You're an American? 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:38.679 Do you have a gun on you? That that counts? 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:39.080 Yeah? 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:40.880 Right, I mean like your car keys. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:42.600 That is ridiculous. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:43.039 Thank you? 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:44.360 Do you want to know what else is reading? 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:45.800 Oh my god, it came for here, for. 0:01:45.959 --> 0:02:10.720 Dealing books and not even being from Modesto. What this 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:15.440 is ridiculous crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous caper's 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:19.120 heiss and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:26.600 and one hundred percent ridiculous. Right do you do you 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.720 remember the book thief from Modesto. Yes, and then the 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:30.440 biblio Dick. 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:31.639 The Bibliadic's my favorite. 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.400 Well, you know there are more thieves out there, book thieves. 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:40.560 These are their stories. Yes, dog, so Ed Maggs. He's 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:44.400 a fifth generation co owner of what was Queen Elizabeth's 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:45.359 favorite bookstore. 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:47.560 Wait, there's a bookstore named Ed owner named. 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.079 Ed maggsg Mags, and he owns Mags Brothers. 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:51.079 I love this. Yeah. 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.560 He once told Vanity Fair that quote, the problem of 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.240 the connoisseur book thief is a real one. 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.079 Oh it's a real one, real one, Elizabeth. 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.280 We're about to see that written largely. I got three 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.920 Biggins for you. I love the Let's start in jolly 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.960 old England. This one has some oceans, eleven qualities too, 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:14.919 and mission impossible. 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:15.800 You're talking. 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.600 I love that. Stuff's very cinematic. They're also Eastern Europeans. 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:24.200 Oh my god, great modern cinematic crime villains. Let's talk 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.720 about the Feltham book heist. What book I felt them 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.360 Feltham f E L T h A M. It's not Feltem, 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:33.120 Feltem Feltham whatever. 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:34.239 It's in West London. 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.640 Oh like felt Ham who felt this Ham, the Feltham 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:38.400 book heist. 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:43.200 Oh my god. People the UK are just like like 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:44.760 they're having a physical response. 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.640 Oh I'm so sorry about that. But we're Americans. 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.720 They're having like an anal squeeze over it. The Feltham 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:56.960 book heist in West London. So this is this place. 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:01.000 This is the home of Frontier Forwarding Warehouse and it's 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:03.800 a bonded warehouse for secure storage of goods that go 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.600 in and out of Heathrow Airport. They had like custom 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:10.440 services there. It's the hub for European air freight shipments. 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:16.560 So February twenty seventeen, the California International Antiquarian Book Fair 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:21.320 was scheduled to take place in California, Oakland, California, at 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:25.599 the Oakland Marriott City Center right there at Broadway in Tenth, Okay. 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:27.919 And it was going to feature collections and like rear 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:33.160 treasures of nearly two hundred booksellers from over twenty different countries, 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.160 and it was recognized as one of the world's largest 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.279 and most prestigious exhibitions of antiquarian books. 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.080 Happened in our backyard. I don't even know about this. 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.479 I know in the run up to this book fair, 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:48.200 book dealers prepped to have their finest wares shipped to Oakland, 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:54.880 which like nowadays I think, and at the Frontier Forwarding 0:04:54.920 --> 0:05:00.200 Warehouse in Feltham crates of books from three dealers. There's 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:04.040 two Italians and a German. They arrived on January twenty eighth, 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.920 and these rare valuable tomes. They were only going to 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:09.520 be there for like a little more than twenty four 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.160 hours and then off they would fly to the Golden State. 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:13.919 Well, yeah, you know about the Italians and Germans. They 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:15.160 loved your team up, so I can see this. 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.680 They just came by air. So but crime interrupted these 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:26.160 plants and so January twenty ninth, twenty seventeen, a crew struck. 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:28.800 And when I say struck, they pulled off a heist 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.760 with mission impossible levels of precision. Yes, it started. A 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:34.600 car pulls up to the side of the road near 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.320 the warehouse. Two men get out, and then the car 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.640 drives off. The men cut a hole in the fence 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.799 and they head towards the building. And that's all anyone 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.279 had of these guys on camera. And after that they're invisible, 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:47.480 like they're. 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:48.200 Just out out camera. 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:52.640 A camera shots somehow they scale the sheer wall, the 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:55.360 blind spots. They scale the sheer wall of the warehouse. 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.760 There's like no little outcroppings on which to get a foothold, like, 0:05:58.880 --> 0:05:59.320 I don't know. 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:01.800 Slither up the side cartoon suction cups. 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:06.360 Yes, And they get onto this steep roof that's on there, 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.520 and they pop open the skylight and then like the 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:11.960 warehouse is rigged up with state of the art security. 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:16.760 There's alarms, there's like you know, motion sensors, cameras. They 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.760 don't trigger a thing. Wow, nothing, no alarms, no cameras. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.520 They used either ropes or like ladders to descend into 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:28.400 the warehouse, apparently very slowly, so they don't trigger anything. 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.120 And they made their way to these crates of books. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:34.400 Now there's other valuable stuff in the warehouse, you know, 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:37.200 you know, other stuff you don't steal and sell. 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:39.480 It's a bonded warehouse. It's a way. 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:43.080 Station for valuable goods. They ignored everything but the books, 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:47.280 well not everything. There was a shipment of large, heavy 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.440 canvas tote bags and they broke that open and took 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:52.120 the tote bags to haul out their loot. 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:54.640 I guess that it was listed on the outside of 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.080 the box. Okay, and so. 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.000 They go through the books in like a really meticulous man. 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.320 It took five hours to pick out the ones they wanted. 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.200 I just thought that these books are getting stolen before 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:05.960 they get to Oakland. 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:09.120 You know, don't want to blame us e eccastically, So 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.560 the stolen items included more than one hundred and sixty 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:17.280 rare books. Wow, here's some notable ones. Albert Einstein's own 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:22.120 sixteen to twenty one copy of Johannes Kepler's The Cosmic Mystery, 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:25.600 where he lays out his theory of planetary motion. A 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:29.880 seventeen seventy seven edition of Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:34.800 Natural Philosophy. A fourteen ninety seven update of the first 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:39.000 book written about women, concerning Famous Women. A fifteen sixty 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:42.880 nine version of Dante's Divine Comedy A Sheath that had 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:47.240 eighty Goya prints in it. A fifteen sixty six Latin 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:51.360 edition of On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Copernicus. Oh, 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:53.920 and then that one alone is where two hundred and 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:54.920 ninety three thousand. 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:55.440 Dollars has to be. 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.680 All said, the missing books are valued at more than 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:03.000 three point four million dollars and they were worth a 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.480 lot more than that because a lot of them had 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:06.840 handwritten notes in. 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:11.120 Them Einstein's top these are like adding. 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:13.480 Yeah, and most of the books could just irreplaceable. You 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.360 could not replace them. The next morning Scotland Yards called 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.320 in and they are just blown away. This is like 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:21.400 something out of the movies. In the middle of the 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.520 warehouse or the three empty metal cases where the books 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.160 had been lesser books kind of strewn on the floor, 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:31.560 skylights still open. So forensic teams they get to work 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.440 scouring the scene for clues. And when one of the 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.439 Italian book dealers was called and told about the theft, 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:41.400 he almost fainted. I mean he freaks out. He rushes 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.520 to the airport in Padua and catches the next flight 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.319 to London. The German dealer couldn't believe what he was hearing. 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.240 He told Vanity Fair quote, I had never heard of 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.120 so many books being stolen at once. Insurance fraud, somebody 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.280 who wanted to harm one of us, a book lover 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.360 who wanted to have one item and threw away the 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.400 rest of the books cover his intentions. That was that's 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:04.560 a you know, convoluted way. 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:06.560 They left all this hemingway behind. What the hell. 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:11.040 All three of the dealers were worried that the theft 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:15.000 would just ruin them financially. These are the prize positions, 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:18.839 the guest items. Meanwhile, the heist crew kept moving and 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:19.120 they have. 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.600 To know, like, I mean, this is like an inside 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:24.120 inside job. I mean, this is a place in a warehouse. 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:25.480 You have to know they're going to the warehouse. You 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:26.720 have to know that these books are in there. 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:31.280 I mean this is like, so they get the books 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.160 out to a house in London and then to the 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:35.520 chunnel and then to the continent. 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:36.720 Gone. Yeah wow. 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:38.920 And they weren't just moving the books out of the country. 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:43.480 They were striking again and again. Yeah, other warehouses were hit. 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:45.080 On the way. They're like, let's just hit a couple 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:45.600 of more jobs. 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:48.560 Yeah, there's in one they stole a huge number of 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:52.000 Lenovo laptops and like put a pin in the in 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.440 the laptops will come back to that. So remember the 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:56.240 footage of the guys cutting into the fence. 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:57.480 Yeah, and then they were not seen again. 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.160 Yeah, police were able to track down the car are 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.920 in the video. It was wiped clean, but a forensic 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.800 tech was able to find one single hair on the headrest. 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:13.439 It was logged. No matches pop up. Meanwhile, in Romania, 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.760 Elena Albu she's the chief prosecutor of organized crime in 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:19.640 Romania and there's there's. 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:20.839 A lot of work for her to Yes, she's a 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:21.720 busy lady. Yeah. 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:23.560 A couple of weeks after the book how she gets 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.680 a call and the tipster tells her that the thieves 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:31.840 at the heist were Romanian and here they got names too, Elena, 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:36.400 check it out. Tea Zoo, Blondie and Christi the Bruiser. 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:41.040 I love Christi. So these are the people. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.880 Basically, these are members She hadn't heard of some of these, Yeah, 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:49.520 I bet not. They're members of Clumparu. And this is 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.840 an absolutely horrific gang like think coke and human trafficking, 0:10:54.240 --> 0:11:01.760 run by an absolute monster named i Clumparu aka Pighead aka. 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:03.120 The Godfather pig Head. 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.520 Yeah, because he's just a big like sick next. 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:10.160 Oh, I get the idea. But your criminal nickname is Pighead. Yeah, like, oh. 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.480 MANI he's doing a thirty year stretch for his crimes. 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:21.120 But his protege, Gavrel popin Chiuk, he started his own 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.560 crew and he saw all the Pighead's mistakes as like 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:25.920 lessons of what to avoid. 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:26.920 He learned from Pigett. 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:29.360 He learned from Pigott, and so as a result, he 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:33.080 created a criminal network that carried out targeted strikes of 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.520 property crime in other areas of Europe. It's like nothing 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:41.360 on Romanian soil, and everything was ever rotating. Crews would 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.360 pull off a heist and then hand the goods to 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.360 a newly arrived transport crew before immediately leaving the country, 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:49.760 and then the transport crew would move the goods to 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.360 another location. Then they'd rotate out of the country while 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:54.800 a new crew got those goods out of the country. 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.480 So they're just constantly rotating. Some of the stolen stuff 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.640 was fenced, some was us this collateral for things, and 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.120 some was stolen especially for like a particular person. 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:04.880 That's what I was thinking. 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:06.880 Yeah, I told you about a similar crew of the 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:11.599 Pink Panthers before. Yes, those were Yaks, Yugoslavians, Albanians, Croatians 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.640 and Serbians. But these these guys, they're just Romanians. 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:15.880 Yeah, that's it. 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:19.600 So people exactly your people. 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:20.160 People. 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:25.600 So Alena Albu and then Tiberius Minea. Tiberius is head 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:29.679 of organized crime investigations for the Romanian National Police. They 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:31.679 get in touch with Scotland Yard because they're like, we 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.200 just got this huge tip, this is the break they'd 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:38.320 been hoping for. So papin Chiuk, he's well known to 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.320 the Romanian authorities and he was like he was always 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:45.000 he was the mastermind, never a foot soldier. But Romanian 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.640 authorities had like a good notion of who he used 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.439 to carry out his dirty work across Europe. In fact, 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:54.720 they had just busted a guy named Narses Popescu and 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:57.800 he was stopped while driving and the cops found a 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:02.719 ton of electronics in his Van Lenovo laptized. Hey, it 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.400 could all be traced back to a warehouse break in 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.960 in England. So the cops they ran his DNA against 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.640 the hair in the car found ditched in South London 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.600 and they got a hit. Whoa yeah. So then DNA 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.280 was also recovered from a piece of metal in the warehouse, 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:21.920 like touch DNA. So now that the authorities had the 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.839 identity of the purpse, they were able to backtrack their 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.480 movements in the days leading up to the burglary. Eventually 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.559 they're able to connect the crew to twelve different warehouse 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.480 hes and you know they were good every time they 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.640 slipped in and out without detection and adding it all up, 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.040 they got like five million dollars in stuff in this 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:41.400 little spree theirs. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:43.439 Did they ever find out how these guys were doing 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:43.920 their stuff? 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:49.640 No, no, So Scotland, Yard, Romanians and then Europeol they 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:52.640 they got all together and they were able to identify 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.920 all of the various men and then they came up 0:13:55.960 --> 0:14:01.400 with what they called Z day Xerenday twenty fifth, twenty nineteen. 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:05.239 So on that day, one hundred and fifty police officers 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:09.480 spread out simultaneously and searched forty five houses in other 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:14.719 kind of locations in England, Italy, Germany, Romania. Thirteen men 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.520 were arrested and then sent to England to stand trial. 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:19.000 All of them pleaded innocent. 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.400 Of course, good good on them. You kind of got 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:21.800 to Yeah. 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:26.320 The trial started on February twentieth, twenty twenty. Think about 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:26.760 that date. 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:28.200 Yeah, we're going right into COVID. 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.240 Uh huh. Trial did last long because COVID lockdown kicked 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:33.880 in just a couple of weeks later everything ground to 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.240 a halt. This was a huge case and like tons 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:41.200 of witnesses, evidence and hubbub, but you know you got 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.080 this global pandemic wreaking habit. Court gets canceled. The defendants 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.160 are told to sit in stew and jail until things 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.320 open back up. And like remember back in that time, 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:52.040 we were like, oh, it'll be like two weeks, three 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:56.080 weeks for yeah. Oh boy. So the guys they realized 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.360 this is going to drag on after a while, and 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.720 on the advice of council, all all but one pleaded guilty. 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:02.840 All but one. 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:07.200 Yeah. Judge Jonathan Davies said, quote, each of you joined 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.920 and played a part in a criminal enterprise carried out 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.800 with skill and determination. You took risks with your eyes open. 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.200 This was a carefully planned operation, often carried out with 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:18.640 mission impossible skill. 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:24.360 Bravo. So yeah, I'm gonna wap you guys up, come on, 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:24.880 give it up. 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:28.880 They all got reduction for pandemic conditions. 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:30.920 Oh okay, the release release. 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:34.240 Yeah. On their sentences. The foot Soldiers got three to 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:38.640 four years based you know depending Papinciok he got five 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.920 years and eight months. And like none of them would 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.320 reveal how they knew to hit the warehouse at that 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.600 specific time. For those specific books. Everyone's like there had 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:49.440 to be an insider, but they never found out who 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:49.760 could be. 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.200 So there's some criminal overlord who is a reader and 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.080 he's like, I need my like and also the scientific 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:57.160 book code. 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.560 Well here's the thing though, what happened to the books? 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.280 Why Neil de grass Tyson pay for this? That's why 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:02.840 I want to know. 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:06.160 Well, okay, so they still they're trying to figure out 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.440 what did happen in the books? Was there like a 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:10.560 criminal who's you know, a science guy. 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:12.120 Yeah, he's like, I really wanted my own copy of 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:13.720 Principal mathematic. 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.920 Grass Tyson order this hit. Two of the men who 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:20.200 were convicted were brothers, and authorities were aware of the 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.520 fact that they had built a really large house very 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.080 recently right next to their parents' place out in the 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.320 country in Romania, and they figured, you know, we should 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:30.720 check this new construction. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:31.920 Can I dig guys? 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.360 So the cops they go. They busted up a six 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:39.080 inch slab of concrete over the garage floor and underneath 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.360 there was a board and Tiberius, right, he's on hand, 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:44.640 He's the one who gets to lift the board. 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:46.000 They made him lift the board. 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.400 Yeah, he said, quote it was very tense. I was 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:51.280 really worried about damaging the books. We'd work so long 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:53.920 and hard to arrive at that moment. And then so 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:57.080 they lift the board and there's an underground bunker and 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.840 that's where the books all were. So most of them 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:03.080 are in recycling bins. Some were still in the canvas 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.560 totes from the heist. Yeah, the authorities they took the 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:08.840 books and they moved them to a climate controlled room 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.160 at the National Library in Bucharest, and the book dealers 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:16.320 they all descend to like claim their precious cargo. Only 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.600 a couple of the books were damaged, but it was 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:21.720 all really small stuff that could easily be fixed, like 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:26.760 a little bit of water, Yeah, that kind of stuff. 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.320 There were only four books missing, but they weren't like 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:34.360 the big ticket items. Book dealer Biselobado, he's the one 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.119 who came from Padua. He said quote, I had given 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.640 up hope. When I saw them, I felt like the 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:42.959 youngest book dealer in the world. They were fantastic books. 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:48.280 The youngest, whole life of promise of book dealing lay 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:48.840 before me. 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:52.080 So that night, the book dealers and then like the 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:55.320 Romanian cops, the English cops, they all got together for 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.320 dinner at a restaurant in Brest. 0:17:57.359 --> 0:17:58.200 They read from the books. 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.800 Well in bizzello, he yells out, tonight we drink like lions. 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:04.880 Wow, these guys are on boy. 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:07.399 So that that's we got a happy I like that. 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:07.800 Way to go. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:10.720 Let's get a glass of water, stretch our legs. Here's 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:12.520 some ads. When we get back, I'll hit you with 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:37.360 another book. Heist zaren a bit. Let's stay in Europe. 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:39.480 I like it there not, I got my passport on me. 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:39.919 Let's do it. 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:42.119 I like Italy, and that's where we're going for this 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:42.920 next book. Heist. 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.120 Okay, I like Yugoslavia, but it's not a country anymore. 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:47.080 It's okay, I can't go there. 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:48.080 Let's try Italy. 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:48.440 Okay. 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.879 My mom's favorite city in Italy is Naples. Really, she 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:52.760 loves place. 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.800 I mean nothing against Naples. I'm not like doubting, but. 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:56.919 What it loves everything about it? 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.600 Okay. I mean I love Milan, but I really love Bologna, 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:01.040 which is not said a lot of people talk about, 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.440 but one of my favorites of all Italy. So Naples 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:04.479 is it? The food? Is that the art? 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.080 Culture is the art the culture? She said, it's gritty 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.920 that it's that so this. 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.520 One goes out to the monis like the edge much 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:13.760 of it. 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:18.240 So the Biblioteca giro Lamini in Naples. It's one of 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:21.880 the oldest and most prestigious libraries in Italy. It's located 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.520 inside the sixteenth century church complex right in the middle 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:26.080 of Naples. 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:27.160 All the best libraries are. 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.199 Oh, totally, and it looks like you'd imagine like this 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:34.040 isn't some modern glass and steel, climate controlled vault. Totally 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.720 Like I'm talking rich dark wooden shelves soaring up to 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.840 cathedral ceilings, ornate designs, gilded walls, you know those like 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:43.640 long ladders that reach the top. 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:44.119 Totally. 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:46.840 You know how some people have zoom backgrounds with like 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:52.000 lux European libraries. Why have you noted that? But that's 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:53.760 what this looks like. What's your zoom background? 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:55.480 By the way, I just I just make it blurry 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:57.399 and because I have dreads and makes it constantly interesting 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:58.960 where it doesn't know how to cut off my hair. 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:01.640 So I'm just moving in out of this weird filter. 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:03.320