Speaker 1: Zaren Brunette, my old sew and so I got a
Speaker 1: question for you, Yes, sir, okay, do you have a
Speaker 1: second I do you comfortable? I'm good? You look you
Speaker 1: look nice?
Speaker 2: Thank you?
Speaker 1: Well okay, my question was this, it's I just need
Speaker 1: help with this. Do you know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: I knew you would.
Speaker 2: I do golden toilet? What a golden toilet?
Speaker 1: Didn't you cover this?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you talked about a golden guy steals a golden toilet.
Speaker 2: Marizio catalan Uh an artist, he made that solid gold
Speaker 2: toilet that was in a former in the castle. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Yourself.
Speaker 2: I ran out of ridiculous. No no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: no no no, I shall never run out. Okay, So
Speaker 2: golden toilet, right, and when I told you about it.
Speaker 2: Originally they had seven people that were suspects, but they
Speaker 2: had to let them go because they didn't have anything. Well,
Speaker 2: two rude dudes, Patrick Kovich, who is a home brewer
Speaker 2: nice and Jimmy Dunnman who is an FX modeler. So
Speaker 2: two fascinating fellows. They tipped us off that there's an
Speaker 2: article in art net headline great website. UK authorities are
Speaker 2: ready to charge seven suspects over the twenty nineteen theft
Speaker 2: of Mauricio Catalan's gold toilet sculpture.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, all seven.
Speaker 2: All seven. So there were the seven suspects. Now they're
Speaker 2: about to charge them.
Speaker 1: Unlucky number seven.
Speaker 2: Unlucky number seven. So they do believe that it was
Speaker 2: melted down and people are wearing toilet gold. But we
Speaker 2: may be able to like pin it on somebody. That
Speaker 2: was a cool update from Patrick and Jimmy.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you, Patrick and Jimmy. Yeah, good looking.
Speaker 2: Out, hooray. And that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That is thank you. Well you you got another second? Sure,
Speaker 1: because I got one for you. It doesn't evolve any
Speaker 1: gold toilets, damn it, bumbs nothing, Okay. But you know
Speaker 1: how I like going fast? Right? I do know that
Speaker 1: I love to go fast. Yes, speed is my thing
Speaker 1: in every milliu yeah completely Now, unsurprisingly I also love
Speaker 1: stories of high speed vehicular theft. No, I know, all right,
Speaker 1: shock shock shock, But oh boy, do I have one
Speaker 1: for you today, Elizabeth. Get ready for the doctor Who
Speaker 1: of Carthieves. Oh god, this is ridiculous crime. A podcast
Speaker 1: about I'm surd and outrageous Kper's heists and cons. It's
Speaker 1: always ninety nine percent moder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Yes, Elizabeth, Yeah, what's up?
Speaker 1: Do you like movies about gladiators? Hmmm?
Speaker 2: You know Gladiator was a good movie.
Speaker 1: You ever see a grown man naked? Yeah? I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna the dinamic airplane?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I was playing along.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I do have a legit question for you, though, sir?
Speaker 1: Do you like movies about Carthive's.
Speaker 2: It depends, not just like as a blanket statement. I've
Speaker 2: seen some stupid ones, but I've seen some good.
Speaker 1: Ones, some stupid ones. Okay, well like well, movies like
Speaker 1: Nick Cage and Angelina Jolie's Gym Gone in sixty Seconds.
Speaker 1: You've seen that?
Speaker 2: I did. I saw that once in San Francisco because
Speaker 2: it was hot as blazes out and there was it
Speaker 2: was like one hundred and two. Oh wow, and there
Speaker 2: was no in San Francisco and no one has air conditioning.
Speaker 2: And I went in the movie theater and I watched
Speaker 2: it just to get out of the heat.
Speaker 1: I like it. What do you think of the movie?
Speaker 2: I don't remember.
Speaker 1: You remember the cool cool air conditioning?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay, what about the Marky Mark Wahlberg remake of the
Speaker 1: Michael Caine classic The Italian Job.
Speaker 2: I've not seen the remake. I've seen the original.
Speaker 1: He what to think? Original?
Speaker 2: Awesome?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So like do you remember like the Little Mini Coopers? Okay, now, obviously,
Speaker 1: if you are a team of professional car thieves and
Speaker 1: you have a list of sports cards you have to
Speaker 1: steal in order to satisfy the will of some shadowy
Speaker 1: underworld figure. Me, I'm seeing that movie. Yeah, like just
Speaker 1: one hundred percent right. But sometimes sometimes Elizabeth, I get
Speaker 1: lucky and we get a real life, fast and furious
Speaker 1: style crime spreed. It seems like it's a movie, but
Speaker 1: it's in real life, real life. That's what we're doing today.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm excited so for as.
Speaker 1: You like to say, and I love to quote from
Speaker 1: you for an amuse boosh. Back in twenty nineteen, we
Speaker 1: had a Nick Cage wannabe from Germany who won my
Speaker 1: heart over with some crime we did. Yes, he's just
Speaker 1: a sweet guy. Yeah. The car this cat was after
Speaker 1: was a nineteen eighty five Ferrari too eighty eight gto
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, a sports car, it was right. This highly
Speaker 1: prized car was one of only two hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: two built by the Italian car maker.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, okay, car was.
Speaker 1: Valued three million dollars US two point sixty three million
Speaker 1: to be exact. If you're looking to purchase it.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth, Yeah, I gotta check my accounts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you probably need to get your checkbook.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I got to move some funds around.
Speaker 2: I'm not exactly liquid right now.
Speaker 1: I know it's it's it's you know, right before tax
Speaker 1: season you got your fiscal year ending. I get it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you were in the market, set aside two
Speaker 1: point six three, okay, we'll do right. But this Ferrari
Speaker 1: it had other reasons you'd want to own it. Besides
Speaker 1: the slightly reduced price.
Speaker 2: Tag magical power.
Speaker 1: It was once owned by a legit Formula One race
Speaker 1: car driver.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was like Mario Andretti.
Speaker 1: No, not your favorite.
Speaker 2: No, No, I don't know any other one. I know
Speaker 2: Jimmy zoom Zoms.
Speaker 1: Eddie Irvine Eddie. He was a North irishman who owned
Speaker 1: it from nineteen ninety six to nineteen ninety nine, and
Speaker 1: he had good luck with Ferrari because he'd won four
Speaker 1: races driving a Ferrari for the team race Team Scuderia Ferrari.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, yeah, real race card.
Speaker 2: I would hope he was driving Ferraris. If he was
Speaker 2: on Scuderia Ferrari.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would help, right, it'd be really bad.
Speaker 2: Pulls up in a VW. He's like, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: Out he told me this is faster. Uh, the sports
Speaker 1: car with the distinctive red paint job. Do you know
Speaker 1: what that red.
Speaker 2: Paint job is called Ferrari red?
Speaker 1: No? Good? Guess that'd be if he was an American?
Speaker 2: Is it called good?
Speaker 1: Also guess Italian Corso? Oh? Okay, So this Italian Corso
Speaker 1: two eighty eight GT was sitting there at a dealership
Speaker 1: in Dusseldorf, Germany, just duseldorfing around, right. One day a
Speaker 1: man came in wanting to know more about the car, right,
Speaker 1: and the guy's like, he's been emailing and phoning the
Speaker 1: car dealer for weeks, right, Finally cat shows up. They're like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's the guy, and this fateful Monday afternoon dude steps
Speaker 1: out of a taxi. He rocks up to the dealer
Speaker 1: and he's like, I want to do a test drive
Speaker 1: that car right over there. Dealer's like, all right. The
Speaker 1: guy's this heavy set, middle aged man. He speaks English
Speaker 1: and French, but no German. Germans are like, no problem,
Speaker 1: we got you boo. So they're friendly enough German style,
Speaker 1: and they decide, okay, we're gonna take this cat for
Speaker 1: a test drive. They give the keys to the Ferrari.
Speaker 1: They go, let's go. Where do you want to you know,
Speaker 1: drive it? And he's like, oh, I'll just take it
Speaker 1: around the parking lot of the dealerships. So they take
Speaker 1: it around the parking lot of the dealership and he's
Speaker 1: like oh yes. But he's like, you know what, this
Speaker 1: isn't quite enough. I'm wrong. I need to actually see
Speaker 1: what it feels like on the road. I need to
Speaker 1: feel the.
Speaker 2: Pull of them boning to say so.
Speaker 1: So he said, uh, you know, do these ponies run?
Speaker 1: The salesman's buddy, Let's take it out on the roads.
Speaker 1: He's like, okay, I'm gonna see how it handles its speed.
Speaker 1: Do you mind if I just take it up a
Speaker 1: little bit. He's like yeah, but you know, try not
Speaker 1: to like, you know, try not to lose control of
Speaker 1: the car. But neither one of us Okay, I can't
Speaker 1: afford this. Apparently you can, right, and the salesman's like reluctant,
Speaker 1: but he obliges the guy. Right. So now the reason
Speaker 1: why he was reluctant, as I told you, is, you know,
Speaker 1: it's hyper expensive. They can't afford it. But if he
Speaker 1: if this driver, like you know, crashes it on a
Speaker 1: test drive, who's responsible? Is it?
Speaker 2: A really good question?
Speaker 1: Car dealership, the salesman, the guy who's driving it his car,
Speaker 1: and sure two covers the test drive of a Ferrari.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, but I am wondering if you
Speaker 2: want to test drive something that expensive, do they make you,
Speaker 2: like put some sort of deposit or like secure that
Speaker 2: you could pay for the car if need be.
Speaker 1: Typically, Yes, these are all good questions, Elizabeth, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Yeah, way to think financially. Yeah, that's exactly
Speaker 1: what you would typically do. Right. However, on average, I
Speaker 1: looked into this. According to the German luxury car dealerships,
Speaker 1: only ten percent of their perspective buyers ever ask for
Speaker 1: a full test drive. This actually doesn't come up that often.
Speaker 2: I know, right, but maybe I'm just cheap, Like I
Speaker 2: just bought a car not too long A couple months
Speaker 2: back but wow, I guess it's a few months, months,
Speaker 2: several months back, time flies years ago.
Speaker 1: You bought a car once in my life?
Speaker 2: No, but I mean it's like I can't imagine being
Speaker 2: Let me just take it around. I want to drive
Speaker 2: it on the street.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you want to feel the road.
Speaker 2: I want to run over some kids.
Speaker 1: You always put the kids. So the prospective buyer and
Speaker 1: the car salesman they eventually agree like, no paper were
Speaker 1: because it's necessary. Let's just take this bad boy out
Speaker 1: for a dealership ride. He's like like, okay, you know.
Speaker 1: The guy buyer. He races around Duseldorf in his Ferrari. Right,
Speaker 1: he ends up six miles away from the car dealership,
Speaker 1: and he's like, okay, that was fun. Man, I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: I'm satisfied, right this guy, the guy, the Perspective buyer.
Speaker 1: He tells the salesman, I'm good, all right, I'm convinced
Speaker 1: this is the car for me. Let's get back to
Speaker 1: the dealership. Let's do this paperwork. Brother V gates. We
Speaker 1: cool and the guy's like yeah, yeah, all right. The
Speaker 1: perspective buyers like, hey, you know what, I've been really
Speaker 1: lucky so far. I didn't lose control of the car.
Speaker 1: Why don't you drive it back to the dealership. I
Speaker 1: don't want to press my luck. And the guy's like, oh,
Speaker 1: very good calls, so I will definitely these ill drive
Speaker 1: it back to the dealership if you'd like me to.
Speaker 1: So the buyer's like, cool, all right. He opens his door,
Speaker 1: the salesman's opens his door. Salesman steps out. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, he hears the worst sound imaginable, the rev
Speaker 1: of a Ferrari engine.
Speaker 2: I would think that if that car then it would
Speaker 2: be grinding of gears.
Speaker 1: Where you are carrying it. And when I lived in Venice,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you you heard that all the time,
Speaker 1: all these like mclarence Lamborghinis, Ferrari's coming from Santa Monica
Speaker 1: down the coast, pain painful? Did you take a lesson?
Speaker 1: You got the money?
Speaker 2: Not everyone can drive those things?
Speaker 1: Oh very few people who have new money, apparently can.
Speaker 1: So Eventually, this guy, right, he hears the rev of
Speaker 1: the Ferrari engine. The salesman panics. He turns and he
Speaker 1: sees exactly what he knew what he was about to see.
Speaker 1: The guy had floored it. Italian wheels gripped German road
Speaker 1: and took off right gone in less than thirty seconds.
Speaker 1: Nicholas Cage, eat your heart up. Police they send up
Speaker 1: a helicopter to search for this Ferrari because it's Germany.
Speaker 1: They're like, we're catching this man right now. They have
Speaker 1: an iconic, distinctive red sports car. It should be pretty
Speaker 1: easy to find this guy zipping around Dusseldorf, right But
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. Helicopter gets up there, it's too late. The car,
Speaker 1: the car thief. They're in the wind car salesman standing
Speaker 1: on the side of the road. But just his career
Speaker 1: in his hands now, the car thief. He wasn't particularly
Speaker 1: good at hiding his identity because remember I said he
Speaker 1: had emailed and phoned the dealership.
Speaker 2: Over his well and again they didn't ask for his
Speaker 2: driving license, no, but they.
Speaker 1: Did photograph him. They photographed him before he got to
Speaker 1: take the car out. And he also he was wandering
Speaker 1: around the dealership leaving his fingerprints everywhere. It took the
Speaker 1: German police how long do you think one day to
Speaker 1: find Homie.
Speaker 2: To find the doozelders, Well, you know they didn't.
Speaker 1: Find the dude. They found the stolen Ferrari. Oh, Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the car was hidden in a garage in a neighboring
Speaker 1: town eighteen miles away. Car was fine, unharmed. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so as far as he drove right, the thief was
Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. As far as I can tell,
Speaker 1: he was never caught. He totally got away with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they had Prince, they had He wasn't in
Speaker 2: the system.
Speaker 1: Apparently not, so you know. Yeah, but they found the car.
Speaker 1: They're like, we got the call. This is what's the rafta.
Speaker 2: I guess that's all that matters.
Speaker 1: I guess because you can sell the car right anyway, So, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: do believe.
Speaker 2: It full of like McDonald's McDonald's rappers and stuff that
Speaker 2: would be amazing, just garbage.
Speaker 1: We've just been eating junk for the entire time.
Speaker 2: Oh so he picks up forensic So I just move that.
Speaker 1: It's cool, Yeah, just kick it over the side. There's
Speaker 1: like grease stains all over everything. Anyway, Elizabeth, that was
Speaker 1: our appetizer for the day. You ready to meet our
Speaker 1: man of the moment, always, our man of la mancha. Yes,
Speaker 1: our ferrari klepto maniac of the day. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: it's get in spy high speed crime. Okay, this dude's
Speaker 1: name is Tom Baker.
Speaker 2: Tom Baker.
Speaker 1: Now before he stole a nineteen eighty nine Ferrari three
Speaker 1: twenty eight gts, Tom Baker visited a dealership in Summerfield,
Speaker 1: North Carolina a few times, much like the previous guy,
Speaker 1: but he did it a little bit better. He didn't
Speaker 1: walk around putting his fingerprints everywhere getting photographs taken of him. No,
Speaker 1: he just did it to get the lay of the land.
Speaker 1: He wanted to see what their security was like, right,
Speaker 1: So he takes these multiple visits. He also was very friendly.
Speaker 1: He made himself memorable, personable. He decided he become buddy
Speaker 1: buddy with the owner of the car dealership, this dude
Speaker 1: named Steve Barney. Now the car dealership owner reportedly this guy,
Speaker 1: Steve Barney, he had cancer at the time. It turns
Speaker 1: out that the car thief, though, Tom Baker, happened to
Speaker 1: be a radiologist, So he told Steve, the car dealership owner,
Speaker 1: that he'd read his X rays and he'd give him
Speaker 1: a free second.
Speaker 2: Opinion get a little zap under the table there.
Speaker 1: Totally super nice of him, right, I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: let me hook you up. You hook me up, scratch
Speaker 1: my back. I'll buy a Ferrari anyway, but I should
Speaker 1: actually amend that it would have been nice of him
Speaker 1: had he not been pretending to be a radiologist. Yes,
Speaker 1: Tom Baker was no doctor.
Speaker 2: It's bad, bad Mojo come in his way for.
Speaker 1: You. Just wait. So who was he? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Who was he?
Speaker 1: Well? He was what you and I would call a liar.
Speaker 1: So this non doctor Tom Baker won over Steve the
Speaker 1: car Dealer's trust. Now, if you ever watched Doctor Who,
Speaker 1: Doctor Who was the fourth doctor was a guy named
Speaker 1: Tom Baker.
Speaker 2: Doctor who?
Speaker 1: Who? Exactly what? Doctor Who? Who? Doctor? I know?
Speaker 2: Stupid away, go ahead, So this okay, so the fourth
Speaker 2: doctor was named Tom Baker, that the actor or the
Speaker 2: character was.
Speaker 1: Named Tom Baker. The character is always doctor.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's always doctor. I didn't know if it was
Speaker 2: like double.
Speaker 1: O seven how like, okay, the number can be it's like, oh.
Speaker 2: You're Tom Baker, but guess what now you're doctor Who?
Speaker 1: Yeah? No, they have different actors played Doctor Who, always
Speaker 1: the same doctor Doctor Who exactly? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Okay, so yeah, I know it's different dudes.
Speaker 1: So this guy is Steve the car Dealer, right, he
Speaker 1: has his trust one over by the fake doctor who
Speaker 1: Tom Baker. Yeah, And as he told the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Speaker 1: this is Steve the car dealer. He said, quote, if
Speaker 1: my sixteen year old daughter needed a ride, I would
Speaker 1: have put her in the car with him. Oh that's
Speaker 1: how much he trusted this guy. I don't know why
Speaker 1: he's using a sixteen year old daughter his trust the
Speaker 1: life of my child.
Speaker 2: Anyway, So does he often put his daughter in the car?
Speaker 1: It begs the question, Elizabeth. He came qu It was like, sir, sir,
Speaker 1: do you have how many children do you have? Is
Speaker 1: it always your sixteen year old daughter, Pip, poor girl? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So anyway, on that fateful day, tom Baker dropped by
Speaker 1: the dealership. He chatted with his old buddy Steve Barney,
Speaker 1: and at some point he asked Steve if he could
Speaker 1: take the Ferrari three twenty eight GTS out for a
Speaker 1: test drive. Now, this one wasn't as rare as the
Speaker 1: one I told you about before. This one was only
Speaker 1: worth about fifty five thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Oh really, yeah, so kick one a song.
Speaker 1: And a steal. So tom Baker was interested in buying it.
Speaker 1: He said he needed to take a test drive to
Speaker 1: make sure he could make up his mind. He'd take
Speaker 1: it out for quick spin, maybe hit up the gas
Speaker 1: station down the road, apiece, and then he doubled back
Speaker 1: to the dealership. Steve Barney's like of course, buddy, flipped
Speaker 1: in the keys the Ferrari. Tom Baker slid into that soft,
Speaker 1: soft leather driver's seat, placed his hands on that steering
Speaker 1: wheel wrap. He felt the promise of a Ferrari in
Speaker 1: his own hot little hands. Then he slowly drove the
Speaker 1: car off the dealership lot, never to be seen again.
Speaker 1: Oh my, Steve Barney recalled quote. I was conned, I
Speaker 1: was coln and he did a beautiful job. Try to
Speaker 1: believe in the genuine goodness of people. I won't let
Speaker 1: that happen again. He broke his spirit, I know, which
Speaker 1: is sad kind of I mean, like, what are we
Speaker 1: living in when a Ferrari dealer has lost his faith
Speaker 1: in humanity? He lost I know, as a full person.
Speaker 1: This is normal person. He lost his faith. Yea, it
Speaker 1: is sad. Okay, So on that note, Let's just take
Speaker 1: a little break and then I'll come back and I
Speaker 1: will tell you what it became of Steve Barney's trust
Speaker 1: in humanity. What it became of Tom Baker's felonious love
Speaker 1: of Ferraris, and uh, let's just say his luck doesn't
Speaker 1: stay so good. All right, Elizabeth, OK, we're now. You
Speaker 1: were worried about my man, Steve Barney, the car dealer,
Speaker 1: his humanity and faith in it. Yeah, well, I I'd
Speaker 1: like you to know I talked to this guy, Steve Barney.
Speaker 1: I personally phoned it. Actually, yes, I once wrote about
Speaker 1: this fast but not quite furious Ferrari Theorf, and so
Speaker 1: I phoned the car dealer, Steve Barney, because I was like,
Speaker 1: I gotta talk to this guy, because he was like
Speaker 1: to have a car just stolen right up and underneath you.
Speaker 1: So he wasn't a word loath to discuss this time
Speaker 1: he got ripped off with me. Imagine I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I tried to be nice. I was friendly about it.
Speaker 1: But when I phoned Steve, we chatted for a moment.
Speaker 1: He was nice, amenable, friendly in that kind of SALESMANI
Speaker 1: way right, that is, right up until I mentioned the
Speaker 1: words Tom Baker.
Speaker 2: Oh, he did he offer you his sixteen year old daughter?
Speaker 1: I did not. He left all his children out of
Speaker 1: our conversation, but he did say, who's Tom Baker? And
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, well, I reminded him, it's not
Speaker 1: the fourth doctor who. I mean, the American car thief.
Speaker 1: And I said, quote, Tom Baker was the fellow who
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three came into your auto shop
Speaker 1: and he has to drive a three twenty eight Ferrari
Speaker 1: GTS with you.
Speaker 2: He did not need to be reminded.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. He's like, oh oh yeah, oh it slipped
Speaker 1: his mind, and the memory came suddenly roaring back into view.
Speaker 1: It was fully formed, like just fully real and alive.
Speaker 1: It was like Cameron Dies' career right after she started
Speaker 1: the mask just boom, suddenly suddenly all there, right.
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 1: I respect that call.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: I asked, uh, Steve, I said, if he remembered that
Speaker 1: particular day and that particular test drive. Oh, yes, practically
Speaker 1: it was. It was. It was tough. Journalism isn't always pretty. Now.
Speaker 1: He denied the reports that he had cancer at the
Speaker 1: time and that Tom Baker ever posed as a radiologist.
Speaker 1: He told me that he was never offered any free
Speaker 1: second opinion on X rays. So I don't know where
Speaker 1: that detail came up, but I've read it in the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Inquirer and other news lot lets. So either they
Speaker 1: got that part wrong, or perhaps Steve doesn't want to
Speaker 1: admit it now. I don't know either way. He told me,
Speaker 1: I really don't want to go through this memory again,
Speaker 1: if you don't mind, I hate to hurt your journalistic skills,
Speaker 1: but I will want to put it behind me. And
Speaker 1: he just said thank you for your call, and he
Speaker 1: hung up right. Oh my god. Oh yeah, But honestly,
Speaker 1: I totally understood. I mean, I can't imagine I would
Speaker 1: want to talk about the time a guy sweet talked
Speaker 1: Tori out.
Speaker 2: Of my cant What did he think you were calling
Speaker 2: him about it?
Speaker 1: Exact well, Ferrari's I think he thought I was calling
Speaker 1: in general. He has a phone. I called it. I
Speaker 1: called his dealership. I was like, let me talk to
Speaker 1: Steve Barney. I didn't say, like, hey, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about that Bonehead movie back in two thousand and three.
Speaker 1: I see, No, he had no idea. So anyway, I
Speaker 1: would just like to say that Steve the car dealer
Speaker 1: shouldn't feel too bad about it. All. He was far
Speaker 1: from alone. Oh Tom Baker would strike again. Oh no,
Speaker 1: and again. It was three months later to be exact.
Speaker 1: Tom Baker left North Carolina behind. He was now on
Speaker 1: Long Island, New York. This time he had his covetous
Speaker 1: eye on a nineteen eighty five Ferrari Testarosa.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, I do. That was a Miami vice car.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good call. So he was able to get the
Speaker 1: keys to the Ferrari. He wasn't supposed to go for
Speaker 1: a test drive. If anything, the salesman he was talking to,
Speaker 1: he thought he just wanted to hear the engine turn on.
Speaker 1: That's what he kind of told the guy. So what
Speaker 1: happened was the salesman hands on the keys. He slides
Speaker 1: in to just like turn the car over.
Speaker 2: So let me just hear this baby per exactly now.
Speaker 1: The salesman's like, of course, sir, sorry, yes. Then he
Speaker 1: turns around, I don't know, like Papa breath man or something.
Speaker 1: And then Tom Baker gets comfortable in that buttersoft other seat.
Speaker 1: He eases his hands onto that wheel wrath, he feels
Speaker 1: the accelerator under his foot, and baby did the ponies
Speaker 1: call to him? So the Ferrari did indeed per when
Speaker 1: he turned it over, and it purred like Italian soul music.
Speaker 1: And then he was like I got to hear it
Speaker 1: start to sing, and he floored it and just drove
Speaker 1: away from that showroom and just dropped it into gear
Speaker 1: and drive right off the lot, never to be seen again.
Speaker 2: Wait, are neither of these Ferraris have ever been recovered?
Speaker 1: Nope, he's gone.
Speaker 2: Someone's driving around.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, Well, eventually I will tell you what
Speaker 1: becomes of Tom Baker and we do find a Ferrari
Speaker 1: here that Okay, they're gone for a long time though, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because dude had disappeared like doubled eggs at a southern pot. Look,
Speaker 1: he was gone, right, Yeah, So the felonious Ferrari Fisionado
Speaker 1: with a taste for test drive theft. What does he
Speaker 1: get into next? Well, it's two thousand and three, right
Speaker 1: as we've been hanging out in mm hmm watching these
Speaker 1: Ferraris get free. Well, that same year, Tom Baker walks
Speaker 1: into a showroom of Algar Ferrari in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Town's
Speaker 1: a nice suburb. I don't know if you know it.
Speaker 1: It's a high end car dealerships to match the type
Speaker 1: of town it is. It's like a little like bedroom
Speaker 1: community for the New York Philadelphia area. Yeah, exactly. So
Speaker 1: the Alger Ferrari dealership in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, they're just, you know,
Speaker 1: selling Ferraris that day, and all of a sudden, a
Speaker 1: rather nondescript five foot ten white man walks into the
Speaker 1: luxury car dealership. Turns out this dude is Tom Baker.
Speaker 1: Now is the only time we get an actual description
Speaker 1: of him. The salesman from the showroom would later recall
Speaker 1: that he had ruddy brown hair, like kind of a
Speaker 1: reddish color. It was cut short and neat, like a
Speaker 1: military guy. He wore non memorable clothes. He had a
Speaker 1: white shirt with a tie, just playing all itIt shirt
Speaker 1: and a He had a notable gold rolex on his wrist,
Speaker 1: so that kind of gave him the gravitas for election
Speaker 1: by a flash. He also wore tortoise shell glasses, which
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but that just feels like wealth.
Speaker 1: It codes money, it doesn't. So this nondescript white businessman
Speaker 1: in tortoiseshell glasses and a rolex, he set an appointment
Speaker 1: for a test drive of Ferrari. Right, so he comes in,
Speaker 1: he says, I would like to take out the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety six Ferrari F fifty Now, if you know anything
Speaker 1: about one fifty big old chunky tires, it was.
Speaker 2: It was a spec car.
Speaker 1: Now, the f fifty, not named for fifty cent, was
Speaker 1: a limited edition run that Ferrari made and there were
Speaker 1: only three hundred and forty nine of them built. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the car was created to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of
Speaker 1: Enzo Ferrari's company and it's continued success.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Car was valued at seven hundred and twenty nine thousand
Speaker 1: dollars at the time. Yeah, so this in Walks is nondescript.
Speaker 1: White guy businessman set up an appointment for his test drive,
Speaker 1: says he's flown in from Itta. He says also he's
Speaker 1: originally from Oklahoma. But he also says he was a
Speaker 1: CEO from a California tech firm. His lies are just
Speaker 1: by coastal and his soul is in flyover country. So
Speaker 1: he paints his good picture right. He tells the salespeople
Speaker 1: from the dealer showroom that he left his limousine parked
Speaker 1: in a nearby supermarket and he hoofed it over out
Speaker 1: of here. Yeah. Oh yeah, he's got everything right. But
Speaker 1: you see this phony tech ceo. He also had a
Speaker 1: little problem. He left his wallet on his charter, playing
Speaker 1: with his secretary.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, all the time.
Speaker 1: You know how it is, Elizabeth. You fly to sun
Speaker 1: Valley for a quick confact with Larry Ellison and you
Speaker 1: forget your wallet in Jackson Hole, and then you tell Shirley,
Speaker 1: your executive assistant. You're like, look, Shirley, I need you
Speaker 1: to fly to my Freedman Memorial Airport. It's in Haley, Idaho.
Speaker 1: Then rent a car, drive up to Sun Valley, grab
Speaker 1: my wallet, and then fly back here to bring me
Speaker 1: my ID. Can you do that, Shirley.
Speaker 2: Sounds oddly specific. Have you've gone through?
Speaker 1: I'm just saying maybe I had a time as a
Speaker 1: tech CEO. Anyway, that day, Tom Baker he had a
Speaker 1: better answer than mine. His answer was to have his
Speaker 1: secretary just facts over his driver's license to the dealership showroom.
Speaker 1: So they wait a while. It takes a while. He
Speaker 1: calls it darn it all, Elizabeth. He couldn't get his
Speaker 1: secretary on the phone again. He didn't know what was happening. Well,
Speaker 1: we have to wait.
Speaker 2: This is this is too much for him.
Speaker 1: The car dealership sales team is like, you know what,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. We trust you like, what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do? Steal a bright red Ferrari and just
Speaker 1: drive away? So apparently these sales folks weren't up on
Speaker 1: the latest news in Ferrari world, because that was exactly
Speaker 1: what was happening up and down the Eastern seaboard.
Speaker 2: How did this not spread?
Speaker 1: This was two thousand and three, pre social media, so
Speaker 1: unless you're reading like local news reports, you might have
Speaker 1: missed it.
Speaker 2: Friends, it was apparently there's not a whisper network among
Speaker 2: the Ferraris.
Speaker 1: I talked to a couple of Farrii dealers when I
Speaker 1: was reporting on the story originally, and they are friendly,
Speaker 1: but they're also really competitive, so I see they're not
Speaker 1: like you know, on a network on how is your sales, Bob?
Speaker 1: They're gonna lie to each other about their sales. They're
Speaker 1: not like telling each other, oh, we had a Ferrari.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But I mean, like if you have, like I
Speaker 2: don't know, is there like a facts list of apbs
Speaker 2: where they're like the first dude's still there?
Speaker 1: Actually we will get into that. There are registrars and
Speaker 1: so forth for stolen cars. See okay, but that's a
Speaker 1: whole other situation than the car dealers.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So anyway, so this, like I said, non to descript
Speaker 1: white guy, CEO business dude, he's got going off for
Speaker 1: his test drive. They're like, no problem.
Speaker 2: You know what, though, take my sixteen year old daughter.
Speaker 1: I don't have a sixteen year old daughter on hand
Speaker 1: right now, so we're gonna have to send one of
Speaker 1: our sales guys with you. So they did. They send
Speaker 1: out the sales guy with him. He just caught, you know,
Speaker 1: he crawled in the car and he's like, all right,
Speaker 1: let's go for a drive, buddy. Here, how fast do
Speaker 1: you want to go? Try not to lose control of
Speaker 1: the car. These things are real fast, right, So the
Speaker 1: twenty minutes go by, the guy is whipping around. The
Speaker 1: test drive is going great, he hasn't lost control of
Speaker 1: the car. Perspective. Buyer is loving it. He decided, you
Speaker 1: know what, this handles so well, it's so fast, it
Speaker 1: feels so sexy. I'm buying this beauty car. Did the salesman.
Speaker 1: It's like stoked, like, oh, I'm getting a bonus. So
Speaker 1: he's like, okay, let's head back to the dealership. And
Speaker 1: guy was like yeah, but he's like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna change my mind for a second, you know.
Speaker 1: He pulls over to the side of the road. He's like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to drive it back. Do you mind
Speaker 1: driving the rest of the way back?
Speaker 2: A little scammed right, And the.
Speaker 1: Guy's like, you know, I've been lucky so far. I
Speaker 1: don't want to press my luck. This is a seven
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty nine thousand dollars card. I hate for
Speaker 1: anything bad dappen you if I crashed on the way back.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna buy it. Let's just have you driving.
Speaker 1: Nick Guy's like, I appreciate that man. You're looking out
Speaker 1: for me, Like that good looking a guy. You're a
Speaker 1: real square gofella. Right, So he opens the door. He
Speaker 1: pops out. The guy in the driver's seat he Tom Baker.
Speaker 1: He pushes open his door right, and as soon as
Speaker 1: the salesman closes his door, he hears the other door closed,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't hear any footsteps, and he turns around
Speaker 1: and boom, he hears that distinctive per the Ferrari engine
Speaker 1: as it races away. Oh my god, the bright red
Speaker 1: sports car tore out of there. I mean, just the
Speaker 1: way the guy describes it. He said, it's like it flew.
Speaker 1: The Ferrari raced away. It speeds, approaching one hundred miles
Speaker 1: an hour. He just slammed the accelerator. I don't know
Speaker 1: you know about this, but a Ferrari can get up
Speaker 1: to one hundred miles in about four to five seconds.
Speaker 2: So like the whiplash exactly.
Speaker 1: Dude's like just throw them back in his seat. And
Speaker 1: the port salesman on the side of the road just
Speaker 1: sitting there eating dust.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and his spirit's broken, and another salesman's spirits broke.
Speaker 1: The fate humanity loss. So he watches helplessly as this
Speaker 1: Ferrari lifts up over a rise in the road and
Speaker 1: disappears from view, never to be seen again. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: but this time we now know when this car would
Speaker 1: be seen again. I will tell you this one is
Speaker 1: not so much never to be seen again. We'll be
Speaker 1: seen again in five years time. Oh, in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight. We'll resurface. But first we need to catch
Speaker 1: up with Tom Baker here. Yeah is that even his
Speaker 1: real name?
Speaker 2: I doubt it, But can I.
Speaker 1: Ask you a favor? Sure? Okay, all this talk with Ferrari's,
Speaker 1: I feel like we need an Elizabeth impression of my
Speaker 1: man Thomas magnum p I aka Tom Selleck. Oh, Mike,
Speaker 1: you can favor me with a little Tom Selleck as
Speaker 1: magnum p I.
Speaker 2: Yes, just a hint, yeah, let me okay, make it ready,
Speaker 2: lick of the mustache and the Tanna Shultz.
Speaker 1: Right, so good, perfect. I could feel the thigh meat
Speaker 1: and the mustache wrestling in the Hawaiian wind in the mustache. Okay,
Speaker 1: that was so awesome. Now, trying to bring our detective
Speaker 1: into this story, Interdetective Joe Hess of the Lexington, Kentucky
Speaker 1: Metro Police Department. Today. At this point the year of
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, detective has He's just working on
Speaker 1: normal type cases when he receives this strange calls from
Speaker 1: the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Never heard of its totally,
Speaker 1: I'd never heard of them. I'm like, what is the NICB. Well,
Speaker 1: if you've never heard of the NICB, like me, it's
Speaker 1: not an actual government agency. They just try to sound
Speaker 1: like one. NICB is a nonprofit crime fighting bureau. It
Speaker 1: sounds like you support their crime fighters, you get an
Speaker 1: NICB tope.
Speaker 2: Right exactly.
Speaker 1: So. The agency apparently has one hundred and ten year history.
Speaker 1: It started out as two different nonprofits, National Automobile Theft
Speaker 1: Bureau and the Insurance Crime Prevention Institute. Together in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, they reformed as a National Insurance Crime Bureau.
Speaker 1: Scam totally feels.
Speaker 2: Like, probably get someone who listens works for them and
Speaker 2: it'll be all I am offended.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you'll see. No, it seems pretty legit anyway. So
Speaker 1: Detective Joe Hasse he gets a call from an agent
Speaker 1: from the NICB. The bureau had received a call from Ferrari,
Speaker 1: the Italian car maker. The car maker wanted them to
Speaker 1: look into details of a nineteen eighty five Testa Rosa.
Speaker 1: The owner of the car had contacted Ferrari in Italy
Speaker 1: and asked for identification stickers to be sent to him.
Speaker 1: He claimed needed replacements. Ferrari's like okay, So they checked
Speaker 1: their vehicle identification number. It's then it didn't match the
Speaker 1: serial numbers that Ferrari had on record. That was suspicious
Speaker 1: enough for the car maker to reach out to the
Speaker 1: agents at NICB and they're like, hey, did you mind
Speaker 1: that checking on this for us? So then NICB they
Speaker 1: reach out to Detective Joe Hess. Why Joe has Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: I wish I knew because the man who contacted Ferrari
Speaker 1: was named Tom Baker, and the Italian car maker knew
Speaker 1: where he lived. He told Ferrari that he lived in
Speaker 1: a suburb of Lexington, a place called Nicholasville. So Detective
Speaker 1: Joe Hasse of Lexington assembles a task force. He has
Speaker 1: FBI agents, Kentucky State Police officers, and ICB agents. Together,
Speaker 1: they pay an unannounced visit to Tom Baker's house. They
Speaker 1: show up at his door.
Speaker 2: Is he Oh my god?
Speaker 1: The task force drove out to Nicholasville, Kentucky. They pulled
Speaker 1: their caravan of like suburbans or whatever, right up in
Speaker 1: front of a rather run of the mill home. It's
Speaker 1: a standard red bricks Southern home with a detached garage,
Speaker 1: you know, and like the breezeway. Yeah yeah, windows were covered,
Speaker 1: lights off. It doesn't look like anyone's home. The agents
Speaker 1: from the task worth, they're like, huh, what did we
Speaker 1: do about this? They walk up to the door anyway,
Speaker 1: They knock on the front door, surprising no one in
Speaker 1: the task for They received no answer. So what do
Speaker 1: they do, Elizabeth? When they do what cops do? They
Speaker 1: left their business cards like sorry we missed you. We'll
Speaker 1: try it again later. So if you get a business
Speaker 1: card from the FBI, that has to be a tense moment.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I would think so.
Speaker 2: Although you know on Law and Order SBU, I've been
Speaker 2: told by people who watch it.
Speaker 1: I watch it. I might have been the one told you.
Speaker 2: It's like Stabler, they have like the business card of death.
Speaker 2: But like if they give you the card, like you're
Speaker 2: not making.
Speaker 1: It through the episode, that's about accurate. So I mean,
Speaker 1: not that I watched the show, No, of course not.
Speaker 1: I would never think. You're presumed you watch TV. Now.
Speaker 1: For Old Tom Baker, he handles this prodlor calmly. He
Speaker 1: called the number on the business card. He didn't call
Speaker 1: Detective Joe has Instead, he called a different member of
Speaker 1: the task forse the card for Agent ed Stein, who
Speaker 1: was a supervising special agent for the NICB. So Tom
Speaker 1: Baker phone Agent Stein, assuming it was about the Ferrari
Speaker 1: stickers he'd requested, and probably presumably he also wanted to
Speaker 1: hear what the NICB knew about him. Yeah, so Agent
Speaker 1: Stein tries to set a trap for Tom Baker. He
Speaker 1: asked Tom if he had the Ferrari testosa in question.
Speaker 1: Tom Baker's like, yeah, I got it, and he's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, not with me. I have in a storage
Speaker 1: unit in a nearby town. It's about an hour and
Speaker 1: a half away, middle town called London, London, Kentucky. Guy's like,
Speaker 1: oh okay, yeah, so Agent ed Stein, he's not some
Speaker 1: paper pusher from the insurance bureau. I don't want you picture.
Speaker 1: And a guy with like, you know, pencils in his
Speaker 1: like shirt pocket. He was a former cop. He was
Speaker 1: the chief of police of Alexandria, Kentucky for eight and
Speaker 1: a half years. He was a well trained cop. He
Speaker 1: had cop ins. He could sense that tom Baker was
Speaker 1: acting elusive, a void, and so he tries to like
Speaker 1: tell the suspect, you know, oh hey, we like to
Speaker 1: come out to you to confirm the then the vehicle's
Speaker 1: identification number, and we'll issue you a new sticker authorization.
Speaker 1: And he tells tom Baker he'd happily make the hour
Speaker 1: and a half trip down to London to see the
Speaker 1: Ferrari himself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1: Tom Beker's like, oh, yeah, yeah, cool, let's do that.
Speaker 1: Let me check my calendar and I'll call you back.
Speaker 1: And then he hung up and Agent Stein knew he'd
Speaker 1: never hear from Tom Baker ever again. And he was right, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: because Tom Baker is once again in the wind. Tom
Speaker 1: Baker never returned to his house in Nicholasville. The trail
Speaker 1: went cold as a pimp's heart, just like the Ferrari
Speaker 1: he stole. Tom Baker just up and disappeared.
Speaker 2: So that's his real name is Tom yep turns out
Speaker 2: to his real name.
Speaker 1: And Detective Joe Hess and his multi agency task force,
Speaker 1: they broke up like the Beatles, each going their own
Speaker 1: separate ways, Detective Joe Hess, but he's still that itch,
Speaker 1: that one that special investigators like you get, is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that feeling you can't shake it, right, and you just
Speaker 1: have the case haunting you well less than a year past,
Speaker 1: and Joe Hess, he got to scratch that crime itch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this time is the FBI that contacted him. Oh the
Speaker 1: year was two thousand and eight June. And after this break,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you all about what happens and how this
Speaker 1: Ferrari theft gets his just desserts. All right, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Zarin, We're back.
Speaker 1: Yes you ready? Yes, buckled up? Yes, okay, butter Cup,
Speaker 1: here we go. Two thousand and eight June, Buffalo Division
Speaker 1: of the FBI get information on a Ferrari Testosa that's
Speaker 1: up for sale in Lexington, Kentucky. I don't know why
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Division gets this tip, but they do.
Speaker 2: It got shuffled off to Buffalo exactly boom.
Speaker 1: So they turns out they have this guy Tom Baker,
Speaker 1: apparently not involved at all as far as Buffalo people
Speaker 1: are concerned. They so. At first, Joe has doesn't understand
Speaker 1: why he's being reached out to. But instead it's this
Speaker 1: woman named Carol Pulos and the cars for sale on
Speaker 1: eBay and they list price is forty six thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: so it's gone now gone down nine thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 1: The car was bought and sold, but then the new
Speaker 1: owner had tried to registrate with Ferrari and he discovered
Speaker 1: that the VIN didn't match the car paperwork. The number
Speaker 1: for the recently sold Ferrari was coincidentally just off by
Speaker 1: one digit from the VIN of a Ferrari that had
Speaker 1: been stolen from a Long Island dealership. Oh Man, he
Speaker 1: changed just one number, one number the detective Joe has
Speaker 1: in the FBI. They reteamed like the Eagles for one
Speaker 1: last tour. And they went and they paid a visit
Speaker 1: to the woman Carol Pulos, who sold the Bunko Ferrari.
Speaker 1: Now the question is does she know Tom Baker and
Speaker 1: would she flip? Yeah, So turns out the FBI is
Speaker 1: at her door. What is she gonna do? Not just
Speaker 1: like leaving a card. They're knock knock, knocking. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: the FBI shows up at the front door. Carl Pulus,
Speaker 1: she did the smart thing, Elizabeth. She did not lie
Speaker 1: to the FBI.
Speaker 2: That is the smartest thing anyone can do.
Speaker 1: I recommend it to everybody before. Do not lie to
Speaker 1: the FBI. Just don't just don't say anything. Uh huh,
Speaker 1: give me a lawyer, but do not lie. Lie. They
Speaker 1: will get you, yes, and it's a big crime anyway,
Speaker 1: it's like mail fraud. Just don't do it. In fact,
Speaker 1: this woman Carol Pulos, she did the smartest thing possible
Speaker 1: for her in that moment. She told them everything she knew.
Speaker 1: She told the agent she didn't own the car, she
Speaker 1: was just handling the sales. She sold the car for
Speaker 1: a friend. Well it wasn't actually a friend, it was
Speaker 1: just someone she knew. Was this guy named Tom Baker.
Speaker 1: She was like, right, she said that he owed her
Speaker 1: twenty thousand dollars and this is his way of paying
Speaker 1: her back. She wasn't involved at all and she was
Speaker 1: just trying to get her money. And they're like, okay, lady,
Speaker 1: it's right, calm down here, We're not gonna bust you. Right,
Speaker 1: turned out the stolen Testeros and get seized and pounded.
Speaker 1: But it had already been paid for by Lloyd's of
Speaker 1: London that was the insurer for the car dealership. So
Speaker 1: the car gets returned to Lloyd's of London. Ya, now
Speaker 1: they own it, right. So now Joe Hess Though has
Speaker 1: got a lead. He's back on the trail this elusive
Speaker 1: Ferrari thief and he gets to work. He works the
Speaker 1: leads he hads, He phones up all this fellow lawmen.
Speaker 1: He contacts the dedicated detectives with the NYPD. He asked
Speaker 1: them if they would do him a solid, would they
Speaker 1: run out to Long Island and ask the salesman there
Speaker 1: if he could idea a photo of the suspect from
Speaker 1: a lineup.
Speaker 2: Now, I do have a quick question. Sure, do we
Speaker 2: know why Tom owed that woman twenty grand?
Speaker 1: No, we just think he's a con artist type. That's interesting,
Speaker 1: must have been involved in some scampsship. Does not come out.
Speaker 1: I assume there's some criminal components, okay, and she did
Speaker 1: not want to make that clear. So she's like, you know,
Speaker 1: he just owes me. It's like antiques or something, right. Anyway,
Speaker 1: So the NYPD detectives are asked by Joe has to
Speaker 1: go out to Long Island and talk to the salesman
Speaker 1: from the car dealer and go, hey, can you ID
Speaker 1: this guy? See if he's Tom Baker. The dedicated detectives
Speaker 1: of the NYPD were like, bet we got you blue.
Speaker 1: So the cops showed the salesman, the guy named Faisal Sajad,
Speaker 1: the photo lineup and he immediately picked out Tom Baker.
Speaker 1: He's like, that's the guy. We here's this positive ID detected.
Speaker 1: Joe has phones Fisle and he asked him point blank
Speaker 1: you sure it's him? Right? He told Faisal, you're positive
Speaker 1: this is the guy. I mean, it's been a few
Speaker 1: years since he stole from you, right, And he's like
Speaker 1: and Fisl was like, and I quote, detective, you never
Speaker 1: forget the man who stole a ferrari from you. So
Speaker 1: now that he had a positive ID and a hot lead.
Speaker 1: Detective Joe has He works the modern equivalent of shoe leather.
Speaker 1: He works the phone lines, the online databasis. He finds
Speaker 1: a hit. There was an er doc from the Lexington
Speaker 1: area who recently purchased a previously owned Ferrari, but not
Speaker 1: just any Ferrari Elizabeth. This er doc bought a Ferrari
Speaker 1: F fifty Oh wondering, he paid three hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars for the hot red number that was
Speaker 1: the one that was like almost seven hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars value, so real, we need to move this
Speaker 1: hot car kind of deal right now. Remind you, this
Speaker 1: is car is just one of three hundred and forty nine.
Speaker 1: So the buyer doctor just beard delon. He contacted Ferrari
Speaker 1: looking to register his car, because apparently if you buyer
Speaker 1: Ferrari's is the first thing you do, you contact Ferri?
Speaker 1: Can I register this thing? And yet again Ferrari had
Speaker 1: to inform the new buyer that unfortunately his paperwork did
Speaker 1: not match theirs, and in fact, the car matched a
Speaker 1: vent Over Ferrari that had been stolen from a Pennsylvania showroom.
Speaker 1: The VR doc contacts the man he bought the car
Speaker 1: from and the seller. This guy tom Baker, promises to
Speaker 1: return his money to him. He didn't know why there'd
Speaker 1: be in any issue with the vin This is just ridiculous,
Speaker 1: but he'll happily make it right. Tom Baker actually did
Speaker 1: send the doctor his money back.
Speaker 2: Oh you're kidding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And but the car at this point is evidence.
Speaker 1: So instead of getting the money and the car back,
Speaker 1: the FBI sees is the car and the and the
Speaker 1: money because they're both involved in the crowd. Oh so
Speaker 1: now he if the car is being held for the
Speaker 1: insurance company, which already had paid the ard More Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: dealer showroom, So the insurance company is gonna get the.
Speaker 2: Car, the money's being held a garage by.
Speaker 1: Now exactly, Actually, though this one is a different insurance.
Speaker 2: Firm than everybody's. Lloyd's of Lundon.
Speaker 1: I like your spirits, let's go with that. Now, the
Speaker 1: FBI detective Joe Hess, they're drawing in close to capturing
Speaker 1: their man. It was just a matter of time until
Speaker 1: they catch tom Baker. I mean, if he'd slip up
Speaker 1: at all, they'd be there to catch him. So Joe
Speaker 1: has he has his arrest warrant. At this point, all
Speaker 1: he needs to do is find the guy. Yeah, serve it.
Speaker 1: Of course, though he knows he can't be too cocky
Speaker 1: because Tom Baker stayed on the lamb for years. At
Speaker 1: this point, he can always flee the country and Ferraris
Speaker 1: they so well overseas. I mean he goes over to
Speaker 1: Japan or Dubai or even like Russia, he could be
Speaker 1: truly gone. So Detective Joe Hess and his multi agency
Speaker 1: task for us, they plan their next move, but they
Speaker 1: catch a break. Before they can make their next move,
Speaker 1: the biggest break a cop could catch. Tom Baker walks
Speaker 1: into the Lexington Police Department and turns himself in. Noah.
Speaker 1: It turns out his most expensive storm Ferrari, the F
Speaker 1: fifty once it had been impounded by the FBI, and
Speaker 1: he'd give him back the money he'd lost his big score.
Speaker 1: He didn't have the money to flee the country. He
Speaker 1: had no way to run, so he tries to cut
Speaker 1: a deal. Yeah, he comes in and he's like, look,
Speaker 1: I got other Ferraris. I'll give them back to you
Speaker 1: if we can talk about a little leniency in court
Speaker 1: for the old Tom Baker. Oh no, so the detective
Speaker 1: Hess and the FBI agreed to this plea deal. They
Speaker 1: go like, all right, fine, man, to show us this
Speaker 1: other Ferrari. On the October two thousand and eight, Joe
Speaker 1: Hes meets Tom Baker at a storch and the elusive
Speaker 1: car thief. He reveals to the stubborn law man the
Speaker 1: last of the stolen ferraris the curious thing. Though for
Speaker 1: Detective Joe Hess was less about this car. It really
Speaker 1: wasn't about the car at this point. He wanted to
Speaker 1: know about this car thief and right, so finally he
Speaker 1: gets to meet the man in person, because he wasn't
Speaker 1: there when he walked into the police station. Right, this
Speaker 1: is his moments after a year and a half, he
Speaker 1: gets to meet him. A detective has just finds it
Speaker 1: really odd that Tom Baker's dressed exactly like a pilot
Speaker 1: when he meets him a pilot, it gets no ruse,
Speaker 1: no costume. He didn't go down to like the Halloween
Speaker 1: spirit store and said I need a costume for the road,
Speaker 1: like a sexy pilot cost This is his work uniform.
Speaker 1: He is a legit pilot. It turns out the car
Speaker 1: thief worked for the Economical airline Jet Blue. Tom Baker, dashing,
Speaker 1: daring Ferrari thief was actually a middle aged divorce father
Speaker 1: of two who flew for Jet Blue and his hobby
Speaker 1: was stealing high price ferraris what. Yes, So after he
Speaker 1: was caught, or rather after he cheered himself in, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is far from the end of his ridiculous crimes.
Speaker 1: Because first the FBI had to get into some ridiculousness
Speaker 1: of their own. Because on May twenty seventh, two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine, a special agent for the FBI and an
Speaker 1: assistant attorney for the Department of Justice, they were tasked
Speaker 1: with the transfer of the stolen Ferrari F fifty, the
Speaker 1: one from there. You had to move it from one
Speaker 1: holding place to another.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Rather than get like a truck to hal they decide
Speaker 1: they just drive it themselves. Only they weren't nearly the
Speaker 1: driver that Tom Baker was. Yeah. Oh man, you know what, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: Rather than me tell you about it, close your eyes. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'd ask you to picture it. It's a bright spring
Speaker 1: day in May two thousand and nine, and you, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: are enjoying the day as a regal moth aka the
Speaker 1: royal walnut moth from the moth family Saturnati. Now, much
Speaker 1: like my man Schwangzoo, you may just be a woman
Speaker 1: dreaming that she's a moth. Or perhaps you've always been
Speaker 1: a moth who's been dreaming she was a woman. So
Speaker 1: true either way, at the moment, you're very recently left
Speaker 1: behind your prior life as a hickory horned devil caterpillar. First,
Speaker 1: you spun yourself a chrysalis inside your coccoon, you dissolved
Speaker 1: all of your body tissues, rendering it down to some
Speaker 1: protoplasmic goop. And then over time you reformed yourself as
Speaker 1: a moth. Then you eventually broke up in your chrysalis,
Speaker 1: you stretched your new wings and took to the sky.
Speaker 1: And now on your day too, as a moth, you flip,
Speaker 1: you float, You gently ride the spring breeze. As you
Speaker 1: glide on currents of breeze and then the soft spring air.
Speaker 1: You hear this sound approach. It's the purr of a
Speaker 1: high performance engine, which means very little to you. You
Speaker 1: flap your wings and try to gain some elevation, but
Speaker 1: you are one unlucky moth. The noise is faster than
Speaker 1: you anticipate, and what feels like I'm mere second and
Speaker 1: a half. You were suddenly whipped down by the speed
Speaker 1: of wind and flat you get stuck to the windshield
Speaker 1: of a speeding Ferrari. Nice you were plastered to the glasses.
Speaker 1: The red sports car races down a quiet Kentucky country road.
Speaker 1: This is not how you imagine life as a moth
Speaker 1: would go. But there you are, Ukraine. Your mothhead around
Speaker 1: is spied through the glass of the windshield. Two men,
Speaker 1: both are wearing big, dumb grins, the kind they come
Speaker 1: from driving or Ferrari really fast. Behind the wheel is
Speaker 1: FBI special agent Frederick Kingston and shotgun assistant US Attorney
Speaker 1: Jay Hamilton Thompson. You don't know this, but he's the
Speaker 1: man prosecuting the guy who stole this car, a man
Speaker 1: named Tom Baker. At the moment, pinned to the windshield,
Speaker 1: you try, they get used to the fuel of the wind,
Speaker 1: of speed, and then out of nowhere you hear this
Speaker 1: strange sound. There's a boom sound, followed by a squeal
Speaker 1: of wheels. The Ferrans swerves hard to the right, then
Speaker 1: over crash. It swerves hard to the left.
Speaker 2: Boom again.
Speaker 1: The super rare Ferrari slams into a tree. It's the
Speaker 1: low squat bushes. You flap your wings. The wind of
Speaker 1: speed is gone and has done no damage to you.
Speaker 1: You lift up into the blue of the sky. You
Speaker 1: shake your moth head at the FBI agent who just
Speaker 1: crashed a seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars supercar. The
Speaker 1: doj attorney starts cussing up a storm. You laugh in
Speaker 1: moth as you take one look back and see what's
Speaker 1: left of the car. The driver's side door is split,
Speaker 1: carbon fiber exposed to the air earth. The dog attorney
Speaker 1: is turning all sorts of colors as he continues to
Speaker 1: cuss at the FBI agent who's just shaking his head.
Speaker 1: You turn and feel the sun on your face as
Speaker 1: you fly off to find a quieter country road. Oo
Speaker 1: I just so after that, Yeah, agent, we lot's control
Speaker 1: of the Ferrari and slammed into a tree. While joy
Speaker 1: riding slammed into a tree is destroyed. It that left
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice in a hell of a sticky
Speaker 1: situation because the insurance company he'd already paid out on
Speaker 1: the seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars claim, so they
Speaker 1: were now the owner of the stolen Ferrari, and they
Speaker 1: wanted the car they had purchased, so they asked about
Speaker 1: the car, and the DOJ got real quiet, real quick.
Speaker 1: Eventually Motors Insurance grew up. They had to file a
Speaker 1: lawsuit against the DOJ. In it, the company claimed that
Speaker 1: their property was destroyed quote while the Ferrari was being
Speaker 1: detained by the FBI. Thus the FBI was responsible to
Speaker 1: make it right. And the dj is on the hook too,
Speaker 1: so the FBI equally Mum, nobody's saying anything. The lawsuit
Speaker 1: catches media attention, that becomes a story, and then the
Speaker 1: story of an FBI agent crashing a stolen super rare
Speaker 1: Ferrari became a regisensation, got a lot of attention. Someone
Speaker 1: had to say something, so eventually Charles Miller, a spokesman
Speaker 1: for the Department of Justice, came forward. He answered questions
Speaker 1: about where the missing Ferrari was. Miller said he didn't
Speaker 1: know where it was. He said, I quote, I know
Speaker 1: it's not in my garage, Are you kidding me? That's
Speaker 1: where it's left. As for the whereabouts and that mangled
Speaker 1: f fifty one of only three hundred and forty nine,
Speaker 1: apparently no one knows where it's being stored. It was
Speaker 1: finally fully disappeared, lost in the paperwork stolen by the
Speaker 1: Department of Justice. Yes, the FBI casually stole a sports card.
Speaker 1: They're like, what what do you look? Don't look at us,
Speaker 1: that's insane. So as for Tom Baker, what became of
Speaker 1: the jet Blue pilot with the karthief?
Speaker 2: Yea, what became of the Jetsube pilot.
Speaker 1: Was sentenced to a mere eight months in prison, but
Speaker 1: no doubt the wildest part of his sentencing had to
Speaker 1: be the terms of his imprisonment. He only had to
Speaker 1: go to prison two days a week, Elizabeth Wait. The
Speaker 1: rest of the time, he was allowed to go to
Speaker 1: the airport so he could quote make his scheduled flight
Speaker 1: from Lexington, Kentucky to our Lando, Florida for purposes of
Speaker 1: his employment. He was making the Disneyland run or disney
Speaker 1: World run rather. So they're like, we got to get
Speaker 1: those tourists down to disney World. We need Tom Baker.
Speaker 2: That look on your face, So like, first of all,
Speaker 2: you're sitting on a plane and it's a felon flying
Speaker 2: you around.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you have no idea some jailbird taking you.
Speaker 2: From one place to the next the hell of a pilot.
Speaker 2: I thought that was just like European thing where they
Speaker 2: let people check out gently.
Speaker 1: In Kentucky they led pilots. Yeah, exactly, So dude kept
Speaker 1: rut on flying. But if you can believe it, Tom
Speaker 1: Baker story is not quite done because I haven't told
Speaker 1: you about his boat crimes. Sorry, yacht crimes. It was
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, a Tompick was once again a free man.
Speaker 1: He'd put his criminal pass behind him. Now he was
Speaker 1: a luxury yacht owner. He was also a heavy drinker.
Speaker 1: The two hobbies they kind of go together, like chocolate
Speaker 1: and peanut butter. But they were also at cross purposes.
Speaker 1: So one day, or rather one night around two fifteen am,
Speaker 1: drinking one out and he sank his yacht. In fact,
Speaker 1: he crashed it, and not just into another boat or
Speaker 1: a ship, as people prefer he did like I would
Speaker 1: have done. He crashed it into the sand. He hit land.
Speaker 1: He crashed his seventy two foot yacht into the shores
Speaker 1: of Palm Peach, Florida.
Speaker 2: How does he a four to seventy two foot yacht.
Speaker 1: I know I'm in piloting, I don't know right, So
Speaker 1: it is liquored up on Long Island Iced Teas and
Speaker 1: he just drives his boat right into the earth right now.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Long Island Iced Tea, as you know, is a professional
Speaker 1: alcoholics drinker.
Speaker 2: Everything in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's got like four or five different liquors in it.
Speaker 1: Like if you're an alcoholic, that's like it'll get you there, right,
Speaker 1: he'll get your sideways quickly. So drunk Tom Baker, he
Speaker 1: crashes his seventy two foot yacht into the beach. What
Speaker 1: does he do next to Elizabeth?
Speaker 2: From what we know of this guy steals a car.
Speaker 1: Does he steal a car and drive away? No? Does
Speaker 1: he steal another boat and try to flee? Also? No,
Speaker 1: he has a whole other p He pops off the boat,
Speaker 1: he leaves it there, just careening on the shore, leaking oil,
Speaker 1: gas whatever else. He decides to fight the case because, surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: this would be tom Baker's second boating under the influence
Speaker 1: charge in less than a month's time.
Speaker 2: You're kidding me.
Speaker 1: So, tom Baker argued that it wasn't his fault or
Speaker 1: the booze's fault to cause the crash into the shore.
Speaker 1: It was the boat's GPS and more than that, he
Speaker 1: was adamant about this fact. So he went on the offense.
Speaker 1: He sued the city of Palm Beach. He sued the
Speaker 1: police department. He demanded four hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in damages. Now, how how could he a party in this? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the one suing the cops. Well, his legal argument was
Speaker 1: quote that the cops had a legal obligation to secure
Speaker 1: and tow his property when he was arrested, but they
Speaker 1: had failed to do that, so it was there. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know how the law works in Florida. In fact,
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone does. But somehow this bizarre legal
Speaker 1: strategy worked and tom Baker had no BUI charges dropped
Speaker 1: and he pleaded down to a reckless operation of him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is the secret to his criminal success, Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: Tom Baker is powered by a unique criminal imagination. He
Speaker 1: could pretend to be super rich, but mostly it's just
Speaker 1: his confidence. Yeah, it's just gonna work out for tom Baker.
Speaker 1: I guess he's gonna be fine for tom Baker. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if it's a boat, Long Island, ice Tea,
Speaker 1: or Ferrari. He knew how to make it work for
Speaker 1: him and Joke's side quote. Detective Joe has said he
Speaker 1: had a story, who he was, how he was dressed,
Speaker 1: He looked the part, He knew the right words, he
Speaker 1: knew the right questions to ask, And that, Elizabeth, is
Speaker 1: how you steal a Ferrari. You ask the right questions,
Speaker 1: you always blame your secretary, and you know, wear a
Speaker 1: tie because those things make your words sound more believable.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe me, just look at politicians.
Speaker 2: Act like you know exactly.
Speaker 1: It's what you always say, act like. So there you go.
Speaker 1: What's a ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 2: You know, just act like you know. But also, speaking
Speaker 2: of Ferrari, I saw a trailer for the Ferrari movies.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, with your new favorite Italian accent?
Speaker 2: Why why why do they have Adam Driver?
Speaker 1: Why? You know like Adam and his accent, he's a perfect.
Speaker 2: Did you see House of Gucci?
Speaker 1: I did not see it at the movie?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so bad? Is it good? It's the accent?
Speaker 1: Actually I did see you maybe watch a clip of
Speaker 1: it on YouTube. You see the clips? Exciting?
Speaker 2: Terrible?
Speaker 1: I did not meet the ball. This is the hell
Speaker 1: you doing? Italian accent?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they all sound like Mario Brothers and so yeah,
Speaker 2: and father Guidos Serducci. So yeah, my takeaway is like,
Speaker 2: don't do Enzo Ferrari like that?
Speaker 1: Apparently it did really got a six minute standing ovation
Speaker 1: at the Venice Film Festival. And they are Italians, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Means Italians in there. It's all a bunch of foreigners
Speaker 2: coming in there to watch.
Speaker 1: The movie, Germans and French people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's that, you know, if you want to see
Speaker 2: like little glimpses of it, it's good. There's the documentary
Speaker 2: about the Fiat guy.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's dope. Yeah, and their whole like rivalry with
Speaker 1: you get a bunch in there. Yeah, that has got
Speaker 1: some ridiculous time.
Speaker 2: So that is a really ridiculous way to give a takeaway.
Speaker 1: There you go, Well, thank you for asking what mine is.
Speaker 1: I don't have one, So there you go.
Speaker 2: You told the story. You don't need one.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, there, I'm free. You're free, Look, Genie, I'm free.
Speaker 1: Well as always. You can find us online Ridiculous Crime, Twitter, Instagram.
Speaker 1: I think they took threads finally away from us. We
Speaker 1: have a website though, ridiculous crime dot com. You should
Speaker 1: check that out. It wins Design Awards. There's merch you
Speaker 1: can buy. It's also like a dating site apparently. Anyway.
Speaker 1: You can email us if you want a ridiculous crime
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. As always, remember dear Elizabeth and
Speaker 1: then start your email. Okay, thanks for listening. We'll catch
Speaker 1: you next Crime. Because Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton
Speaker 1: and Zaren Burnett, produce and edited by Dave. Remember Ferrari
Speaker 1: has the Horse, Lamborghini has the Bull. Houston. Research is
Speaker 1: by Maria I prefer to steal American cars Brown and
Speaker 1: Andrea I'd only steal an anime car song, Sharpened Tears.
Speaker 1: Our theme song is by Thomas Vroom Vroom Lee and Travis.
Speaker 1: Grandma called me Barney Oldfield Dot. The host wardrobe provided
Speaker 1: by Botany five hundred. Executive producers are Ben the f
Speaker 1: n FBI stands for fun, Bolan, and Noel. The B
Speaker 1: stands for balloons, Brown