Do Go On - 307 - Argentina's Heist of the Century

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

At 12.38 on the afternoon of January 13th, 2006, the local police received a call - a bank robbery was in progress at the Acassuso branch of the Banco Rio, one of Argentina's big banks. What followed is one of the all time great heists, tune in for the story!Check out our 2019 tour video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA-cdcclOsEGet a ticket to the live Prime Mates - Ape Titty Slide on 11th September : https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=805586Stream our 300th episode with extra quiz (and 16 other episodes with bonus content): https://sospresents.com/authors/dogoonFor tickets to Matt's Live Shows: https://www.mattstewartcomedy.com/ Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Check out our AACTA nominated web series: http://bit.ly/DGOWebSeries​ Check out Matt’s Beer show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej4TUguJL58 Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader Thomas REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.gq.com/story/the-great-buenos-aires-bank-heisthttps://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/el-robo-al-banco-rio-de-acasuso-una-historia-de-pelicula-nid1232455/http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/15/argentina.bank.robbery.trial/index.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heist_of_the_Century_(film)https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/movie/the-heist-of-the-century/1839692867861 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnke and, as always, I'm here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart.

Gai Dave, your little legend. How you do it, mate? Good to see you. Oh, thanks. Howdy, Dave. Howdy, Jess. It's great to be on here with you. And if you could keep that character up while, Jess, you explain what this show actually is. Thank you so much.

Well, you little Ripper, what we do here at Dogo One is, we love to have a bit of a yard. and one of the three of us goes away, research is a topic, and usually the topic's been suggested by one of the listeners. And we go away, we read some books, we watch some docos, we browse Wikipedia.org, and we research a topic, we bring it back to the other two. We have a bit of a learn, a bit of a chat, and really it's all about the friendship.

And we always get on to the friendship with a question. Every friendship starts with the question. That character walked up. all across the world. It felt like Broden Kelly meets Hannah Gadsby to me. I thought there was a bit of Stu Dolman in there. Yes, I was about to say there was definitely a bit of stew. Didn't mean to go to any of those territories.

But I went to all. A tribute to the gross. A walk around the world of Australian comedy. And I've got to say, what I was trying to go for was like middle-aged dad has bumped into an acquaintance at the shops. Which I think if you combine those three, I think that's what you get. Okay, great. Yeah, that's sort of what I was going for.

You know, Gidey, Barry, not middle-aged, recently retired, Dad. That's funny, because what was middle-aged to us when we were kids? Yeah, we are middle-aged now. We keep thinking of them as middle-aged, but they're now near death. You got young, middle-aged, near death. Or long dead. The four states of being.

So I'm the one doing the report this week, as old mate Barry, down the shop, told you. So I'm going to kick off the report today with a question. I went with a pretty getable, Dave, because you're a geography expert. Can we give Jess first crack at this one? I'm just going to say, the Caribbean. Okay, well, that is incorrect. Jess, you get the next crack at it.

What is the capital city of Argentina? Oh, of Argentina. Can Dave help me? I think so. Okay, it's not Caribbean. Okay. That is helpful. It's two words.

I'm going to know. It. B.A. Oh. Oh. It is. Kara. Buenos Aires.

Yes, it is. Dave, can we get a pronunciation check there? Buenos Aires. Great. There's a few names and places in this report that I'm going to do my best on. That's all we ask. Great. So this week's topic is about a big Juanisares bank heist,

aka the robbery of the century, which happened in 2006. I was an early call. I love it. Nat were calling it. This will not be topped. I love a bank heist. Great, yeah.

This is a real fun one, I think. I should say, when I say I love a bank heist, I don't condone them. I don't want to take part, but the stories are exciting. Have you ever been asked? No, that is something that hurts me to my call. I didn't want to go on the high.

anyway. Yeah, whatever. I don't even like heists. I just want to be included. All right. So this one was suggested just by the one listener, Tommy Highland from Columbus in the great state of Ohio. I thought he was going to be Tommy Heist. Oh, so close. Tommy Heistland. Tommy Highland is a fantastic name though. Yeah. Let's get that on the record. And he gets to live in God's Country, Ohio. So jealous. All right, you guys ready? Yes. Let us begin. Let's heist. Let's hoist. Does you reckon that's what they said?

To get going. Everyone put their hands in. Let's hoist. Let's hoist. At 1238 on the afternoon of January the 13th, 2006, this is a Friday the 13th, by the way. Wow. The local police received a call, 1238 in the afternoon. Local police received a call.

A bank robbery was in progress at the Acasusa branch of the Banka Rio, one of Argentina, as big banks. The police arrived at the scene in time to find the robbery still in progress. They set out a perimeter while they figured out their next move. Soon, there was more than 100 cops surrounding the building. So they were taking it seriously. It was bang, it was on. Fully surrounded the building, a big ring perimeter around the outside.

Soon, the bank's security guard was released. He was holding his gun, but the bullets had been removed by the robbers before they released him, which I think was smart. Yes. So you already know you're dealing with smart operas. But they said to him, you can keep that. They gave him back his peace. Yeah, that's right.

Maybe they're robbers, but they're not mean about it. We'll take your bullets, but we won't take your gun. Because actually at that particular establishment, like, he wasn't just given the gun. He sort of had to, like, buy it. He had to be a B-Y-O gun, and he's like, that cost me a bit of money. It took him like three months of wages before he had a gun. Exactly, yeah. You've got to earn it.

He's like, I've only just got this gun. For the first three months, he was the same. security guard with a brick. That's all he had. Just standing there. Brick and three bullets. And you know when you start a new job and you feel like the new guy,

it's so much worse when you don't even have a guy. I felt that before. Day one of my office job. Yeah. Everyone else has got one. I'm just got a brick. What do I do with this? I don't know.

Fill out an Excel spreadsheet or some shit. So the security guard told the police there were hostages inside, which makes sense that, you know, it was a daylight. There were people in there doing their going about their banking business. And then soon after, one of the hostages, a young man was released. He just sort of came out the front door, happy days. Holding his gun.

Yeah, he was holding his gun, no bullets. Then one of the robbers came to the front entrance holding a woman hostage, you know, classic hostage-holding sort of scenario, I guess. He had removed the bullets from the woman, though. Holding a woman with no bullets. He was sort of just having a peek outside, I guess. And what he saw was that the bank was entirely surrounded. So he freed the woman and he ran back inside.

Police were able to ascertain from those that been released that there were five robbers, all wearing different outfits to disguise their identities. Bit of a kind of like a Woonisarian village people in some ways. It was one just as a surgeon. A surgeon. Yeah. One dressed as a surgeon, a doctor surgeon, one wearing a ski mask, yes, you know, the ski man.

Then you had one who was sort of dressed real sharp in a tailored grey suit. He also had a beautiful mustache. Is it fake? I'm picturing Poirot. It's rude to ask if it's fake day. Honestly, that's not much of a disguise. At the moment, if it's not a fake mustache, that's just a man with a mustache wearing a nice suit. That's his disguise.

Usually I dress really casual, so people will. will not recognize me in this. Who's this sharp dress, man? And then there was another wearing a balaclava and a baseball cap over the top of long, blonde hair. And then the robbers were holding 23 hostages. So I've just got to say, do you think that they had a meeting where they just turned up on the day of the robbery? They said, B.O. Disguise. And they all got out and went, a surgeon?

What the fuck? Yeah. Yeah, no, none of that made any sense. Yeah. There was no connection at all. Very haphazard. Two guys in like ski mask, Bella clavas. And one guy dressed in a beautiful suit.

Yeah, I thought, yeah, you said fancy dress. And one guy has a toy stethoscope. And he's like, what? What? I've always wanted to be as after. I didn't know what we were doing. I'm just here for the adventure. The guy in the suit's like, you know my wedding got cancelled.

And I've been waiting for an opportunity to wear this. She left me. Sharon. Sharon. I like to dedicate this robbery to Sharon. Shad. That doesn't happen enough. Dedications of robberies.

This one goes out to Shaz. I would take a man back in a heartbeat if he robbed a bank for me. If someone dedicated the robbery of the century to you, that's an act of love. That's romance. The police were able to establish radio contact with one of the robbers

who referred to himself as Walter. Walter said he was aware they were surrounded, but they weren't ready to give themselves up. They had guns. but they didn't want anyone getting hurt. In this failed threat, Walter also said that he'd hate to see another Ramalo. Ramalo, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce that. I looked up all these place names and names.

I looked up pronunciation videos with mixed results, I've got to tell you. You know, when you find a pronunciation video, and it's like 17 thumbs down, two thumbs up, you're like, well, I don't trust this now. The ratio. Yeah. So, but do we know what a Romalo is? Yes.

Well, according to Josh Dean, writing for GQ magazine, this guy, he wrote a beautiful piece, which I'll refer to a bit. This is what Dino said. This struck a nerve. The heist in the town of Romalo was infamous in Argentina. Six years earlier, three armed men had burst into a bank. The thieves held hostages, and during an attempted escape, used them as shields. That's when things went sideways.

Police opened fire, killing a robber and two hostages. Romalo was a national scandal, but what made it especially terrible, is that the fiasco played out on live TV. Oh, nasty. Yeah, so everyone in Argentina is very aware of this, especially at this point, it's only a few years earlier. So the fact that the news teams were again at the scene, filming live, and the fresh memory of Romalo was playing in the police head,

they were wary of forcing the issue with the robbers and instead played it very patiently. So they just set up their perimeter and sort of waited and try to keep communicating. Back to Dean's article. For more than six hours, the nation was transfixed. The police had nicknamed Walter the man in the grey suit for obvious reasons. He was the guy in the grey suit.

Oh, okay, he wasn't the surgeon. I love that as a nickname. It's so long. The man in the grey suit. I mean, he's the one that has a name, nickname the others, but this is Walter. He's already given himself a nickname. That's true.

He was instantly famous. The hostages, Walter said, were all being treated well. and the mood inside seemed oddly a bullion. At one point, Walter and another robber could be heard singing happy birthday to a bank employee whose phone had been buzzing with birthday messages from friends and family. Oh, my God, what a terrible birthday. They'd bring out a cake from the staff room.

Yeah, we were going to have this later, but let's just chop it up now. You think it would be a bad birthday, Bob, to be involved in the robbery of the century? To be a hostage in the robbery of a century, yeah. Part of history, Jess. I mean, the man in the suit is singing at you. That's nice. I kind of feel like, in many ways, I'm already part of history. Oh.

That's the point. Okay. No to mean? Yeah, I hear that. So. Okay. But you feel pretty stupid. Very.

At 3.30 in the afternoon, Walter asked for pizzas. The hostages were hungry, he said. Then, only a few minutes later, Walter went silent. Oh, okay. They're hungry. They want pizzas. Yeah, this birthday's really turning it around for me. That's pretty good.

I mean, do you reckon that they ask the birthday, girl or boy, their favourite flavour? Yeah, sure. What do you want a margarita, cup of chosa? What are you feeling? It's your birthday. Your choice. Yeah, what do you feel? Barbecue chicken.

Okay. Okay. All right, we'll get, maybe we'll get a half and half. Because I don't think anybody else is going to eat that disgusting pizza, but. Yeah. So he went silent. The police tried to reconnect. with him, what with Walter, but each attempt failed. The clock kept ticking with no response or any signs

of activity from inside the building. So the police's patients wore thin after waiting around three and a half hours. They were really gone. We can't do a remote. We don't want to storm it. But after three and a half hours, they're like, we got to do something. He's not picking up the phone. Let's move in. So according to Dean, finally a team of special forces officers took up position outside the bank. At 7pm, they burst inside. Wow. But there was no sure. shoot out no commotion and no sign of the thieves. What? The hostages were dispersed on three floors,

the lobby level, a mezzanine space, and down in a basement conference room, which had been locked from the inside. They were all unharmed. They'd vanished. And were the hostages, like, tied up together or something? Yeah, hostages were all secured in their separate areas. All right, because if they hadn't been,

and they'd locked themselves inside. Yeah, now, we're having a good time in here, actually. Kathleen's birthday's really taken to the next level. Sleepover Club. down in the vault. Yeah, we decided to do a summer party for Kathy's birthday. We were having so much fun. We thought, why end it now?

This is great. Let's take this through to tomorrow. The best staff party ever. But that is remarkable. They're surrounded on all sides, but they're no longer in the building. What the hell? And it wasn't until detectives reached the basement that they discovered what the robbers had truly been after.

There, in the expanse of the bank's subterranean level, hundreds of reinforced steel safe deposit boxes lined the walls. These safe deposit boxes were a gold mine. The reason they were so valuable is because of the collapse of Argentina's banking system, national banking system in 2001. Five years earlier, there was a big banking crash in Argentina. This collapse led to many people losing their life savings. Millions of people were affected,

so Argentines stopped depositing their money into the banking system. Instead, they started putting their valuables in safe deposit boxes, such as the 400 boxes at the Accususo branch of the Bankorillo. With Accusoosso being a well-to-do area, these boxes were chock full of riches. Whoa. So it's interesting, right? They don't trust the bank system, but they trust the bank to physically hold their stuff. Wow.

Of the 400 boxes, 143 had been smashed open and emptied, but where the thieves and their hall had gone was a mystery. Police swept the building top to bottom, but could hardly find a trace of them. The bank only had two exits and both had been surrounded by police throughout the siege. No windows had been broken and the robbers weren't found hiding amongst the hostages. Just like that, they disappeared.

Oh man, this is so awesome. Yeah. I'm going like, oh, I reckon they've sort of disguised themselves. They've taken off the doctor's outfit and they're hiding as if they're hostages or something. No, they've put on the pizza boy outfit. They've walked out after the drop off. They're like, hang on, didn't only one pizza boy drop the pieces off?

Now there's five of them. Yeah, one of them dressed in a beautiful tailored suit. What do people need to carry these pizzas? They're all getting on the back of that one scooter. This is kind of impressive. So the police did find a few things left behind by the robbers. There were bits of hair as well as a battery pack, some toy guns, and a tool they assumed was used to crack open the boxes.

They also found a note that read, I think it would have been written in Spanish, but the translation, in a neighbourhood of rich people without weapons or grudges, it's just money, not love. That's poetic, kind of baffling as well. Almost like they were, you know, were they trying to put the cops off the centre or give them a clue? It's strange. Yeah, and that's like a Robin Hood sort of like, hey, don't worry about it. It's amazing you say that because they have sort of become known as as like Robin Hood type thieves. Ah.

Because they stole from the rich, they didn't do the second part of the book. Oh, right. But I mean, but they really nailed the first part. They're half Robin Hoods, they're robins. But if you consider yourself poor and you're taking from the rich and giving to yourself, I mean, you could probably justify it in your own mind. Hey, I'm giving to the poor here. That's true.

That is true. I mean, I wanted to be a surgeon. And the only way I could do that was by dressing up as one. So the nation was absolutely enthralled by the highest. I mean, they watched it for six hours live on TV. And then, you know, everyone's got their theories of what's going on. The police are on the hunt, but they're battling. They have no real solid ideas of what has happened here.

Credit cards that was stolen from the safety deposit boxes started being flagged after being used fraudulently. the police arrested and investigated many people had used the cards, hoping they'd finally found the perps, but alas, they all turned out to be dead ends. The mysterious gang of robbers had got away with an estimated $20 million worth of booty.

Booty. But how much jewelry did they steal? Whoops. Idiots. They just had the patents for like famous butts. This is the insurance for Kylie Minogue's Bart. I remember that. I think there was at one point she took out a million dollar insurance on her bard or something.

We've got to be worth more than that. Inflation, I forget. This is 20 years ago. Is that per cheek, though? So two minutes, maybe. Well, that's a great question. Look, I'll take that on notice and I'll come back next week with an answer on this. So they had no viable leads.

They were baffled the cops. This was until about five weeks later, when a jilted partner helped unravel the whole thing. Oh, that's right. She left him at the altar. The man of the great suit. It's you, Sharon. Like when you said that, I'm like, not that far off day.

But before we get to that, let's go back to the beginning, which was years before the hoist. Okay, so according to Dean, it all began with Fernando Al-Rahou. Proologies for the pronunciation. A-R-A-U-J-O. I practice this a bit. I don't think I've nailed it, but I'm going with A-R-R-H-R-O.

Do you either of you speak Spanish? Okay. And how am I standing there? Nail it. I think that that sounds beautiful. It's a beautiful language to hear it coming out of your mouth. Really? Great.

I mean, if you can come up with a nickname for this guy at some point... What's your name, Raff? His name is Fernando. Maybe I could just start calling him Fernando. Fernando. I love that. Beautiful name. Oh, I'll try and remember just...

on Fernando. So it all began with Fernando Arrajo. Fernando had a crazy idea and he shared it with his friend Sebastian Garcia Bolster. Once you hear some of their names, you're going to be like, and one of them picked Walter? That's an amazing downgrade. So Fernando, he's got this crazy idea. He shared it with his friend Sebastian Garcia Bolster. This is still from Dean's article. This was a few years after the botched Ramilo Romalo heist had lodged itself in Fernando's brain. It would be crazy to rob a bank but not leave the way you entered, he mentioned a bolster.

Bolster had been friends with... Just out of nowhere? Wouldn't it be crazy to leave a bank? It would be wild. Not the way you came in and the other guy was like, okay. Yeah, I guess. Wild thing to bring up out of the blue. But Bolster had been friends with Fernando since high school.

They were now in their mid-30s. And he agreed. That did sound like a while away to rob the bank. Yeah, man. That does sound a bit weird. But he assumed it was just some lark. His pal smoked a lot of weed. So imagine he's coming up to him with some ideas like this every now and then.

He's like, yeah, yeah, man. Cool. Yeah, for sure. That would be weird, every idea. The two had grown up together in upper middle class homes in the northern suburbs. So your idea of the poor robbing the rich? It sounds like the finder rich robbing the really rich. But anyway, they grew up in upper middle class homes in the north suburb,

but they were very different. Whereas Fernando pursued eccentric, occasionally illegal interest, Bolster was a law-abiding family man. He worked mostly at repairing small engines. motorcycles and jet skis and the like. But it was also a tinkerer, the kind of guy who sketches plans for a cheap home-built helicopter in his spare time.

You know that kind of guy? The kind of guy. Who the fuck is getting in somebody's home-built helicopter? Oh, you need to lift down the shops. Well, don't you jump in the chopper? I'll fly in a. Get fucked, no.

The kind of guy, do you mean Leonardo da Vinci? Didn't they find that drawing that he's drawing? Who else is sketching? Homemade Elkhore. It's probably no coincidence that Fernando asked his mechanically minded friend about the heist. Bolster's skills would come in handy. But Bolster didn't think much

more about it. Did they use a home build helicopter and they just didn't notice them to leaving the roof? Oh my God. No one thought to look up. What was that? Don't worry about it. Well, it doesn't sound like a helicopter. It sounds like someone dying. On the other hand, Fernando

could think about nothing else. Bolster's going, yeah, great idea. And he doesn't think about it again. Fernando is obsessed. Fuck. According to Dean, he was a free spirit and an artist. He'd gone through a breakup and was now cultivating various strains of high-grade marijuana. He ate sporadically, slept when he felt like it, and taught martial arts to pay the bills.

There's a lot in this, isn't it? There's a lot happening. The kind of guy that teaches martial arts to pay the bills. He studied Eastern philosophy and was consumed with bank robberies watching every possible film TV show and documentary he could find, searching for inspiration and also mistakes as he set out to architect the perfect heist. You like this, Dave. He listened to Mozart and Baithoven for creativity

and also bank robber by the clash for motivation. Unrepeat. Yeah. Daddy was a bank robber. Yeah, okay, okay. Okay, okay. Taking notes. Be a daddy. It's about being a non-violent bank robber too, right?

Yeah, that's right. He never hurt nobody. Oh, Dave, he was inspired. He spent a couple of years contemplating and planning before returning to Bolster with more concrete plans and some requests for technical help, suggesting that Bolster would be the Lucius Fox to his Batman. Who is Lucius Fox?

He's the Morgan Freeman character in, I don't know, which Batman iteration. Was that the one with Christian Bayer? Yeah, I don't know. So you've got the butler who does butlering. And then you've got Lucius Fox who does, he's sort of like the, what's the Bond version of the gadget guy? Oh, Q.

Q. Yeah, okay, I'm with you, yes. He was obviously more of a comic guy. Should be the Q to James Bond. And who's playing the Butler? Yeah, who's Alfred? Oh. And who's the car?

Yeah. Well, I guess the man in the great. Ray suit. It's probably the closest to a butler. Yeah, okay. And so the doctor is the Batmobile. Oh, I was going to say the homemade helicopter is the Batmobile. No, you would think that.

But no. Who makes a helicopter? So good. Yeah, Moran Freeman played him in the Nolan series. Right on. Right on. Bolster wasn't immediately convinced. Firstly, he wasn't a criminal. Secondly, having once worked at a bank,

even being an employee of the month, he knew they were no easy target. And I've been employee of the month. Yeah. Hey, I've worked in banks. Hey, I've been employee of the month at banks. Okay? I've worked at lots of banks and nearly never were they heisted. So I think they're pretty difficult to do.

On the other hand, he hated banks having seen his father lose his life savings in the financial crash. So he's got, he's like, you know what? I wouldn't mind sticking it to the banks a little bit. He agreed to be involved on the proviso that there would be no violence and that they wouldn't use real guns. Fernando accepted these terms and now the real plans began. But what were they? How did they make it happen?

How do they do this? How do they go in the front door and disappear? Go in the front door. And you're in the bank and someone walks in, one's got a balaclava, one's dresses a service, another one in a grey suit. Everyone's thinking, what the fuck is happening here? Yeah.

I think staff would go, oh, we're about to be robbed. Yeah. If I was the staff, there, I'd be like, huh, surgeons do in a little deposit. Must be payday at the hospital. That makes sense. I see lots of surgeons come in every week on payday. Okay, so this is how it all went down. So I'm going to read the next little bit from Dean's article in GQ.

Fernando's years of contemplation had landed him on an audacious and complicated plan. He would arrive and exit using a tunnel. The suburbs of Buenos Aires were honeycombed with enormous storm tunnels that ran beneath the streets and drained to the river. He figured that all he needed to do was find one that could get him near the bank he had in mind and then dig upward. The idea began to take shape. Dig up. What we're going to do is dig up. I love the use of the word,

money combed there. Oh, yeah, fantastic. Love that. Dean's got a real way with words. One obstacle vex Fernando longer than others. How would he disable the alarm systems that protect the bank when the place is empty? The only viable solution ratcheted up the degree of difficulty. They'd have to go in during a workday when alarms weren't a factor.

The alarms were the big roadblock, so he's like, they don't use alarms when they're open. Let's rob them in the daylight. Right, but I mean. Pretty smart. Yeah, but okay. Free smart. I just want to point out that the alarm, when it goes off, cops arrive and surround the building. When you do it during the daylight, cops arrive and surround the building.

So what's the difference though? Dave, Dave, Dave, oh my God, Dave, you are so dumb. Dave, are you listening, Dave. I'm listening. So through the day, there are no alarms on. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, my God, I'm about to explain that to you.

I'm so glad you're here. God. It's like he just doesn't. listen to men. But when the alarm goes off, what happens? Dave, the alarm won't go off. They're going in in the day, Dave. They're going in the day, Dave.

There's no alarm. I'm so sorry, listeners. He's normally not this. Oh, God. Lockdown's really getting to him. He's losing it. If even I'm getting it before you, something's not right.

Yeah, I'm feeling that too. So this is where the plan goes to another level of genius. The plan was the stage of fake bank robbery attracting the attention of the police while the real robbery was going on downstairs with the lockboxes in the basement. So all that stuff with costumes and that, that's all, it's like a slight a hand trick.

How fun is that? That's fun. So they're not the people actually robbing downstairs. They're just babysitting. people in the lobby. There's a bit of two and forth. I'll get into that soon. Honestly, this guy should have just written a movie

and made money the legal way. Well, he does that later. Great. Of course he does. Genuinely. Fucking awesome. I mean, he's conquered martial arts. He's conquered homegrown hydroponics.

Obviously Hollywood's the next step. Helicopters. He can do it all. No, that's a different guy. You're confusing, Lucius Fox with Batman now. but he brings on the guy. I mean, without Batman, Lucius Fox, who is he? That's true.

That's true. It's all about delegation. I didn't know until about three minutes ago, but still, who is he? So to pull it off, they would need to recruit a crack squad of thieves and ne'er-do-wells. How often did they do well? Neer, that's a Gary Gorman line, sorry. I've written Nair-de-well. I'm like, I don't use that word, which made me think of that fantastic Gary Gleman line.

You wrote that word. That wasn't like, you know, written in an article or something, you chose to use the word ne'er-do-well. Oh, yeah, we're well back in the one. Do you think, do you think Dean would use words such as that? How do you even spell ne'-n-er? N-E-D-R. Oh, amazing.

It's short for never, I think. Never, yeah. But who's got time for that? Yeah, I'd rather say, nah. Nah. I'm a na-a-do-well. Ne-do-well. So they had their leader slash ideas,

man in Fernando. The Leonardo, if you will. The Leonardo. Yeah. And then they had their engineer slash mechanic in Bolster. Yes, he's your, maybe your Donatello. He's doing machines. Funnily enough, Fernando thinks of this whole, he codenames this whole hoist as the Donatello scheme. And he's such a fan. So he's the ideas man. And he even has, now has Donatello tattooed down his arm. And is that named after the Ninja Turtle or the sculptor? Yes. Okay. The Ninja Turtle. Just to get put you into his head.

Right. So they've got their ideas, man. They got their engineer slash mechanic. To their team, they added Ruben Alberto de la Tor, aka Beto, and a guy known simply as Doc, who wasn't the guy, well, the surgeon's costume came out. These two were veteran bank robbers. who were members of the Super Banda,

a brazen bank robbing crew who took down banks across Argentina in the 80s and 90s. I love that as a gang name, Superbander. These guys, as opposed to this heist, Superbander weren't afraid of violence. They would have shootouts with the cops. Right. And are they coming out of retirement for one last job?

These two are, they're sort of still in and out of it a bit. One of the guys does come out of retirement, though. That's so good. getaway driver comes is drawn out for one last job and he's like this is going to put the kids through college let's go back to josh dean's gq story the pair had mellowed with time so this is we're talking about doc and betto or reuben alberte delator i'll just call him beto from now though or betto betto betto and doc this pair had mellowed with time but their violent pasts made bolster nervous anyway he decided that the biggest of his jobs, carving the tunnel from the city storm drains up into the bank.

Dig up, stupid. What is that from, Dave? That's from the Simpsons. That's a Homer Simpson, is it? Who says it? Simpson Wisdom. Oh, no, it's when they start digging for treasure under the Big Tea and they keep digging, and then they find themselves at the bottom of the hole, and then it's like, dig up, stupid,

to try and get out of it. That's funny. So that's his big job digging up to the. the bank. And he decided that was a job best done alone. He, because he was the only one who hadn't been to jail before, he hadn't been arrested before. All the others had different levels of criminal histories. So I think he was more comfortable just working alone, could almost justify it like it wasn't. He was just working on a little project, not necessarily involved in a massive crime. A massive, potentially violent crime.

Yes. So for months, Bolster would drive his truck down to Peru Beach at night, parking near the spot where the city's huge drain tunnel emptied into the Rio de la Plata. He'd slip inside around 9.30 and slosh his way through the labyrinth drain network, hiking for about a half hour to reach the location adjacent to the bank from which his work would commence, which was located beneath a manhole cover in the street. With a hydraulic shovel, bolster spent his nights chiseling the hard earth beneath the street, inching ever closer to the bank. I've never heard of a hydraulic shovel, but that is so awesome.

Yeah. He's the kind of guy that in his spare time would sketch a hydraulic shovel design. That's the kind of guy we're doing it. Just to put you in his mind, paint a little picture there. To sketch a little picture of the man. He's the kind of man who would sketch a little picture. He claims that his wife never questioned his nocturnal absence. Apparently, she just assumed that he had a mistress.

He's certainly not going to be involved in some huge crime, probably just having an affair. I won't even ask him about it. Either way, I don't care. Yeah. Sign of a healthy relationship, though. Whatever. He's out of the house, so I'm happy.

I thought it was a bit strange that he kept taking the hydraulic shovel to his mistress's house, but hey, no judging, whatever you're into. Yeah, whatever they're up to, none of my business. I just so resigned to the fact, whatever. As long as he takes his boots off at the door, doesn't track any mud through my house. He also arrives covered in sewage and stormwater every single morning. Oh, hello, darling.

Did you have an arse? I don't care. You want a cuppa? Copies in the park. This is still from Dean's article. Problems arose and problems were solved. For instance, what is the proper angle for a tunnel that runs to the Banks Foundation many meters above?

Misjudged by even a little and you could end up in an old lady's basement. See, that's the kind of imagery that Dean's writing imbues. See, if I was writing that, I might have said, I wouldn't have put a face to the, I was saying you might dig up into the wrong spot. But he said, imagine if it was an old lady's basement. Yeah. And that makes you think even more.

Imagine if it was a serial killer's basement. Oh, that'd be worse, wouldn't it? Imagine if it was an old lady was a serial killer. Oh, my God. But she's like, oh, hello, would you like a Bikki? The T and Bikki Killer. What a sweet old lady. And then she's like, stab, stab, stab, stab!

Imagine. Dean goes on. The answer, of course, was just math. Bolster knew he could calculate the precise angle if he had lengths for two sides of the triangle, the vertical distance from the street to the floor of the canal below and the horizontal distance that the tunnel would travel to reach the exterior wall of the bank.

What's the maths with sides and stuff? Is that geometry? Yeah, just doing a bit of geo. Algebra. Geometry. Please don't yell at your iPod, mathematicians. Trying to work out the hypotenuse. So the first measurement was simple to obtain.

Fernando rode his bike one night to the bank and found a storm drained through which he fed a string with weight tied to one end. When it clanged on the canal floor, he had his triangles height. Bang, easy. One side, done. Beautiful. The next one was a little trickier, the horizontal distance. But he had an idea.

There was that manhole cover. in the street directly above the spot where his tunnel would begin. He'd measure from there to the wall of the banker Rio, but he knew he couldn't just show up using a measuring tape to a size of a bank without arousing some suspicion. That's smart. Someone else might just rock up and go, anyway, just measuring it up for a hoist, not him.

No, he's that good. He is that good. So he measured the subcala. I quite like how he did it, though. I hope this was in the movie. I did watch a bit of the movie. If you're in Australia, the movie that's made about these events, which I'll talk about a little bit later,

is currently free to watch on SBS On Demand. Oh, love On Demand. It's the best streaming app, I reckon. So good. So good. There'll be a link to that in the show notes. It's up online in Australia until the end of the year. So he measured the circumference.

This is how he did it. He measured the circumference of his bike tire, and then late one night, walked his bike from the manhole cover to the wall of the bank as inconspicuously as possible, counting each full rotation by watching the air valve as the tie rolled. That's smart, right? That's really clever.

You don't look such as walking a bike, and he's just quietly measuring it at the same time. So it was 37.5 rotations, or about 185 feet. Bolster did the math. The tunnel should be 69 degrees. Nice. Did you ever in primary school have trundle wheels, which are those?

Yes. I remember in primary school going for a trundle around the school neighbourhood. So it's like a, yeah, a wheel on the end of a stick. And as it rotates, it clicks every time you cover a metre. So he just made his own. I mean, he sketched up a homemade trundle wheel. What a guy. Sorry, Dave.

I mean, my like primary school or my schools had them to measure out, you know, like athletics tracks and stuff. Did you just have one as a toy? Yeah, for sure. I was measuring stuff. I was trying to work out the angle so I could break into the canteen at night. Yeah. I had one to measure the size of my dick.

How many clicks? How many clicks? Matt. It was quite a few clicks. It turns out it was broken. Yeah. Click, click, click. How do we do like a fraction of a click?

I didn't quite get around to a click, but let's round. One full clicks. What's that a meter? What? Okay. That's probably, yeah, I guess that's about it. The meter. It must be broken.

It's got to be at least two meters, surely. The amount of time and effort was starting to add up, as was the actual costs of tools and supplies needed for all the prep work. Fernando sold his car to help finance it. He's got about five grand to invest there. But as they kept burning through cash, they realized they needed some outside investment. Enter an associate of doc,

renowned Uruguayan thief, Louis or Louis-Mario Vitet Solanez, as well as the cash, Batette also had a specific set of skills and a bunch of experience in this particular field. This guy, what a backstory this is. This is from Dean again. It was a specialist in exotic entries,

having been the famous Spider-Man of Buenos Aires. He was once known as a thief. His nickname was the Spider-Man of Buenos Aires. That's so awesome. So good. That's good. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, a slimmer Vettett scaled buildings in order to rob apartments. Until he was caught, he had a grand old time frustrating cops

while supporting his voracious booze and coke habits. When Fernando reached out, Vettet had been semi-retired from crime. Oh, he's back! He had a nice home and a comfortable life. But once a thief, always a thief. This was too sweet to pass up, and he invested about 100 grand in the operation. So they've got a new member. So now they're, what are they up to?

They're now a team of five. Balser's next big issue was figuring out how to open the safe deposit boxes. So he sort of figured out how to get in. He was almost done with his tunneling and all that sort of stuff. Once he was in, how do we crack these, you know, they're tough safe deposit boxes. How do we crack them open? And he's like, I can definitely do it. I just need to have one to practice on.

But they didn't know what brand they were. They didn't know the make or whatever. So Fernando rented a box at a different Banco de Rio branch. Once he had access, he was able to figure out the model and then order it from the manufacturer for Bollster to practice on. Right. So you can just order a safety deposit box for your house. Yeah, he probably ordered under a fake business name or something, but yeah.

Amazing. So now Bollster got to work designing his safety box cracker. Probably did a little sketch. He ruled out using explosives as the noise would be heard on the main floor of the bank and beyond. which wouldn't be ideal. Probably give the game away that something else is going on. He went through a few other options before landing on building a custom jackhammer,

which he dubbed the power cannon. That's awesome. He built it in a way that it could be assembled and disassembled quickly, making it easy to transport in and out of the bank. The last major piece of planning was how to make their escape through the storm drains. As they were going to need to be lugging their hall of cash and jewelry, they decided on using inflatable boats.

Oh, so good. One of the issues that they foresaw was that the boats now full of loot would be heavy and drag in the shallow canal. With all that heavy booty. Booty. So Fernando was really good at foreseeing issues and Bolster was so good at solving the problems.

They were a really great team. So Fernando, he just saw like every step ahead. He's like, what could go wrong here? He figured out all the possible issues. then work with Bolster to solve them ahead of time. What Bolster did to solve this one was he built a custom dam wall, which he installed in the canal over a number of nights prior to the heist. So the dam wall's built up,

meaning that the water level will be much higher and easily able to take the weight of the loot or the booty. Wow. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, so smart. All right, let's talk it through. this is the big day is now arrived this is what happened uh the crew had grown to seven members by this point there was already the five we know fernando bolster doc uh beto uh beto uh or ribbon alberto del ator i think that might be the best name of all time that's the only reason i keep saying it but i should

just stick to beatto and then vett the aging spider man uh as well as getaway uh driver julian zala who was another one who was, who'd retired from crime a few years earlier and was brought back in. And then a last minute addition to the crew whose identity is still unknown, but is referred to as Lewis, the Uruguayan. According to Dean, I'm going to use Dean heavily here for what happened on the day. Are you ready? Yes. So excited. On the day of the robbery, the seven men went about their regular morning routines and then prepared for their roles.

in the big play. Some of the gang members met for coffee at a bar. While there, they applied glue to their fingertips, hoping that when hardened it wouldn't leave fingerprints. However? Also, it looks a bit suss at a bar to do that, though, doesn't? Yeah, they're just sitting there. I'll get the check, please.

Oh, we just don't know how to do nail polish right. You do it on the other side. Trying to pay in cash and it just keeps sticking to your hand. You're trying to hand it over. Sorry about this. We're the sticky bandits. Then they set off in three vehicles. A pair of car stolen that morning headed to the bank

while the getaway van, driven by Zala Chavaria, cruised to the pickup spot. Bolster, as usual, worked alone. He drove separately to Peru Beach, parked his car and entered the tunnel around 7 a.m. that morning. First thing to the bank was Beto, dressed as a doctor, in a baggy lab coat, followed by Doc who wore the ski mask.

That's so baffling. You two swap But do they do that to try and throw them off the scent? Is that like... Hello, my name's not doc. Tell you that much. As you can say, I'm not a doc. Bejillo had pulled out a toy gun.

He'd taken from his nine-year-old son that morning and flashed it around and told everyone to get on the floor. This was a robbery. Starts making noises. Piu, peo, peal. Yeah, it was like it was fluoro green. But yeah, this is all part of the deal that Fernando made early with Bolster, no real guns.

And yeah, so they're all toy guns, which they found some of later when they'd left. I guess to help prove that they actually weren't really threatening anyone. Yeah. Not that the people who were pissing their pants, no. Yeah, so it doesn't matter. PTSD probably isn't helped by the fact that they weren't real guns. Yeah. Meanwhile, V-I-T-E-T-E-D-E-T-E.

There'd be some silence in some of these T's, wouldn't there be? Wouldn't there be? Wouldn't there be? Anyway, I'll pronounce it phonetically and apologise to my Argentinian friends. Meanwhile, Vettet and the last-minute edition, Louis, or Louis the Uruguayan, drove one of the stolen cars into a garage under the bank. Vettet and Lewis carried the power cannon into the bank,

shut and lock the garage door and used the car to barricade it. Then both men joined their friends upstairs, pretending to be part of a frantic robbery that was about to go bad. They were sort of playing a bit of a role here. You know, not only were they doing it to distract from what was going on downstairs, they wanted people to believe that they didn't quite know what they were doing. Bernando hung back outside in one of the stolen cars. He parked alongside the bank and put the flashes on

to create the impression that this was the getaway car. He'd filled the back seat with nail strips and oil cans, knowing that cops would recognize these as kinds of things a gang fleeing after a robbery might use to slow down pursuit. As the mastermind strode into the bank, he wore a baseball cap and a ski mask pulled tightly over a long blonde wig plus sunglasses. Man, that's such a strong look, I think. That's hot.

It was such a convincing disguise that when Beto saw him walk in, he put the gun to his head. Hey, we're rubbing this place. Find another bank. Find another bank. Bido seems a bit dim. Each man now had a task prescribed by Fernando. Fetett would deal with the cops.

Lewis and Bito would subdue the hostages and Doc would go to the cleaning room and activate the final man, Bolster. So Bolster, who was later known as the engineer in the media, which is a pretty fun nickname, had been sitting there in the dark waiting patiently at the terminus of the tunnel he dug, separated from the basement now by just a thin wall. Doc arrived and carefully broke the wall from the inside, trying not to leave any debris, and greeted the engineer. The game was on.

So rather than going through the floor, he's gone through a wall. Is that right? Yes. So he's come up. Yeah, so I guess his basement is dug into the ground. Oh, man. So good. Upstairs, the gang empty drawers.

Fettettett sat atop a counter and stepped into his lead role as Walter the negotiator, a charming man with a fake mustache, a tailor-gray suit and a yarmaca. It was his job to buy the men in his basement the time they'd need to empty the boxes, luring the police into believing that the standoff they are now engaged in was the result of a botched robbery. As planned, Fette released the bank's armed guard and told the police negotiator that this was proof that we are good people. The actual motivation, though, to free the guard was that Fernando didn't want a single real gun inside the bank because someone might use it.

They quickly released the security guard who's got, unbeknownst to everyone else. Right, that's why they told him, hey, take this gun with you. Yes, they didn't want to keep the gun. Like, it would make more sense that they'd hold on to the gun an extra weapon. But, yeah, that's the reason why. They released a second and then a third hostage. and this was all part of Fernando's psychological strategy to convince the police that they were making progress

that they had the upper hand and that time was in their favour. He wanted the cops to think that they had the panic gang surrounded to lull the police into feeling they were in a position of power. So when one of them went out with the hostage and then sort of ran back inside, that was all part of the play to look like, oh no, he's freaking out that they're surrounded by cops.

It's all just to make the cops feel like that they had the upper hand. This is what Fernando told his crew earlier. We must look nervous and stupid like we're losing control. Also, people watching at home must have sympathy for us, he said. Some free hostages should buy goodwill. On the radio with the police negotiator, Vettet emphasized that the robbers wanted to avoid a reprise of the Romalo gunfight. He warned that the members of the gang were armed, a complete lie of course, and they were prepared to shoot their way out. But they really didn't want to do that. A peaceful resolution, Wittet says was in everyone's interest.

Hey, we don't want to shoot our way out, but we will. We will, but we don't want to. Don't make us. Look, this gun's lighted, pew, pew, pew, see? Yeah. See? I've got a laser, so. Pee-m-m-bib-bib-poo-poo-poo.

This is actually a shrink ray. Mine is a buzzlight year. My son did not have a gun. My wife and I don't believe in the given. the kids toy guns. So I brought with me a little buzz light year that I thought might be a bit. So I didn't quite understand the brief when you guys said you were grabbing some of the kids' toys. I didn't quite understand you meant the guns.

I do have a buzz light here though if we knew that. That's very good. I've also got a Mr. Potato Head if anybody wants that. I bought Scrabble if anyone wants to play. If we've got some down time, I've really been getting into Uno lately. It's very fun. The beauty of it, you just put in your pocket, but there's hours of entertainment. Right there in your pocket, so.

But no, you guys all look pretty busy with this hoist. So, yeah, forget about it. All good. I'll do it, but once again, if you do have a bit on later. But once again, if you need a buzz light you let me know. So finally, when Battet got the signal from finance, he told the police negotiated to order six pizzas. Then he put down his radio and told the hostages that the gang needed to step away for a meeting.

Anyone who moved, he said, would be killed. Down in the basement, Bolster worked fast. Fernando had given them all two hours, and he started his stopwatch the minute doc punched through the wall to let bolster in. So this is when, you know, when I mentioned earlier, there was radio silence like three and a half hours. That begins now. Everything they've done up to this point is just to convince. convince them that this is all a real hoist and they're panicky.

Yeah. So it's believable that they've gone quiet because maybe they're then trying to figure out a way out. And they're playing with their toys. Draw four. Yeah. Oh, fuck. So, but at the hostages, are they staying put because they're afraid they'll be shot

or something? Or are they tied up or subdued or something? Well, the way I read it was that they were, it was more out of fear. year, but yeah, I'm not 100% sure if they were tied up or not. It's funny that this whole siege didn't even have a Wikipedia.org. Really? Entry. But then I'm just thinking now that it probably did, it probably does on the Spanish

wiki, but didn't check. I mean, who doesn't have a Spanish wiki entry? Am I right? Yeah. Oh, is that the one we've got a Spanish. Yeah, the Spanish one, but not the English one. Of course, that makes sense. We're huge in Spain.

South America, big time. When are we going to tour South America? It was on the cards. Let's work on like being able to go back to the studio. Let's start with that. Okay, baby steps you reckon. Yeah, I'd like to be able to go further than five kilometres from my house. And then let's see if we can get to South America.

In South America outside the radius? I think so. I'll have to double check. Don't at me, anybody. Don't at me. You're not very good at geometry or algebra. or whatever it's called. I'm not good at it.

Just figure out the hypotenuse. Oh, I don't know what that means. So it took bolster 20 minutes to assemble the power cannon, which I just cannot get over how badass that is. Did he yell, assemble the power cannon? If he didn't, what a wasted opportunity. What a loser. So once he'd done that, he was rapidly opening safe deposit boxes

and he kept up the pace for the better part of 90 minutes. Before long, the loot or the booty was piling up around, him. Lutie. Once things were settled upstairs, Fernando and Doc arrived and began to stuff their haul into bags. Fernando knew they couldn't linger. The stalemate upstairs wouldn't last all day.

They knew that eventually the cops are going to go, we just have to force the issue here, which would have been pretty nerve-wracking. They're hoping that they've done enough to put them off for the three and a half hours is a great result. But really, if the cop who was in charge was more of a hothead, maybe they would have gone in a lot quicker. than that. I think it was smart to reference that publicly known botched case. Oh yeah, that's right. That feels like it was a key part of it. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Last time on

live TV, this went horribly wrong. Yeah, you're right. We won't, we won't storm it. When it was time to go, bolster took the tool apart, lowered the pieces to Lewis the Uruguayan now into the tunnel. So he took away the power, the power, oh man, the power cannon. We can't, I almost didn't say it right, which would have been a travesty. So the tool, that they left behind wasn't the real tool. It was a bit of a red herring. The tool they left behind to make the cops think was what they used to crack open the cases. Oh, the buzz light you. Yeah, they left the buzz light you, Del and they're like, no, that must be what they used. How do it? Tell us your secret buzz. To infinity. I'm listening. And beyond. Yes, go on.

So Lewis is down in the tunnel. He's taking the power cannon and the loot down into the boats. They then assembled a series of fake bombs that they created and scrambled back through the hole, followed by Bito and Fet. So all these things they left behind were kind of just to put the cops off the scent. Just red herrings to confuse them a bit. That left Fernando and Doc to finish up around the basement.

One sprayed bleach, hoping to destroy any remnant DNA, while the other grabbed fistfuls of barbershop hair from a bag and tossed them around in order to further stymie investigators. I was wondering what was with the hair. So that is just to confuse people. Yeah, exactly. Finally, the two men cleaned all evidence of the wall breach from the room where Bolster had entered, ducked into the tunnel and moved a heavy cabinet in front of the hole.

To anyone who entered the room, it would appear to be an empty, untouched storage space. The big cabinet just fully blocked the hole in the wall. wall and you wouldn't even like at this point no one no one's thinking that that's even a possibility that they've dug their way in so no one's looking for a big hole in the wall or anything the five guys piled into the first boat which had an engine and hooked a line to the trailing raft which held a mountain of bags loaded with loot plus Fernando who stood atop it like a conquistador not everything went perfectly, the engine wouldn't start, and Bolster was too exhausted to argue with whoever kept yanking the starter, which flooded the motor, which would have been so frustrating for Bolster.

I do machines. That's my thing. Engines, that's not how they work. Flooding it doesn't help. But Fernando had planned for everything, planned for the case of the engine failing, and brought oars, which he handed out to the men. So they were able to paddle their way out, which was a lot easier because a damn wall had been built and they're in much deeper water than they otherwise would have been. So genius. It was about 10 blocks to the passage where they ditched the boats and climbed up a ladder into an elevated side channel that led to the getaway van. The men took turns hoisting up the bags using a pulley system bolster installed a few days before. Then he pulled up the ladder, leaving no sign this channel of the dozens along the pitch black canal had been the escape route.

The boats abandoned below just floated off. That is so cool. Wow. This is straight out of a movie. It is amazing. And so they chose to go up the canals where it got darker and murkier rather than if they're like, if they find the hole, they're all going to assume we've gone out to where the canals meet the sea. Right.

It's going to be much harder to trace us in the other direction. So that's why they... Just further underneath the city. and then just got out. Oh, that's so cool. Because I was imagining the whole time that they're going back out to that hole, like you said. Yeah.

So good. When the Special Forces team finally stormed the bank, the seven bandits watched it on TV while counting cash and eating pizza. They got pizza. Yeah. So it wasn't even a tight thing. They'd made it out with plenty of time.

Well, they thought they were watching it live, but the TV stations put it on a 30-minute delay. way because the cops are like, you can't play it live because they're probably watching it in there and that'll tip them off. Oh, yeah. So they were thinking they were outsmarting the robbers, which is pretty cute. It just actually, in a way, it was convenient for the robbers because it did mean that their pizza could deliver in time.

Yeah, they could watch the whole thing whilst drinking beer and eating pizza. A day later, Bostler gathered all the credit cards they had found in the safe deposit boxes and scattered them around various storm drains in the area. All of them far from the actual exit point the gang used. This evidence forced cops to case the wrong blocks and also created dozens of bogus leads because every time a stolen card was used by someone who'd found one, the police had to dispatch detectives to open an investigation. Their forces and energy were diluted bolster recalled later.

Our advantage was huge. Another genius element to me. Yeah. So just an amazingly planned heist, fit for a film. And like we already discussed, yes, it was made into a film last year. called The Heist of the Century, a comedy thriller, and it became one of the most successful homegrown films in Argentina's film history.

Yeah, it was nominated for awards. And like I say, if you're in Australia, you'll probably watch it wherever you are. I don't know where you track it down elsewhere. Maybe if you've got an express VPN, you could watch it on SBS from anywhere in the world. I don't know if that's even a thing. I don't know.

No idea. I'm just saying words. I don't know if they make sense or not. They just came in my head and I said them out loud. So you're probably wondering. how were they busted? I mentioned earlier. It was a jilted lover. And yes, it was. But which one of the seven? Which one's jilted lover do you think it was? Fernando. It wasn't Fernando. It was Beto. He arrived home after the heist with his share of the loot.

But he later found some of it missing and argued with his wife over it. Apparently, Bito often had extramarital affairs. And when his wife Alicia believed he was leaving her for another woman, she contacted. the police. So he was driving away. He says he wasn't leaving. He was just out on a drive with his girlfriend. He wasn't leaving his wife. He was just out on an affair date. That's all.

And the other lady who thought the guy who does engines was having an affair. She was just happy about that he was out. She didn't get it. Yeah, that's right. Quite a different time. Oh, you're not having an affair. Oh, God, I'm just glad he's got... Ah.

Well, all right, then. Well, I guess I'll take $3 million. All right. Because he was the only one that wasn't really a criminal. So she would just, it would have been the last thing on her mind that that's what he'd be up to. And his family was pretty disappointed in him when it came out. Because they're all sort of upstanding members of the community. And they're like, the bolsters aren't criminals.

But also, like, he's the smartest guy around. It's amazing what he's done. You've got to give him credit for something. Like, without him, none of this could have happened. I mean, obviously Fernando, you know, the brains of the operation, that key partnership was so important. It feels like maybe most of the others you were probably replaceable, but those two

you know, hey look, I don't want to sell the other short. The getaway driver probably was a real good driver. So Alicia, Fido's wife, was able to ID Fernando, Bolster, Vettet and Zello Chavaria as she'd seen them preparing for the heist in her garage.

As Doc and Lewis had never come to her house, they weren't ID by her and were never charged with a crime and never will be actually because the statute of limitations has passed. Oh, wow, so they got away with it. Two of the seven got away with it, yeah. Beto was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2010,

but was released on probation in 2014. In a 2015 interview, Alicia said that she never intended to get the others in trouble, only her unfaithful husband, Beto. I don't know why she ID'd all the others then, but... Yeah, how do you think IDing them wouldn't get them in trouble? Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't know why I'm mad at her. I mean, at the end of the day, she did the right thing.

Bito remains angry at his wife for dobing him in, but concedes, if they hadn't been busted, there'd be no infamy or books or movies about the events. There's been a lot of books. I think maybe four or five of the gang members have released their own book or are in the process of it. Like, there's so many versions of this story. All probably making them seem slightly cooler, I guess.

Of course. I was the real mastermind. And do you say it was only four years? he's in jail for him. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, four years after being sentenced to 15. Yeah, it's a big... Got an early probation.

Big drop. Bito played a small role in the film. He played the cop who arrests the actor playing himself. That's fun. I love when that happens. Yeah. So Fernando, who I'll mention how he finished up a little bit later, but he wrote the first script.

It got punched up by actual writers, I think, but he wrote the original script. and he was hoping to get all seven members bit parts. Not everyone was keen, though. But yeah, a few of them ended up in the film, which is kind of fun. Only a small fraction of the stolen goods were recovered after the arrests. Interviewing Bito, Dean asked where the rest of it was. And Bito replied, you know, when they arrested me, I got a big knock on my head.

I can't remember. Guys, why are you laughing? That sounds pretty serious. It sounds like he had like a head injury. Okay. He should get medical attention. You get this picture him winking, as he's saying, right? Oh, you know what?

It's the craziest thing. I have no idea. Anyway, I've got to go move my yacht. Yeah. Which has got unrelated booty in it. That's different booty that I found in a legal way. So as for Votette, in the aftermath of the robbery, he became the most notorious, with the press dubbing him,

the man in the grey suit. So cool. You know what it would be better? The man in the grey soup. Oh, that sounds yuck. Gray soup. Yeah, but it's intriguing, isn't it? Tell me more.

He's like, hey dude, why is your soup grey? He built up this whole character, butette about the man in the grey suit. Because he is Uruguayan. Apparently, he told some journalists that he practiced disguising his accent by putting coins in his mouth. So he'd talk with coins in his mouth. He also took acting classes before the highest to play the Walter character.

They're doing improv and he's always like, all right, I'm a bank robber. I'm a bank robber. They're like, no, no, not this time. Not this time. Okay, I need a location. A bank. Occupation, robber. Fuck.

Fuck. Every time. But depending on the interview, he'll say that, oh, no, that's not actually true. That's just my character that I came up with. The man in the grey suit is a different guy. I'm the guy playing the man in the grey suit, and he comes up with these wild stories. Quite a beautiful tapestry he's weaved.

So is his character extremely muffled because he's speaking with coins in his mouth? Go on for, everyone. Go on four. Sorry, I can't understand you. Sounds like Marlon Brando. Go on poor. You come to me.

Yeah, coins are very useful to actors Because famously David Soucher perfected the walk of Hercule Poirot Byrho by putting a coin between his buttocks And learning to walk whilst holding the coin up And that's how we developed that little shuffle that Hercul Poirot And Dave, what colour suits is he mainly wear? He loves a grey. And he has a moustache.

Oh my goodness. Oh my God. And he's always speaking with coins. his mouth. My God. It's all making sense. And he's always speaking with coins in his butt. Poor. After he was sent to prison, this is Vett we're talking about, the man of the grey suit. He had his sentence drastically cut due to a legal loophole. As he was not an Argentine citizen, he was able to have his sentence cut in half if he left the country and never returned. You get out of here. Go on get. Shoot. Shoot. It's a funny loophole because on the

the one hand, you're like, oh, that makes sense. You know, it lessens pressure on your own prison system. But on the other hand, you'll go on, hey, come over here, do some crimes. You'll only get half sentences. In 2013, after serving four years, he was deported to Uruguay, where he married and opened a jewelry store. As of last year, six years after his release, Vett had not returned to jail, making it his longest stretch of freedom since he was a teenager. just a guy who was in and out of jail, sort of doing that cycle of crime since he was quite young. But it sounds like he's, yeah, he's made a real goal of it now back home in Uruguay. The getaway driver, Zalo Cheveria, was completing his final year of law school in Buenos Aires University in 2020.

He keeps a relatively low profile, but the heist is so famous in Argentina that even his law professors asked to pose in selfies with him. Despite keeping a lower profile than other members of the gang, he's still proud of the highest describing it as a work of art, which a lot of them do. They all seem that they're like, and I kind of agree with them. It's just like it's so perfect. Yeah.

Bolster received the shortest sentence. He didn't publicly confess to his involvement until after the statute of limitations had expired. He had to, he did, I think he played guilty, sort of under duress, but publicly he's always like, you know, the judge, apparently say, I'm like, well, the judge found me guilty and you've got to trust the judges, I guess. I guess I did it.

You know, but he would never say, yeah, I did it. Not until Statue of Limitations finished. And then he did a TV interviewer. He was like, yeah, I did it, yeah. Yeah, 100%. Of course it was me. And I was a mastermind and I'm a genius. That's why in the meantime, before he publicly admitted it, Fernando, who was still his great

mate, never referred to him by name when he was telling the story. That's why he called him the engineer. Ah, that's cool. So he never threw him under the bus, which is nice. He has since said, Bolster, that apart from the opportunity to seek revenge on the banking system, what appealed to him most about the highest was the challenge of it saying, yes, it's a robbery, but it's a technical challenge too. Of the film, Bolster says it's been written to be much more exciting than the reality,

saying, the truth is too boring because we made no mistakes. Oh. Whereas in the film, you know, the film they have to make it all like, oh, they just got out before the cops stormed the building and they accidentally left more evidence, you know, all those sort of things. Otherwise, it's sort of like you watch a film. You're like, oh, yeah, they really just nailed that. Look at them. I'm not feeling tense at all in this thriller. I'm not at all thrilled, but I am impressed.

That is a man who considers his only weakness that he cares too much. Yeah, that's right. I'm probably too punctual. Yeah, I guess. He's a real pain in the ass and job. years. Yeah. Oh, gosh.

Finally, the leader of the gang, Fernando, is now out of jail. So they're all out of jail now. So none of them did huge amounts of time. They all did it a little bit, but no one did huge amounts of time. So he's out. And it seems like he's working full time as the guy from the bank heist. He's written a book, which led to the film we were talking about before, which he obviously he wrote the first versions of the script.

He also plans for a TV series about the heist and also a documentary. So yeah, he's just created his own cottage industry around that one fateful day. Like the others, Fernando also thinks of the highest as a work of art, as Dean writes. The point of the robbery was to steal money, but it was also to make art. Over time, Fernando has come to see this even more clearly. I'm not a bank robbery, says, suggesting that he is something more. Maybe getting caught was inevitable. After all, executing a crime is perfect and then never getting a chance to take credit for it.

is a little like owning a Picasso you can't display. And that is the end of my report about the robbery of the century. That, honestly, the term robbery of the century obviously bigs it up a lot, but that lived up to it. That was awesome. Yeah. That was a great story. I couldn't believe I hadn't heard of it.

Yeah. Yeah, me either. Wow. It's really cool. So good. And what do you think of the movie? I haven't watched it the whole way through. I've watched the first third of it.

And I like it's fun. And, you know, it looks like it's got a decent budget and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, awesome. Which is funny, having watched a lot of low budget bend of Brennan Fraser films over the last two of much or so. It's always a real thrill to see a little bit of budget in a film. Don't get used to it. Yeah. No, but I'm going to watch the rest of it tonight.

I'm looking forward to that. I did, I started watching it and then started thinking, this is a drumming. commentization, it's going to sort of cloud my thoughts of the actual events. You know, when you start to, like, that happened to me with the crown. I started thinking, like, I was remembering history. Like, there's no way anyone knew the conversation between Porky and Elizabeth, or whatever their names are. What was it, her boyfriend's name?

Porgy or something like that. Doesn't matter. I'm not up to that bit. I'm not up to that bit. You haven't got up to Porgy? No. Possibly because I've made him up. Queen Elizabeth's boyfriend, Porgy.

Wow. That's a ridiculous sound that you're paying up. I never heard of him, actually. Honestly, that's big news. You don't have to be queen Elizabeth's boyfriend, Porgy. Oh my God, Dave, how have you missed this big cultural? That's huge. Dave, Queen Elizabeth's boyfriend, Porgy.

We all know. Queen Elizabeth's the second was having an affair with Porgy. It's embarrassing I have to set it up with Queenie's his boyfriend. He's like Fergie. Like you just say Porgy. It's like Adel. There's only one Porgy. Beyonce Adele Porchy.

That one even knows he's last one. Oh, that's so good. Well, now it's time for everybody's favorite part of the show and that is the fact, quote or question. and I believe it has a little jingle that goes something like this. Fact quote or question. And yes, I always remember that ding. You may have noticed, there's just two voices here.

We are doing Matt's parts as well. He's been called away to a pressing engagement. He had to rewatch the crowd. He's fucked off. He had to fact check himself about Porchy. So he's going to rewatch the entire series and get back to us. So it's JP and I now flying through the section of the show that we dedicate to the people that support the show,

the people that we love, through Patreon or through do go onpod.com. And basically, we've been doing the show now for nearly six years. We're coming up to our sixth anniversary. And the only way we've been able to do that without missing a single week is that people support us online. They pledge either through Patreon or do go onpod.com.

And in exchange, you can get a bunch of stuff like bonus episodes. We put out three every single month. We just did another episode of phrasing the bar recently on gods and monsters. And it was a critically acclaimed piece, which was a... Yes. Good starring Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser. It's a lot of fun.

There's lots of good stuff. So you want to get involved. So I get to, this week I get to take over the role of reading some of the facts, quotes and or questions, which I take very seriously, Dave. Looking ahead, three facts, one quote this week. Oh, good to prepare yourself for that. So I love a good fact. We love that, don't we?

These people are on the one of our upper levels. There's different levels. You get different rewards. And one of them is being able to submit a fact, quote, or question, or brag. This is for the Sydney-Shineberg Deluxe Package Memorial people, rest in peace. And they also, I believe, get to give themselves a title that we read out, Jess. That's correct. Yes.

So first cab off the rank this week is Alex Batchie, or Bacchi, Batchie. giving themselves the title of DoGo On's Secretary of Transportation. Oh, fantastic. A very important role. Very important role. We are real divas about our transportation. Who else is going to book the limos? Yeah, I'm not doing it.

Oh, no way. Alex, thank you so much. And Alex has given us a fact, and that fact is, Hi, Dave, Jess and Matt. I've been a big fan since I listened to your very first episode in my high school study hall. Now, six years later, I've just graduated college as a civil engineer. So I finally have the $25 a month that you all definitely deserve.

Oh, that's so nice. Now, my fact. All the way back in episode 94, the Collabombeck, one of the co-conspirators, Marjorie Deale Armstrong. Yeah, that's right. She had the butter room. Yeah. Was sent to prison in Cambria Spring, Spring.

PA, oh my God, I cannot read today. This is not going to bode well. Hopefully you all remember that. What you may not know is that the prison used to be a college called Alliance College, and that is the place my grandparents met in 1958. They've been married ever since and frequently take trips back to their old campus to see what's new, though they don't often see much because, you know, it's a prison. They still go back.

Oh, yes, I remember that. I still go back. So I used to do our tutorials there, and that's sell now. Alex Rads, I hope that was at least a dull fact, but fingers crossed it passes Jess's high standards to be a fun fact. Anyways, thanks for all your laughs. Don't forget to come to Pittsburgh on the US tour. Alex, thank you so much.

It's so nice that you've been listening for such a long time. It's crazy that you were listening in high school, and now you've graduated college. Oh, little boys growing up. And I'm sure that's kind of happened to a lot of people who sort of listened through, you know, lots of growth and formative years. That's really, really lovely. And that is, I would say, that's a pretty dull fact.

Gotcha. Thank you so much. Next we have Michael Derizzi. And Michael's given himself the title of Chop Chop Dance Connoisseur. Everybody did the Chop Chop? Yeah, a very important role. that hopefully Michael takes very seriously because we need our chop top dance connoisseur

to be the consummate professional. Absolutely. And Michael has also given us the facts. And that fact is, Alex Smith, NFL quarterback in 2018, suffered a horrific on-field leg injury which required him to be operated on 17 times. Oh, Jesus.

And if that wasn't bad enough, his leg became infected and it nearly had to be amputated and he nearly lost his life as a result. This is not my fact. Michael says. There's more, apparently. In 2020, Smith has recovered

and has helped his team earn a spot in the playoffs, and he also won 2020 NFL comeback player of the year award. This is my fact. Is it fun, Jess? That's pretty, I mean, I'm amazed. I'm amazed. I am in awe. I am awestruck.

Is that an awe-inspiring fact? Yes, that is a fun fact, Michael. Wow. See, I mean, I love for. to hear these stories about people overcoming horrible things and, you know, like just just being strong and brave. But I just know that in that situation, I'd be like, well, I'm done. And what is so wild? I'm looking at Alex Smith now. He's 37. It's not like he was now, now. So he came back at 36. It's not like, you know, he was a young 19 year old. He'd already been

playing for years. So the dedication to go through those surgeries to come back is quite amazing. That's a bloody, that's an amazing fact and a fun fact. Thank you, Michael. Sorry, just to follow up, he retired the following year. Went through all that. Fair. Fair enough.

Oh, amazing. Okay, our next fact product question comes from Mike Shirley. Mike Shirley's giving himself the title of Exhausted Dad. And Mike has also offered a fact. says, hi, hi, I have a quote of sorts, which is interesting. You've said a fact, but you've a quote. First, though, a bit of scene setting. On a couple of occasions, you've referenced the Queen of the Infomercial,

her Royal Highness, Suzanne Paul. Have we? Have we? Have we? Queen of the infomercial, Suzanne Paul. Okay. I always thought she was a New Zealand phenomenon. Never realized she made it across the Tasman.

Anyway, as a man of similar vintage to Matt, I recall the early 90s, at which point Miss Paul, at an arguable height of her power, dipped a toe into the music scene. She released Do the Blue Monkey, a song every bit as cringe as you'd imagine. Maybe this is something that Matt would remember because he's 400 years old. And on the one episode, he's not here for the fact, quote a question. Sorry. Tiny little babies, we don't know.

I've never heard of it. Anyway, so to quote the chorus says, get down, get funky. Everybody do the Blue Monkey. I love it. That's good. To be fair, most of the lyrics are quotes from her early period infomercials. Def worths a look on YouTube and maybe even a primates mini report. Maybe not.

That's it. Love your work. And living in constant hope of a New Zealand live show, one day, travel bubble willing. Stay safe, Mike. Thank you so much, Mike. Thanks, Mike. We really actually do hope to get over there. We really do.

Yeah. That was genuinely, and we've said it before. We said it fairly recently. That was a plan that we had. I was getting last year. And then, yeah, obviously things didn't quite go that way. And it looks like it might be a little while before we can. But, you know, we would absolutely love to.

And finally for this week, another fact I caught a question from Sophie Shooter, who has given herself the title of Group Mum. And in bracket says, eat your veggies, drink your juice and wash your butt. The big three. The big three. He's given us a quote And just having a bit of a look It looks like she's tried to really test Matt

With like a tongue twister But it's not him, it's me So I'll have a go Here we go Betty bought a bit of butter But the bit of butter Betty bought a better bit of butter But to make the bitter butter better

That was really good That's not too bad I stumbled a little bit at the end That last bit to make the bitter butter better But otherwise pretty good She said sorry Matt I had to test you with this one My sister and I used to have competitions to see who could say it faster.

We were so cool. Betty bought a bit of butter, but the butter Betty bought was bitter. So Betty bought a bit of butter to make the bitter butter better. Not bad. I love it. Sophie, I will try to remember to make Matt say that. But thank you so much to Sophie, Mike, Michael and Alex. If you want to give us fact, quote or question,

you can head to patreon.com forward slash do go on pod. And sign up to the Sydney-Shineberg deluxe rest in peace memorand. level. And you can also, yes, submit a fact-write question. But Dave, that brings us to another very important and special time of the podcast where we thank some other members, some other people who support the show. I'm stalling as I scroll. So you want to talk? You usually come up with a bit of a game to thank these beautiful people. We give them a shout out and then assign them a name or something like that.

Any ideas on the... The back of Matt's fantastic report. What about what they dress up as when they rob a bank? What colour their suit is? Yeah, no, that's good. They're all in different colours. It's like the wiggles robbing a bank. Yeah, no, what they dress up as.

I think that'd be fun. Okay, great. Would you like to kick things off? I would love to. I would love to thank from Kalani Heights in New South Wales. I would love to thank Brianna, Gouldie. Rihanna Golby, who is dressed as a caveman.

Yes, and nobody's suss on that. Nobody's like, why is a caveman in the bank? Like, they're also like holding like a stereotypical club. Club, yeah. Yeah, it's like, what's going on? No, I'm just here to withdraw money from my account. Nothing to say here. She's like filthy.

And she got a little checkbook, but it's all just like cave drawings. I love that. She's like you've really committed to this bit, but it's strange. Rihanna, fantastic work. Thank you so much. I would also love to thank from Coleroy in New South Wales.

Erin, Horrigan. Erin is dressed as a lobster. Yes, that's so good. Big old lobster costume. I was going to get Humphrey or lobster costume that I saw for sale. That's really cute. But a human-sized one is even better. Yeah, even better.

Walking into a bank. I got a message on Instagram from Pet Barn in August saying, like they're reaching out to people trying to get people to buy like costumes or like send out costumes to dogs whose parents they obviously think are somewhat influential to get like Halloween costumes for their pets. Oh my goodness. And they mentioned a bumblebee and I was like, imagine Goose and a little bumblebee suit. He'd be such a cute little bumblebee. And did you sign up for this? I have not. I have not. I may still, but we'll see. Dog influencer. That's a dream. That's a dream. That's a little Goosey's dream. He's got to

start, you know, paying some rent. Yeah, that's right. I would love to thank as well from Sunapy or Sonopi? Sunapy. In NH or is that New Hampshire? New Hampshire. Or New Hampshire Shire is I believe they say. Actually, that's not true.

It's fun to mispronounce your names and make you angry. It makes it so mad. I would love to thank Matthew Hahn. Oh, Matthew Hahn is stressed as Elton John. Yes. And we'll only respond to Elton or Mr. John. Mr John. Is it like a classic Elton look or just sort of like quite flamboyant, big glasses?

You're like, oh, that's Elton. Big glass, but like a 70s Elton, John, yeah, like got an amazing hat. His outfit is so large, it's hard for him to get through the bank doors. It's quite impractical to rob banking, but honestly. Yeah, perfect. And it's like, you didn't think this through at all. No. Okay.

Thank you, Matthew. And finally for me, I would also love to thank from Overstrand in Great Britain and NFK. What's that I wonder, Dave? Oh, I don't know. NFK, let me look that up while you read out this person's name. I'm going to say Norfolk. That's my guess.

Gosh, I hope so. Imagine. It does look like, Jess, you are right. It does look like Norfolk. Get out. GB dash NFK. This is on the Wikipedia page. If it's wrong, I apologise, but it does seem like it.

Well, well, from Oversrained in Norfolk, I'd love to thank Eleanor Hair Sign. Ooh. Ellen Partridge is, of course. Or Hare Sigan. Eleanor is dressed as what, Dave? Dressed as a, an Australian cricketer. Oh, got the baggy green on?

Full baggy green. Full white. It's even coming with the little stain where they've been rubbing the red ball. That's what I was going to say. Does he have the red stain? Got it all. Got it all.

Eleanor. Wow. Eleanor. Holding a cricket bat and they're like, you can't bring that into the bank. You can't. That's a weapon. She's like, yeah.

Like, no, it's a toy. I'm here to rob the bank. Oh, okay. I'm going to rob the bank. I'm going to beat you with his bat. Oh, okay. right this way. So thank you from me to Eleanor Matthew, Aaron and Brianna.

Dave, do you want to thank some people? I would love to say a big thank you and staying in the UK from Brighton. It's John Pullen. John Pullen. It's making me think of pollen. I think John is dressed as a bumblebee. Him and goose. Him and goose.

But look out for his little stinger. That's right. John Pullen. That's his dick. Oh, okay. That's what he calls his dick. John, put it away. Put it away, John.

Why is he wearing a crotchless B suit? Very strange. The only costume place that was open was a sexy place. And so, you know, he didn't realize that everybody was dressing up for the bank robbery. And he panicked. Left it to the last minute. He looks dashing. Well, I would like to think now from location unknown.

I can only imagine it's deep within the fortress of the moles, and that is a big shout out to Ryan Forbes. Ryan Forbes. Ryan Forbes. He was dressed as... Ryan Forbes 100. Is that a thing? He dresses a wealthy, wealthy man.

I was going to say dresses a $100 bill. Oh, yeah. He misunderstood the brief. Come as a rich person. All right. Well, don't rich people have $100 bills? I am the $100 bill. Rich people got lots of cash.

And I am cash. I wanted to blend in with the money. On you, Ryan. You've done yourself proud. I would love to think now from London here, from London, we've got Sean or she and probably Sean Arnett. Oh, Arnett. Arnett's Bickies.

Yes. What's your favourite's Arnett Biscuit? Oh, it's got to be a Monte Carlo. Oh, okay. Well, all right. Okay, what would you have said? Well, Arnets do shapes. But is it a biscuit?

That's more of a cracker, isn't it? So a biscuit, I would say probably a shortbread cream or a teddy bear biscuit. Okay. Dressed as a teddy bear. Dress as a teddy bear. I love that. Big teddy. And then he could just be like, I'm a delivery.

I'm a gift. I'm a Valentine's Day gift. Or like birthday or whatever. Oh, so sweet. So amazing. Stick a mask. Yeah. With two fake guns.

Yeah. Sean Anna, thank you so much for your support. And finally, I would like to thank from Dublin, a beautiful place that we've been. And I believe you can now watch our tour video, in fact, that is up now on our YouTube channel, YouTube.com slash do go on pod. We just released a 20 to 30 minute video

that sort of traced our tour across England, Scotland and Ireland a couple of years back. And that's now live. Go check that out. But I wonder if they're at our gig from Dublin, Marcus Rasmussen. Marcus Rasmussen. Marcus.

What about? I remember at the time, it was very Christmasy when we were there. And Marcus might be dressed as a giant Christmas tree. Oh, that's good. That's good. And then everybody's sort of in a nice festive kind of mood. Nobody's suspicious of a Christmas tree, are they? They're like, a Christmas tree is never going to rob this bank.

Oh my God, the Christmas tree is robbing this bank. Honestly, it's the perfect outfit. The perfect outfit. So thank you very much to Marcus, Shan, Ryan, John, Eleanor, Matthew, Erin and Brianna. We very much appreciate you. And Dave, that leaves us only one other thing that we have to do. Sorry, that we get to do today.

Exactly. And that is, of course, check to see if there's any entrance for the Triptitch Club, people that have been on the shout-out level or above for three consecutive years. They get a second shout-out as well as lifetime entry to our very exclusive club. That's right. And there are a few shoutouts for today. There are one, two, three, four, five for you today, Dave. So I'm going to read them to you.

And you can, essentially what we normally do is Matt is usually sort of there. He's allowing entry into this exclusive club, but not exclusive in the way that it's sort of like, we're not mean about it, you know, like it's for you, but it's not like we're not, you know, hoity tooty. It's just, you know. We're like a cool exclusive club. We usually have like cocktails and a band, Dave. Have you booked a band for this week? Yes, I've actually kept it local to Argentina,

and we are having the Argentinian Scar band from the 80s. We've won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album, and that is Los Fabiulosos Cadillacs. Oh, I absolutely love Scar. Doobitabababha. Love it. Beautiful now. wait. And we usually also have like drink specials. I don't really know how I could

make bank heist themed. Maybe I will lock all of these snacks inside a safe and you have to lock you have to break the snacks out. I love it. Before you can eat them. There's a little puzzle involved. I will be very hungry. I'm terrible at puzzles. Yeah, me too. That's why I never want to do an escape room or anything. Oh, God. I'm worried I'll die. I'm worried I'll die. in there. We don't think we're going to die. No, thank you. If anybody ever asks you,

hey, Dave, we're thinking of, like, arranging a surprise for Jess. Do you think she'd like an escape room? No. Okay. I'll try and remember that. And vice versa. I now know.

And the other thing that we do is that Dave sort of serves as a hype man for everybody who enters into the Trip Ditch Club. I am going to read the names. Dave's going to hype you up. I'm going to hype him up. It's just going to be a big old hype fest.

So joining us, joining us this week, surname unknown, but from Sydney, Australia, James. Ooh, ain't nothing lame's about James. Yes, Dave. Woo! From Hamilton and New South Wales, we've got Chloe Warren. Move over, Alexander Hamilton, and welcome Chloe Warren. Yeah, get out of here, Alexander Hamilton.

From London in Great Britain, we have Ian Landman. Oh, I'm on Landman, more like Fundan. Yes, very good. Two, choose your favourite there, Ian. Choose your favourite. Choose your favourite. From Chatswood in New South Wales, we've got Hannah Hitchcock. Oh, I hope this night goes off without a cock.

Oh, instead of Hitchcock. You would have expected me to say without a hitch. Okay, without a hitch. It was a little bit of a joke there. No, that was on me. That was very funny. I missed it. That's on me.

I'm so sorry. Very good stuff. And finally, from Indianapolis, I would love to welcome in Kevin McNulty. I'm in seventh Kevin tonight. David. Woo! He's done it, ladies and gentlemen, he has done it.

Thank you, everybody. Thank you to Kevin, Hannah, Ian, Chloe and James, and welcome to the Trip Ditch Club. Now you're in, you can never leave. But it's pretty comfy. Enjoy. Yeah, it's cozy. It's got everything you'd need.

And anything that it doesn't have, let us know. And we'll like get it for you. It's fine. We'll order in. We're allowed to leave. Except like, you know, your friends or family. Yeah. But thank you so much.

Is there anything else that we have to, that we need to mention, Dave? I think that might be about it, apart from the fact if you want to join those beautiful people that we just read out their names, you can go to patreon.com or just to do go onpod.com. And also on do go on pod.com, there are links to our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. You can suggest a topic. We'll give you a shout out if we choose your topic. Obviously, this one today, it feels like it was more obscure because it didn't even have an English Wikipedia page. But then there was so much in a story like that.

So you're from a place like Argentina that we don't cover as often on the show and you've got a cool local story. We'd love to hear about it. So do go onpod.com is the place to do that. And, yeah, also you can drop us an email. Do go onpod at gmail.com. But I think that's pretty much it, right? Yeah, I think so. So all that leaves us to do is let you know that we love you.

And until next week, Dave will say goodbye. Later's. Bye. Had to do Matt's latest for normally he would say it. but he couldn't. So I said it. I think you get it. Mail.

Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester. But this way you'll never miss out. And don't forget to sign up, go to our Instagram, click our link tree.

Very, very easy. It means we know to come to you and you'll also know that we're coming to you. Yeah, we'll come to you. You come to us. Very good. And we give you a spam for you. free guarantee.