Do Go On - 400 - The Millennium Dome Heist

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

We celebrated our 400th epsiode with a live audience AND a crowd favourite - a heist episode. This one has all the makings of an action movie - bombs, elaborate plans, priceless jewels, and a super cool getaway vehicle.Get a catch up live stream ticket to watch the episode, some behind the scenes stuff and of course our 400th episode after party:https://www.trybooking.com/CICVA This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 06:20 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodLive show tickets: https://dogoonpod.com/live-shows/ Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/Check out our merch: https://do-go-on-podcast.creator-spring.com/  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/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present.  REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Dome_raidhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcnST-qOZEchttps://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82162&page=1https://www.truecrimeedition.com/post/millennium-dome-heisthttps://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/18/dome1https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/24/dome.tonythompson 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 Serengy 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. And welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Ornke and, as always, I'm here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart. Hello. And we're here for the 400th episode.

Can't believe we made it. Can't believe we made it. I can't believe it either. 400 episodes, Jess. Yeah. It's too many. Really? No, sorry.

I would have thought it's a round enough number for you. Oh, great point. But it's too many. Should have stopped at 200, I reckon. Really? Leave them wanting more. Yeah, okay. You know?

Nah, great to be here. I've started on a weird tone. I'll bring that back, don't worry. It'll be fine. Save me, Dave. We're recording this live at Stupid Old Studios. We've got a live audience here. Hello, live audience.

We're also streaming this one. Live, hello, streamers at home. And so Jess and I, just to paint a picture for the people at home. We're on stage here. Yeah. But our good friend Matt Stewart is via Saturday. Hello satellite. Hello satellite Matt. Hey, how's it going? Quick question. How good is it to be alive? And I won't be able to ask that question for much longer as I have COVID.

It's very hard to ask that question when you're dead for two reasons. One of them is you can't talk anymore. The other one is you're not alive. How can you ask how good it is to be alive when you're not a life. How do we mute him? Look, I was going to ask Matt to explain how the show works, but what do you reckon I should do with that one? Well, what we do here is we're taking turns to report on a topic, often suggested to us by one of the listeners.

We go away, we do a bit of research, we bring it back to the group in the form of a little report. We've done this now 400 times. And to celebrate the 400, I believe I did the 100th episode, the report, the 200th, I remember in Queensland we did a mini reports each. You remember this? Yeah. Then Matt did the 300th and out to do the 400th episode.

I don't know anything. It worked out that Jess, it's your turn basically. It's fine. It's fine. And we always start with a question to get us on the topic. Do you actually have a question? I do. That's pretty good.

My question is, which big diamond shares a name with a Mario Party 3 character? Come on, everybody at once. Wal Luigi? This is about the Walaweegee diamond. No, you're not going to... There's always the character I hate when you're playing any sort of Mario game these days. Ludwig. Do you know this guy with a blue hair?

Curse you Ludwig. Ugh. My blood boils for Ludwig. My heart beats for Ludwig. Ask my wife, she hears me in the other room yelling at a fictional Ludwig while doing Mario Kart 50cc. I'm not very good, but... Not very good, not very good.

But that fucking Lordweread. Dave, Dave, I need to... Please tell me that was a joke. Are you playing 50cc? I'm working my up to 100. The cards are just so fast. You can't control it. Wait, wait, wait.

You're flying off the road. And you're playing alone, so you have the entire TV screen that's just you, and you're still like, it's too quick. No, it's too quick. I've got the characters on. easy.

It's like 50cc. Jess, can I have another guess? Yeah, sure. Chain chomps. It's not. I've got a list up here. Is it,

to be honest, Jess, is it a character that a lot of us have heard of? Absolutely not, no. I just couldn't think of a question.

And so here we are. Little clue, little clue. Okay. Year 2000. Millennium bugs. Silver chair. Or part of what he said was right.

Millennium. Millennium. Belenium Phil. Bellenium? Millennium Phil. That's fun. Millennium Phil. Is it...

Which play do you want to be Yoshi or Millennium Phil? Well, Millennium Phil for me. I'd pick him over Ludwig. Okay. I'm going to lock in Millennium Star. That is correct. Well done, Dave. Can you believe I got that, Matt?

I cannot believe you got that. He's very clever. Yeah, this topic is the Millennium Dome Heist. Oh, wow, the Millennium. Yeah, I asked the patrons, I said, what kind of topic do you want? And a lot of people were like, heist. And then the other half said anything dome related. Yeah, yeah.

And I was like, have I got the topic for you? Oh, that's exciting. I reckon you're going to have a good time. That's my prediction. Straight off the mark. You're going to have a good time. It's been suggested by a few people. It's been suggested by Daisy Porter, Ellie, Adam Stamford and Ronan Williams.

Any of them in the room to know? Imagine. Oh, gosh. I think it happened one time and it was so good. And we were like, what the fuck? It was so good. It was so exciting. Maybe they're watching on stream.

But I cannot check the comments right now. No. So I won't know. And then you'll tweet it me later. That's such a good point. I'll be like, I know. I'm going to go another comment. Oh yeah, you can do that.

Yeah, you can. Can I? Should I? Well, yeah. Yeah, it's always dangerous. Because I do, I do doubt your concentration a tiny little bit. Okay. At the best of times.

Oh, because now he's got the footy on one screen. Hang on. The YouTube comments and then us, we're definitely coming third. Yeah, yeah. And we're fourth. He's also got news.com for some reason. The cricket's about to start in 15 minutes, actually. He likes to stay current.

No, okay, so the Millennium Dome. Does anybody know what the Millennium Dome is or was? Yeah, I remember in London? Yeah, that's right. And then it became the O2 Arena. Yes, that's right. And it was in one of the James Bond movies. You remember he was rolling down it for a little bit?

Was he? Pierce? Which one was that? One of the not as good ones. Basically not golden eye. Huh. The world is not enough. Well said.

Could not agree more. No, no. I think so, beautifully said. So the Millennium Dome was built to celebrate the year 2000, and they had this big, massive public exhibition, which organisers said was going to attract 12 million visitors. It attracted 6.5. So close, but not at all.

But that's fine. We also said tonight we would attract 12 million here tonight, and we have only just hit 6.5 million, and it is embarrassing. My dad asked how many people. people were watching on stream and I said oh I think a couple hundred he said oh I thought it'd be in the thousands and I was like who the fuck do you think we are and why is a couple hundred not good enough oh that's disappointing anytime you have a high expectation like 12 million six and a half now seems pathetic but if you said six and a half million people went there five minutes ago I would have been

like that's amazing and that's across a 12 month period yeah so that's that's it is pretty great um and yeah as dave mentioned um it looks pretty different now part of the complex is like a shopping centre and a cinema, and the middle is the O2 Arena. So it's in London. But in its early prime, the dome had circus performances. And the surrounding area was split into 14 different themed zones, all part of this exhibition they were doing, right? And so the zones were like...

14. 14. What a weird number to choose, A, Bob. That is upsetting. I kind of don't mind 14. Really? I don't know why. I hadn't thought about it.

Matt's brought it up. I'm just going to move on. Okay. Before I throw up all over this. stage. So they had zones like body, mind, faith, play, talk, money, all these different zones with different sort of exhibitions in each of them. And apparently at the entrance of the money zone, the walls and floor were covered in one million pounds in cash, like stuck to the wall. Not like you couldn't just grab a pound, like they were behind like a glass or a perspective

or something, but it was just a million dollars pounds. So what, like 45 million a million Australian dollars. Back in the year 2000, yeah, honestly, wow. So pretty fun. Today's story is actually about the main attraction of the money zone at the Millennium Dome. And that main attraction was the Millennium Jewels. Oh, la-di-da. There were a collection of precious stones, including rare and priceless blue diamonds. But the main attraction was the Millennium Star, the world's second largest flawless white pear-cut diamond. It's a big-ass diamond, right? And these stones were all owned by the De Beers Diamond Consortium, which is I imagine the only place Matt would buy diamonds.

Anywhere else, Matt? No, well, De Beers, we talked to, you'd remember this, Jess. Absolutely. In my episode about the diamond myth, they're the people who, they're the cartel who have sort of inflated the prices to ridiculous levels over the years and they've made up the whole diamond myth. They're the ones who came up with the diamond is forever. Yeah.

Yeah, and like, I'd summarise that. So thank you for, um, Do that for me. So the value of these stones altogether came to about 350 million pounds. Whoa. So they're worth a lot of cash. And that hefty sum caught the attention of a gang of crooks. So at 9.30 a.

The Debears. The Debears. Allegedly. I was an inside job. Okay. At 9.30 a.m. on the 7th of November 2000 surveillance. at the Millennium Dome picked up a 7-ton

JCB Earth Digger heading towards the dome. How far away? Like, oh my God, there's a thing coming. It's 25 miles away. Now it's only 24. It's crossing the dam somehow.

It's going underwater. It's bright yellow too. Big old JCB digger. Which is crazy because I've written JCP Digger so many times in this report. And then today, I was driving along and I saw a big yellow thing up ahead.

I was like, get fucked. Got close. Saw JCB and I was like, and I would have taken a photo, but I was driving. Safety first. Well, I, for one, without a photo, don't believe you. It was awesome.

I couldn't wait to tell you I saw one. The J.C.B. Honestly, they're panicking that a digger is coming towards the dome. There's a big digger coming. I mean, surely it's got to get through quite a bit of dome before it's inside. Wow. Yeah.

That's so great. Now those diggers, those like machinery, how many people can fit in that? Two. This is like a clown digger. There's four of them. Oh my God. There's four men inside

wearing body armour and gas masks. They're armed with smoke bombs, sledgehammers and nail guns. It's good to blend in when you're trying to get a horse, you know? You don't want to look suspicious. At 9.30 of the morning, you're probably a peak hour to get there.

Just on the horn. Oh, fuck. Go. I have a diamond to steal. So the digger drove up a ramp, smashed through a locked gate and into a steel delivery door. Smashing that open as well. So it's just smashing its way through. Once inside, the digger drove towards the money zone where the De Beers diamonds were on display.

The money zone. The money zone. That's like you put a big sign out of the front. It's like, well, they're talking. Welcome back to the people of the base, like, we've just entered the money zone. Fuck, yeah, you have. The money zone. It feels very cool.

Two of the men jumped from the digger and started throwing smoke bombs. One of them attempted to break the glass that encased the diamonds. Now, they knew that the bomb-proof glass could resist a force of a 60-ton ram raid. It's a strong protective glass. But the plan was to weaken the glass with three shots from a powerful hilty nail gun. and then use a sledgehammer to smash at the weakened glass. A full proof plan. So you're telling me it is bomb proof but not nail gun proof.

Not sledgehammer proof. Yeah. And we laugh, but it worked. No. No. How? Determination. That's...

So the plan was working and the gang were inches away from the diamonds. But here's the thing. Those weren't the real diamonds. No. Yes, my puppets, yes. Matt, you still with us? Yeah, that's a good twist. Edge of my seat over here, Bob.

Good to check in every now then. So let's go back in time a little bit, right? So in the summer of 2000, a branch of the serious and organised crime command within London's Metropolitan Police called the Flying Squad. very cool. They were working on a case.

The squad's purpose is to investigate and thwart robberies and aims to catch robbers in the act because that usually means a stronger chance of conviction. So sometimes they know a crime's going to happen and they let it start to happen so they can catch them in the act and then it's sort of like, well, we caught you red-handed. Off to jail.

So just a fun little tidbit here from a famous crime website, Wikipedia.org. Oh, yeah, I've heard of it. It is often referred to by the nicknames the heavy mob or the Sweeney. rhyming slang for Flying Squad from Sweeney Todd. The British. There you go.

They're so good at lots of things. You know? I don't know if I find us to how can you, what? Flying squad. Sweeney Todd. Sweeney. Sweeney. So that's why that Dennis Waterman show from the 70s was called the Sweeney.

Yes. The more you know. Dennis, you've done it again. Dennis. Anyway, so in February of 2000, And armed men had attempted a raid on a security van carrying 10 million pound in cash. They'd blocked off both ends of nine Elms Lane in South London.

And the plan was to use a lorry, which was carrying Christmas trees in February. Hang on a second. And so they're going to use that lorry as a battering ram. Attached to the lorry was a huge metal spike that they'd covered with Christmas trees. Hey, that makes sense now. It's a secret.

And they were going to, yep, the plan was, it was going to be used to split the security van's doors open. Just shove a big old metal spike in it. It's a fucking huge metal spike. So it was only supposed to split the bloody doors off. That's, just saying that's the plan. That's the plan. That's the plan. That's the plan.

You feel good about yourself? Yeah, so good. So that's the plan. However, when they returned to the lorry holding the Christmas trees and the huge metal spike, the keys to the truck were missing. One story I read said a motorist who was stuck in gridlock because they'd blocked the road was annoyed and took the keys from the ignition. They just lost the keys to the truck.

Either someone took it or they just lost them. And that ruined their whole plan. But if you're worried about gridlock and you take the keys away from the person that's blocking you. You're not just fixing your own problem. Not at all. So it doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's a beautiful act of passive aggression. and it foiled a robbery, which is pretty amazing. So the gang abandoned the plan.

They set off small explosive. Do you think stealing is passive aggressive? Stealing the keys? What would it take for it to be an actively aggressive thing for you? If they, like, grabbed him and went, fuck you. You know what I mean? I think that feels more aggressive. Yeah, in comparison to like a ram raid with a Christmas tree spike.

Yeah, that feels quite aggressive, yes. So they set off small explosives in the vehicles that they were using for the heist to sort of like destroy the evidence. They hadn't got anything but destroyed any sort of record of themselves being there and they took off on foot. And luckily, I suppose, for the robbers,

Nine Elms Lane is very close to the Thames so they were able to escape without the loot on speedboats. That's fucking cool. That's cool. That's sick. That's actually really sick. He's actually pretty freaking sick.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll pay that. We'll pay that. They just run off. If you forget that they're not getting away with anything, it's pretty fucking sick. It's pretty cool. So the same gang popped up again several months later in July, this time in Aylesford, in Kent. This is from The Guardian. The gang struck with military precision. First, a blue transit van skidded to a halt directly in front of the secure core vehicle, blocking its way. At the same time, an articulated lorry was driven across the middle of the road at the rear, preventing any traffic. from passing. A member of the nine strong gang informed the terrified security guards that explosive charges were being fitted to the van and would be detonated if they attempted to escape. Green landmine looking boxes with flashing red lights on them were attached to the doors and on top of the bonnet. So they're putting bombs on this security van. At the same time, two other gang members armed with petrol-driven cutting machines ducked under the van and cut its

hydraulic cables immobilizing it. They then attempted to cut away the tailgate at the rear of the van, which when it's in the up position acts as an extra layer of protection. So they're just like breaking in real quick. When they failed, an articulated lorry with a massive metal spike. Oh no. Welded to its rear. Any Christmas trees?

No Christmas trees this time. It's July. That would be ridiculous. So then they're reversing it at speed into the rear of the store. security van. The first attempt made a small hole in the metal skin and the second a far larger ones. They've hit it twice. They're getting in. The cash is within reach. But by then, dozens of mobile phone calls from eyewitnesses had been received by Kent Police. Because that is a baffling thing to see on the street. And you probably would call the cops.

But they're yelling out, don't worry, we work for the bank. It's fine. Sorry. Oh, never mind. Sorry to waste your time. So cops arrive on the scene pretty quickly. and the robbers fired shots at the police car and again took off on foot and made their escape on speedboats. That's sick. These guys are the best. Yeah.

You know, I wouldn't pick aside just yet. Just because... Okay. I love these people and I think morally they're all bang on. They're good people. I trust them. I love everything they do and I stand by everything they have done

and will do into the future. I reckon it's going to be jet skis. God, I wish. So far they haven't stolen anything. No, no, no. They haven't successfully stolen anything. They've just attached some bombs to a... Look cool.

Point to the crime here. Huh. What's the charge? I guess I can't. Bram me a car? It's all very action movie and I love it. But these two attempted robberies and elaborate escapes were very cool, but also really put this gang on the Flying Squad's race.

A gang capable of carrying out robberies, robberies. I love that you jumped in because I was about to. I got to get in first. If a gang capable of carrying out robberies with this level of planning was definitely one to watch. This is from the Guardian again. When Army Bomb Disposal experts attended the scene at Aylesbury, they found that the landmines were in fact, you'll love this, Dave, tinned fraybentos steak and kidney pies.

Hind tinned pies. We don't have that kind of culture here. I've never had a tinned pie here. But they've got one of those in less magnet. Well, they've painted a green and put some little red lights on it. Do you reckon they ate it first? It doesn't say if the can was empty. It's a little.

Well, I mean, maybe for the weight you'd want them full, but that is a waste of pie. Tinned pie. Again, the British. You do things right over there. Yeah, never. I've had a bad meal over there. Gosh, I love that.

I have. Oh, my God. And I was eating with Dave. Couldn't believe how good their stuff tasted. Yeah, no, he loves it, doesn't he, Matt? He loves it. Loves it, yeah. He's got really bad taste.

It's like Dave's mouth is stupid. Yeah. Stupid mouth. So, any doubts that the same gang had been involved in both crimes vanished when Police examined the vehicle holding the ramming spike, etched into a girder on the back of the truck with the words, persistent, aren't we? Oh, that's bad ass.

Yeah, but you failed again. But you cannot fault our perseverance and resilience. Yeah, it's great to be that cocky, and then you've fucked it twice. Persistent, aren't we? You fucked it. So good. So the second unsuccessful attack,

provided the police with important clues. Because remember they blew up the cars in the first one. So there wasn't any evidence. But the second one, it was slightly more because it didn't blow up the cars. And they were able to track some of the vehicles that we used in the two raids to isolated farms in rural Kent. The properties, coincidentally, were already under surveillance for unrelated reasons. And security was then just increased.

We've already got surveillance on it. Let's make it 24-7. It was actually quite convenient for the cops. Kent Police serious crimes unit suspected 32-year-old Lee Wenham and several of his associates of being involved in organized car theft, drug smuggling and money laundering. Several stolen vehicles were seen being taken to Tong Farm, which is a property recently purchased by Lee's father, James.

So a bunch of stolen cars turning out there, and they're like, they're probably involved in this somehow. Any speedbirds? Not yet. Okay. But police decided not to act because they felt like something bigger was being planned. We had to make a decision, Detective Superintendent Andy Dolden of Kent Police said. We could have made arrests for stolen vehicles, but the chances are they would have claimed to have bought them at auction, not knowing their background.

We decided to wait. It was watching them. And they're just doing crimes, right? Not real. They're so done. Anyway. Are they police or are they perves? Just watching.

They sound like grubs. Do your job. Man, I will just remind you there's a bunch of people watching. us. Oh. Yeah. We are under surveillance right now. Yeah, I wouldn't.

I wouldn't call them all perves. Well, I think we know though, don't we? Yeah, we know. Yeah, we know. We know we sit amongst the perves. Present company excluded. Of course. The ones who keep laughing a little too long.

Perves. After the Ailesford attempted... I'm watching them watching you, by the way. I'm a double perv. Who pervs the pervs? Me. And we're so glad to have you. So after the Ailsford, the second attempted robbery,

Detective Dolden was on the scene within an hour and immediately recognised two transit vans. He said they'd both been at Tong Farm for several weeks. It meant I could link the robbery to Lee Wenham right away, but they hadn't managed to get any money, and I had no idea what forensic evidence we'd be. able to get. I knew the gang were not simply going to give up committing crime. Once again, I decided to wait. A lot of waiting around. He just can't be fucked to this guy. He's like,

oh, it's so much paperwork. Let's wait till they murder someone or something serious. No, let's wait till they murder two people. Yeah, you're right. Knock it out in one bit of paperwork. So yeah, he's like, I'm not sure what sort of forensics will get. Well, the forensic test took merely 10 weeks, but it finally bore fruit. Saliva on a pair of rubber gloves found on the dashboard of one of the vans belonged to Lee Wenham. What is he up to with those gloves? I can only imagine. Any way you think about it, it's weird.

Like, if he's spitting inside the glove or what's he doing? How do you put on gloves? Yeah, that's why I thought of it. I put on my gloves one finger at a time, just like the rest of you, okay? Yeah, it's very difficult. And very uncomfortable to watch. I hate that he insists on wearing gloves to podcast. Okay, so during the surveillance on the farmhouse in Kent,

a few other interesting things happened that were certainly noteworthy for the police. One day, a stolen digger arrived. That's odd, isn't it? Stored that on the property. And another day, a car tows in, a speedboat. How many people are watching this farm? A few. They're watching everything.

So how do they not notice that for months there's a van outside watching everything they're doing? I've seen footage because it was in like 2000 and I watched a docker about it and there's just footage of them like getting out of cars and saying hello to their friend. Nice clear shots of their faces, broad daylight, all of their associates turning up with stolen shit. They're dumb. That's awesome. And I love it. Love a dumb crook.

So fairly soon they were able to observe a few more familiar. faces appearing at the farm. Again, broad daylight. They're just not covering their face. They're just like, Gettie, mate. It's crazy. So Terry Millman,

a known South London gangster who'd previously served 14 years for armed robbery. There was Ray Bettson, who had convictions for fraud and theft, and William Cochram. These are all great names.

How would Jason Statham say some of these names? Terry Millman. Fucking, that's great. That's so good. I didn't even have to do my line to get into his voice that time, which I normally do.

Which you can do it anyway. I'll do it anyway. What makes you think I'd risk my life for you? Terry Millman. Terry Millman. Fuck, that's good. On the Magleton. That's Matt's version.

What's yours? Do you have what to get into Statham? Or can you just snap straight in? I'm always him. That's on me for inviting him to do that. To be on, the thing is that, Matt, to have no thanks Turkish, I'm sweet enough, but now he's changed the megalodont, so he's got two,

you've got one and I've got none. Do you want, why don't you take no thanks Turkish? Well, that's not a, that's not him. That's Bricktop. So that's, if you want me to get into Bricktop, talking to Statham then, sure. If you could have a back and forth between

Bricktop and Jason Statham. Yeah. Okay, well, what's Statham up to at the moment? He's a Megalodon. He's a Megalodon. Maybe he's, he's, um, Some sort of like giant shark offering Bricktop like sugar in his tea, for example?

Okay, yeah, I could try something like that. Okay, great, right. Just. Hey, Bricktop, I'm a Meglodon. Now you want any sugar in that tea? No, folks, Turkish, I'm sweet enough. Incredible. Even with COVID.

He's that good. So, yeah, Ray Betson, who has convictions of fraud and theft, and William Cochram, Cockram, let's be serious. His name is Willie Cockram. And the answer, yes. We're adults. And you all are too.

Giggling like idiots. So Willie Cockram had He'd served time for ram rating. I mean, that is nominative determinism. Honestly, you shouldn't even go to jail if that is your name. Ram rating. He's doing what he's born to do. And handling stolen goods.

Okay. In September of 2000, the team identified three of the suspected robbers, Lee Wenham, Ray Betzen, and Willie Cockram visiting the Millennium Dome. Oh. And they were observed visiting the exhibitions, recording video footage, leading the police to suspect that the money exhibition

could be a target. I love that. There's like, no way anyone would volunteer to attend to this shithouse exhibition, filming it, documenting the memories. Come on. Suspicious. They go a few times. And that surveillance on the men was significantly increased

and the dome was placed under close watch. In fact, the first time Lee went and visited the dome, first thing he did, you go to this beautiful exhibition, right? It's got 14 different zones and a circus. First thing he does, goes and checks the security gate. It just has a good look at it. it on camera there's CCTV everywhere and he's just having a good old look at the security gate shaking it a bit pushing it a bit trying to get through it trying to pick a lock

um trying to pick a lock oh it's just not part of the exhibition oh i didn't know so i thought this was security zone okay i thought the idea was to try to get out that's oh okay it's not interactive. That's a good, it would have been a good idea if you wanted to implement it. They, the undercover police film him visiting the money zone three times on that first visit. Just keeps going back and, oh, is that million pound is it? Oh, I'm just drawing, he's drawing a map.

They're like, hmm, that's suss. But police also noticed another detail. Each time the three men visited the dome, the Thames, which the building sat right on, Was it high tide? Huh. Somebody's just whispering to themselves. Speedboats. Yeah, it's why I mentioned it a few times.

Speedboats. Speedboats. So if the gang were to pull off this heist, it would be the equivalent of 12 great train robberies, previous topic we've done. Wow. Or 38 hat-neigh. Garden Heist's.

Did you do the maths on this? Yes. I did not see it in a documentary. I thought you were doing it. I did it myself. And I accounted for inflation. Yeah. How many MCGs full of cash?

Three. Three. If you're putting like one pound on each seat. I assume that's what you mean. A one. Two. It takes ages. Some pounds are jealous of the others.

Pounds of better view. They did. Sorry, that pound is a member. Basically, it would be the biggest and most audacious, a robbery in British history. And most boodacious. And definitely the most boadacious. Speedboats. Speedboats.

So you can understand why the Flying Squad are pretty keen to stop this robbery. Now, they're now very confident of the gang's next target. So the Flying Squad get to work. The dome exterior is protected by a high perimeter fence and regular security patrols. The jewels are displayed in a vault built with ram-proof concrete walls, and visitors enter the vault through a high security door. So they've put some, you know, some measures in place.

The jewels are displayed inside the cabinets. Oh, no, that was right, actually. Hey, Joe, you're doing a great job. What's that? You're on a great job out there. Thank you so much, man. Thank you. I needed that.

I love you. I can never do what you do. Matt, I love you. I love you too. Thank you. Inside, the cabinets the diamonds are in, fully alarmed and the glass is designed to withstand a hammer for a minimum of 30 minutes. And I would love to be in the lab when they tested that.

Yeah, is it like just one guy for 30 minutes? Maybe. It could be two taking 15 minutes shifts. I don't... But do they calculate that after 29 minutes, surely he'll be tired. I think it's more that like it'll hold out for long enough for police to get there. Oh, okay. Some kind of security.

That doesn't roll off the tongue as well as 30 minutes of hammer time. They can't touch this. Cock around that's arm. That's Dave's regret face. Thanks for stepping up, Dave. Hey, you've still got time to regret something. If you regret it, like your face is bigger than ever, I know. You could just turn the laptop away, though, I guess.

Don't look at me. Don't look at me. So there's also CCTV in the vault, and it's monitored by Dome Security and also by De Beers Security, who's watching remotely from their head office, which is like seven miles away. So it's, there's a lot of surveillance, a lot of security around these diamonds.

And even though there is a lot of security, the Flying Squad decided to replace the jewels with very convincing replicas. So they've got so much time because these robbers have been so obvious that this is their next target that they're like, well, we've got ages. Let's get some replicas made. Let's train up some more people. They've got ages to prepare for this. That's so good.

They build a whole second millennium 10. And as you approach the first one, just has a big, like, crayon drawn sign that says Millennium Dome that way. You're like, okay. So the Flying Squad assumes that the gang are likely to strike during the day because the vaults will be open to the public, and it's sort of a bit easier.

But the danger then is that a heist occurs with a large number of civilians present. And the police need to ensure that if the gang are going to attempt the robbery, they were going to maintain an element of surprise so they didn't alert the robbers to their... their presence. So they bring in members from the specialist firearms command. They're the S-O-19, who they discover that the dome has a 100-meter-long tunnel in the basement,

that it just opens up to some fire doors and some stairs, which basically pops up right at the money zone. Like it couldn't be in a better spot. They're like, oh, great, we'll use that. That's sort of then. Yeah, they're like, should we use the trapdoor? DeBias is like, sorry what? Come again?

So that's a perfect spot to launch a surprise ambush. They also built a false wall inside the exhibit for some cops to hide behind. They had time to build a new wall. But it doesn't go all the way to the bottom so you can sort of see their feet. There's these big combat boots. And you can hear them going,

he-he-he-h-sh, speedboat. Yeah, yeah, they're going. is the speedboat. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they could fit 20 cops in the vault, in the room, where the robbers would be. There'd just be 20 cops waiting. That's really good. It's so good.

Because they've made it so obvious. So they also try to figure out when the robbery is going to happen. And due to an increase in surveillance, the police discovered a few other members of the gang that they were sort of like, I reckon this guy's going to be involved. They saw as Terry Millman was tasked with obtaining a speedboat. They watched him just go buy a speedboat. I think, yeah, they witnessed some of the gang, like, testing out a speedboat or a river near Kent.

They're like, okay. And then that one didn't work very well. So Terry went and bought a new one. He paid like 3,700 pound cash, but he signed it Terry Diamond. Like, you cocky fuck. A Terry, a Diamond. You'll get that in a few weeks.

So good. So he's got the speedboat. And based on the tides, police were able to identify a few dates for possible raids. Because they're like, well, they need the water level to be at a certain spot so they can actually get out. What for? For the speedboat. So there's only a few times that month where the high tide and the place is open. Yeah.

So they've just got these few days. so that they're like, and then they just kind of check on them. Are they coming? Oh, no. It's so good. That's great. They attempted in early October and that sort of plan was aborted because the speedboat malfunctioned. And that's what Terry went and poured a new one.

Sorry, Terry Diamond. On November 6th, the gang were planning to attempt again, but they found the tide was a bit too low for a safe getaway. But then, on the 7th of November 2000, police are confident the gang is going to try again today. Months of surveillance and investigation had come down to this. The code name was Operation Magician. Very cool. And Detective Superintendent John Shatford.

He was in command. Cockram Shatford. Fun stuff. A total of 200 officers were involved. 40 of them were from the specialist firearms command. They were the ones in the tunnel. A further 60 armed flying squad officers were stationed around the Thames and 20 were on the river in boats.

And they'd be doing training exercises for ages because they knew this was going to happen. So there's just cops in boats just waiting. I love it so much. And they look on the day of the Robbie look out and see all these cops doing these training exercises. They're like, today's the day. Yeah. This makes sense.

No, they're just distracted because they're in speedboats. Speed boat. So surveillance officers are disguised as dome employees and like cleaners and stuff like that. Every employee in the dome is a cop. But I also, I like to imagine that they're like, they're all undercover cops. And then somebody's like, excuse me. me, where are the toilets? And they're like, um, that way?

Ask shit ford, he'll know. Shatford always knows where a toilet is. So then there, yeah. Shetford, sorry, is my first car. A bit of fun, a bit of fun. That was disrespectful. It was a great car. No, as a shit for it.

So they use the Dome CCTV room is now the police's control room. Some officers were positioned behind the dummy wall, and others were dressed as cleaners and dome employees with their firearms concealed, just in like one woman was saying her gun was just in a bum bag. Not as convenient as a holster, but still pretty good. You got to go like, yep. She's walking out of the... Should have converted the mops and stuff.

Oh, shit. You know, like that guy from Bond, Dave, what's his name? who makes all the things. Q. Sorry, that I'm not Dave. You can make a mop gun. Yeah,

mop gun. At least a mop shiv. Right, they're not far. Pop shiv. You know, just like a knife that comes out of the top of it.

Oh, like a bayonet out of the top of the top of the. What about a... The blood straight away would be cleaned up as well. Oh, perfect. Brilliant. That is good.

Brilliant. So at approximately 9.30 a.m. The yellow JCP digger approached the dome. And they must have been like, they'll never see this gather. They're expecting a speedboat Digger Four members were inside

wearing body armour and armed with smoke bombs Sledgehammers and nail guns It was Cochram who attempted to weaken the glass With the nail gun And another member, Robert Adams, planned to use the sledgehammer to break the glass The police pounced on four members of the gang Two as they were attempting to smash their way

Into the display case And two outside the vault with the digger So there was a guy called Aldo Chirochi. He was the man throwing smoke bombs. He was swiftly arrested and pinned to the ground. While Ray Batson was surrounded by police as he sat in the driver seat in the cab of the digger. And as he sat in the driver's seat with his hands up,

he tried his luck by saying, oh, it's all right, mate. This has nothing to do with me. I work here. That's brilliant. I'm just doing a bit of digging. I'm just driving a digger into the dome at 9.30 in the morning. Smoke bumps.

What's going on? What's, uh, what, someone, oh, something bad's happening, okay. Um, it's worth a try. If you don't know that the cops have been tracking you for ages and know exactly who you are. Oh, I work here. I've never heard of anyone called Terry Diamond. I certainly don't think that's very funny. As the four men inside were being arrested, police boats approached the getaway speedboat,

uh, which by this stage was moored at the dome's private dock. It's very cool, actually. There's footage in the doco. And they talk a lot in the documentary about all the contingency plans they'd come up with and how they sort of needed to stay out of sight. And they really thought through every possible scenario. Because if a gunfight started between two boats, like the gang might shoot at them, but they can't safely, like shoot back.

They're not like, you know, it's too far away. It's too dangerous that they might hit civilians, whatever. So they're thinking through everything. And then they essentially just kind of sneak up on the guy. They seriously just come around a different way. He's not looking. And then he turns around and he's like, oh, and there's just cops everywhere.

It was so fucking easy. All these contingency plans. They had thought of everything. And then they just go, hello. And he goes, oh, no, it's all right. I don't work here. He genuinely didn't even try. He just sort of been like, ah.

All right. Apparently he was very quiet. They just arrested him and took him off and he's like, that's it. And they trained. They thought of everything. And then they just kind of went like, so funny.

They also arrested a man whom they suspected of monitoring police radio frequencies. He was detained on the north shore of the Thames opposite the dome. Terry Millman, Diamond. He was arrested outside the dome. And Lee Wenham was arrested on the farm in Kent. he wasn't even there. When, um.

And once all the suspects had been detained, they were taken to police stations in South London. By noon, some areas of the dome had reopened, but others, including the money zone, were cornered off. They're like, we're just, well, yeah. Shatford defended the decision that was taken to wait until the gang had reached the diamonds before arresting them.

He said, our chief concern throughout was public safety. We decided it was better to let the robbers get to the vault where they were effectively imprisoned. with 20 cops inside. Yeah, that's pretty good. Tadda! It's like the robbers had like, they'd planned it out and they'd thought it through so much,

but they just never kind of expected cops to be around. Dahl, one thing. The case went to trial the following year. Terry Millman had died of cancer before the trial had started, and the others who were present at the dome faced a three-month trial. On the first day of the defense case, one of them, some sources say Cockram, others say it was Aldo,

discussed the lack of security inside the dome. I couldn't believe how simple it was. I was thinking, this cannot be true. It was a gift. At first I thought it was a pie in the sky, but after going down there, I couldn't believe security was so bad. There was nobody in the vault,

no security workers walking around. The Debeas person's like, oh shit, shut up, shut up. But also, like, that's on purpose. We're letting you in. That's so funny. So he's on trial at this point, and he still hasn't figured out. Yeah. He's like, I couldn't believe it.

They just wandered on in there. There was some guys, I think they had guns on them, but they looked like cleaners. And they were like, yeah, come through here, boys, in you go. The only thing that was really unlucky, it turned out the diamonds were fake. what happened. It was weird. He stated that the plan, if the plan had succeeded,

it would have taken a very short time from hitting the main gate to getting back across the Thames. Five minutes max. He's bragging. He's still trying to show. From trial. I mean, that hasn't happened.

Yeah, he's like, oh man, it would have been so easy. Would it have been? So funny. Yeah, this is what I would have spent the money on. Two. Ten houses. 38 boats.

Six new wives. And honestly, if I just got the chance, my dad would have totally beaten up your dad. He was six that day, that's all. He's away on business. Yeah. He also added no one was going to get hurt. There was no one too hurt.

The dome was always empty. Bit of a jab there. Oh, yeah. 12 million. The publicity of people are like, shut the fuck out. Shut up. 6.5 is actually pretty impressive. It's so a lot of millions.

So he's just like, he's going down swinging. No, fuck you. There was a claim at one point that Bettson's brother-in-law, Michael Waring, who worked at the dome as a security officer, was in on the plan. According to Betzen, Waring had told him about his school friend, Tony, who was also working at the dome. Waring had told him about a plan that Tony had put together. It's so funny.

So my cousin's friend, right? Tony had got this plan together. He had a backer, someone to buy the jewelry. He said the security was crap. Again, the security's like, come on. Yeah, she does. Bettson then went on to say, I had every confidence in him. There's no way I thought he'd betray me, not for two seconds.

If this had come to me from someone else in a pub, I wouldn't have gone along with it. But it was the background to where it had come from. It was solid. I did not think he would try to do me any harm. I trust it. bit dramatic called as a prosecution witness wearing totally denied that he was part of the plan

or had offered to act in a criminal way by providing information that kind of that allegation sort of went nowhere there was no evidence nothing to suggest that that was true at the trial Crown Prosecutor Martin Heslop said that the raid was planned professionally carefully and down to the last detail so well organised was it that it would probably have succeeded

had it not been for an equally professional careful and detailed police operation. And you'd be being so fucking obvious. Yeah, they would have got away with it too if they hadn't set up the exact plan to allow us to do this in the first place. Willie Cochrane was sentenced to 18 years for conspiring to Rob,

which was later reduced to 15. Ray Betzen, Ray Betzen was sentenced to 18 years for conspiring to Rob and also reduced to 15. After his release, he was convicted again in 2014, following a botched raid a cash depot in 2012 and sentenced to 13 years. So he's still in prison. Aldo and Robert Adams were given 15 years. And another man who's barely mentioned in any reports, Kevin Meredith,

he was sentenced to five years for conspiracy to steal, which is apparently different to conspiracy to rob. I don't get it. Lee Wenham was sentenced to four years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to steal and was at the same time sentenced to nine years for the Ailsford attempted robbery because he was the only one that they could link to it because his DNA was there. Oh, because he spat on his gloves. He went, It's just my tongue.

So, yeah, there's no evidence to connect any of the others. So Lee had licked his gloves and he got nicked. Now, this part felt straight out of an action movie as well. The Flying Squad arrested a man that believed was the mastermind behind the plot, but he wasn't present on the day of the raid. His name was James Hurried. He was from South London, and he was arrested following an undercover operation. The operation tracked Hurley to the Costa del Sol, and the officer in charge of the operation,

Detective Chief Superintendent John Shatford, arrived in Spain with a team of three others and an emergency warrant for Hurley's arrest. You know, they went there, like, they went and nabbed him. They couldn't find him for ages and they found him in Spain, and they got him. And I don't think anything happened from it, so don't. Oh. They did a big investigation and they were sort of like, ah, we probably don't have enough.

They walked up to him and said, you, James Hurley? And he said, yeah. And they said, right then. Yeah. Good. And then they left. It's really cool.

Scared him. There you go. A lot of preparation and planning on both sides of the highest, all for it to be over within minutes. And, you know, nobody got hurt. So that's good. As for the dome, it attracted, like we said, barely half of the 12 million customers, its sponsors forecast.

And it was deemed a failure by the press, but people loved it. Like the public really enjoyed it, but, you know, the press were like, the shit. Didn't get 12 mil, shit. And then all the original exhibition elements were sold or dismantled. The dome was renamed as the O2 in 2005 and was open to the public on the 24th of June 2007 with a concert by Bon Jovi. Oh, all right. I'm living on a prayer.

Yes, please. My grandparents were a fan of the dome. Remember they had like a snow globe with a dome in it? They had a snow dome. Yeah. Snow dome. They had a snow globe with the dome. It's not a particularly interesting looking building.

They loved it. Okay. Did they go to it? No, I mean, you don't need to go to the dome. If you've got a globe, you don't go to the dome. You know what I mean? Well, there you go. Well, that is my report on the Millennium Dome.

And I just want to something that really, it's on a five second delay. Jeez, that really got zero applause. That's the end of my report. Cricket, cricket. I've won some good claps in here, hear on them. Oh, that is nice. Crispy.

Yeah. No, all I was going to add was that I'd finish writing this report and I was like, yep, happy with that. And then I saw a comment on the YouTube of the documentary and it was from Douglas Douglas 880. 842 who said... Are you here tonight? Before you're saying anything, Bob,

can I have a guess? This guy has a bit of a fuck wit. Probably. Because Douglas says, should have taken no more than 10 minutes, just got stretched out, and stretched out till it became a boring non-story. And then I spiraled.

So... I was like, oh, I just wrote an hour report on this. Oh. Douglas's comment didn't end with, and then I spiral. No, no, no. That smile was for me. So I hope you enjoyed speedboats and the raid of the Monium Dome.

I loved it. I thought it was really fun. We love a heist, but there's only one thing better than a heist, and that's a hoist with dumb criminals. Yeah. But it's like they had, you know, they were smart in so many ways,

and then just like kind of cocky, I think, just sort of like, well, they couldn't possibly be watching us on this farm that we live. that. Anyway, Gide, Terry, you know? Oh, man, I love it so much. And they think they're so clever.

The cops are just waiting. Oh, I love it. And then, yeah, the speedboats just kind of, they just snuck up on him. It was so easy in the end. I mean, that must have been quite disappointing, actually, if you've been doing all these, like, training exercises, and then it's just a matter of walking up to somebody and going,

you're under arrest. Oh, yeah, and you're really disappointed. I was ready to do, like, barrel rolls and cool shit. It just wasn't meant to be. But yeah, there you go. Great work. Thank you. Loved it.

Thank you. I love you. Love you too. Kind of trailed off at the start, which is weird. Weird place to trail. Yeah, technically I didn't say it. Yeah, I got louder. Loud as I got off.

Those I went on. And we're back in the room. Another classic episode. Live 400th episode, extravaganza. It really was. a really fun time, loved your report, Jess, whoever that YouTube comment were putting down in your mind.

I was thinking about that since, because this is the day after in real time, people. We did the party and everything last time. So basically, if you weren't there, you missed out, basically. Yeah, sucked in.

But we did a live show, which was great for the people in the room, and we really appreciate them coming out. And then there were a bunch of people watching on the stream, and then Jess debuted DJ Bob. Her deck skills were unparalleled. I was very impressed,

and you were handing out. glow sticks and there was party lights and people were getting into it. It was a great time. Then we had some cakes. Yeah. Look, so much of being a DJ is obviously the music, of course, but it's also about the vibe, setting the vibe and creating a space for people to just let loose. And what better way to do that than with glow sticks on, like you're 14 at a school disco and I loved it and it was very fun. It really, I think it unlocked something in me. I think I'm going to keep playing with this little DJ app that I got because it's fun.

Oh man, you were so good at that and I reckon you're right about the vibe setting because that's the most I've danced, I reckon in one, that one night more than I've danced in the entire decade previous to that point. Wow. Not a dancer. Not usually a dancer, but then when the DJ's good enough. God, imagine if Matt Stewart was there. My goodness, he would have been tearing it up.

It would have been embarrassing. He would have been really going for it. We would have had to at some point pull him aside and be like, okay, mate, just, hey, just remember, this is for everybody. And you're taking up the whole dance. Stop doing the worm, we'd have to say. There was a moment when it cut to him at home on the couch like he'd been on the stream, but then they stupid old put this effect on him and he was dancing to it.

And honestly, it was one of the highlights. He looks so great. And like, just a shout out again to stupid old because, like, just, you know, they could have just, they didn't have to put Matt up on the screen at all. They could have just put him up as he was for the whole, for the report. But instead they're like, how can we make this fun? And they put a little effect on him dance. It's just so great. Anyway, a big thank you to everybody who came out and partied with us, watched us on the stream and, or has listened to this episode of the podcast in your normal podcast feed.

We genuinely cannot believe we've done 400 episodes of this podcast. It's insane. So wild. We had a great time celebrating it. But now it's time for everybody's favorite section of the show. All right. And this is the section of the show, I believe it's got a jingle. Fact quote or question.

He always remembers the ding. I always remember to sing. She I. She I. So, of course, sadly Matt couldn't be with us. The poor man has been. struck down ill and we hope he is all good over the next few days and he'll be on next week's episode.

And if he's not all good, I hope he's left me something cool. His Porsche. He'd never leave me the Porsche. His beloved Porsche. Now usually, so usually Matt takes charge of this segment. So we're going to have our best go at doing this. Yes. Obviously, we'll have to remember one of the last times that we did this without Matt when we got

to the shout-out section where people have to. have been waiting usually about a year or so to hear their shout out on, they've been supporting the show on Patreon, and I somehow stuffed up Matt's method. And I ended up shouting at someone who joined about seven hours before. Well, luckily, Matt's been really organized lately, and he has already marked these down. So we know that these are correct.

And if they're wrong, then it's Matt's fault still, which is the perfect scenario. So, yeah, first part of this Patreon section of the podcast is, a little section that has that jingle, fact, a question, where people who support us on the Sydney-Shineberg level, is that right? Yes, the deluxe package level on Patreon.

Look, we're so bad at this. We haven't even mentioned. This is the show powered by our Patreon supporters, this section of the pod. You go to patreon.com slash do-go-on pod, and there's all sorts of rewards, including shout-outs that we're about to get to discounted tickets to live shows. You hear about live shows before.

Everyone else does. The Patreon people bought nearly all of the tickets to the 400th episode, was awesome. And also we put out three bonus episodes a month for their ears only. And of course, when you support us on the bonus episode level or above, you get access to close to 190 episodes in the back catalogue and counting. So lots of bonus stuff. And people like Jess said on the Sydney-Shymberg Deluxe package, rest in peace level get to submit a fact, a quote or a question or suggestion. Or a suggestion, a recipe, a brag. It can be really anything. But they also get to give

themselves a title. And that's always a place for some creativity and some fun. Without Matt here, Dave, do you want to maybe read out some of these facts, quotes, questions, etc.? Yes. And in tribute to the great man, Matt Stewart, as he always does, I haven't read these before I'm reading these out loud for the first time. So no proofreading has been done here, and that is Matt's way. And now my way of making sure if I stuff it up, you know why. And no fact check. either. Yes, absolutely no. So if this is all slanderous, that's not on us.

So let's get some fat quotes or questions on here for our 400th episode. First cab off the rank, Sweaty Sky. Okay, sweaty sky. Sweaty Sky is giving themselves the nickname. Well, this is what it says here. What title are you giving yourself? It's like 30 degrees here in Canada and I'm walking in long pants and long sleeves in the sun. That's not a title.

Let's just say sandwich sculptor. But I like that's also given the context for. Sweety Sky. Yeah, there you go. That is nice. Sweaty Sky. Sandwich S. Oh, all SS.

Sweaty Sky. Sandwich sculpture. Oh my goodness. Put that on a business card right now. And our sandwich sculpture is giving us a fact this week. It's a fact and a brag, which we love. We love a brag. So this is what Sweaty Sky writes,

It's so hot I'm getting delirious. Come on, Brain. Think. Oh, yes. It's a stream of consciousness for loving this. Oh, yeah. The artist that made pride decals for NYPD police vehicles hid a cab in it.

Oh my God. Oh, that's the fact. Thank you. Wow, there you go. Really? That's pretty funny. Because they've been commissioned to make these little flags by the police. So they're taking the money.

But then also, like, you know, making a political statement at the same time. Yeah, there you go. That's pretty good. It's a pretty funny prank. And the brag is that I got my boating license. I'm so sweaty. There's no... I keep going back to the sweat.

I cannot stress how sweaty I am. It really is. I'm so sweaty. There's no wind. I need an ice drink, something blended, fruity and boozy. Maybe a bellini. I've drank six litres of water already today. I wish it would rain or something.

Okay, good night. All thanks for my rambling listening to. Six liters of water already. That sounds dangerous. Oh yeah. That's too much. But also it could be like 8pm. Yeah, okay.

Still too much. Still a lot of water, but, you know. Wow. Okay, thank you, Sweety Sky. Thanks, sweaty Sky. Our next one is from Andrew Swibes. Andy Swibes. Swibsie.

Well, the nickname is the guy trying to make Swibsy work in the US and failing. Damn it. You've got to move to Australia, Swibsy. It would take seconds flat. You wouldn't even have to try to make it work. People would do it for you. You'd get to immigration and they'd look at your passport and go, welcome Swibsy on your way.

Welcome in Swibsy. 100% ridiculous. I'm so sorry that Americans just aren't grasping onto this swipesy goodness. Well, Swabsie's given us. I think this might be a new one. It's a plea. I don't know how I'll feel about this. I tend to get pretty stubborn when people ask me to do things.

Okay, here we go. The plea is I started listening to the pod via the Shackleton's Endurance app from my then new partner. Recently, she asked me to be her husband and I am being. Yon elated. Oh. Congratulations, Swibsy. Swibsy.

Can I just be the first to say, Mr. and Mrs. Swibsey? It sounds great. Beautiful. It's lovely. I have just one plea. Don't be in Chicago for a North American tour

during the month of September because there's too much wedding stuff happening, please and thanks. Well, Swibsy. Like this September? I think it's this September. Oh, wow.

You are in luck because we are looking at coming over in the second half of 2023. And September is before any of the dates we've been looking at. So you are off the hook. And don't take that as a promise. I'm so paranoid every time we mention it. I'm so scared.

Maybe visas pending. Yeah, we're in a visa process right now. You will be the first to know when stuff is actually confirmed. Especially the Patreon people, absolutely, yeah. Oh, 100%. That's what I mean. Yeah. But September, absolutely safe. Swibsy. You just focus on the wedding, my friend. Enjoy. I'm a little disappointed because we could have been there for Swipesies.

wedding presumably if you were there September. Yeah, you're right, actually. Now Swipes's sort of like, hey, don't come in September because that's my wedding, but it's like maybe it should have been, can you come in September? Because we would have gone over a month early. Yeah, for sure. It feels like Swabsie, you don't want us there for the wedding. Is that what's happening? That's, that's a little hurtful. I mean, we gave you the name Swibsy. Yeah, come on. And now we don't even get to be guests of honor at your wedding. Okay. Nice to know where we stand. On your Swiby. So congratulations though. No, so exciting.

Really happy for you. And is it a do-go-on love story if he was introduced via his now wife to be? Did we do this? Yes. Yes. Yep. That's us. Okay. Next one comes from Sophie Shooter, whose title is Group Mum in brackets again.

What's a great title? We love you, Sophie, Shooter. Love you, Group Mum. And Sophie has given us a brag, which we love slash complaint, which I don't know how I feel about that. Very interesting combo. Love that. All right. Let's go. Okay. Let me read this. Again, have not read this beforehand. All right. Hi, guys. This is a long one. So grab a drink, a blanket and get comfy.

Thank you so much. Here we go. In my last fact, quite a question, I said I'd had a NAF year so far. Well, it got a little better when I found out I'm pregnant. Oh, hooray! Congratulations! Fantastic news. We've had a marriage announcement and a pregnancy announcement in the Patreon section. This is incredible.

Well, it's the 400 of the episode, some special stuff happening. I appreciate it. That's amazing. Sophie continues, my last pregnancy was nearly 18 years ago when I was young and naive. That's great. I sailed through that one without issue. This time is different. I have been so, so unwell.

Oh, so. Sorry to hear that. Which leads to my complaint. After having a bit of a sad day today, I decided to listen to one of my favorite do-go-on-epts. Episode 128, The Death of Carl McCann. Remember that one recorded live at the European Beer Cafe? of fun. So it continues.

It was helping a lot laughing as Jess getting more and more outrage at this man's inability to do anything properly. Okay. We've got to remember before I go on that Jess and I didn't know that man's fate when Matt was telling us the story. So there's been a few YouTube comments like, how would you laugh at a man's death? But we didn't know that was going to happen. We didn't know.

Let that be proof for the people who say like, because people, a lot of people truly believe we know the topics ahead of time. We don't. We didn't know. Let that be proof where they're like, Liz, idiot. And then he dies and they're like, oh, no. Whoops. All right.

So you're laughing, or you're laughing at a man's inability to do anything fun. Yeah, like, he can't do anything right. Anything right? Live. Yeah, yeah. So he continues, but then things got dire for poor old McCunney. Food was running low. He had thrown most of his bullets in the lake and accidentally told the rescue plane that he was okay.

I forgot that he threw bullets in the lake. Oh man. Matt went on to describe what Carl had to eat to survive. The entirety of ducks and squirrels, internal organs and bones included. Well, my pregnancy brain decided that that was too much detail and I projected her vomited over the clean washing I was folding at the time. She signs off. Cheers Matt.

I'm quite glad Matt didn't hear that actually. But we'll tell him about. We will pass that on. Oh, Sophie, I'm so sorry. It's also very interesting. I think, like, I don't know, Sophie saying the first pregnancy was really smooth and then this one, not so much. I feel like that happens a lot.

And it's one of those things that lowers people into confidence of having another kid. It's same when, like, you have your first baby and they're pretty chill. And you're like, oh, that'll be all right. And the second one's feral. And I say that as a second child. So, but that's so exciting, Sophie. I'm so happy for you. I'm so sorry we made you throw up.

But it's so exciting. How wonderful. Lovely news. Congratulations. And finally for this fact-queta question section, we've got one from Alec Ruiz Guerrero. He's given us the title, do go on stunt doubles slash guy who comments on Matt Stewart's socials.

Oh, an important role. Somebody's got to comment. Someone has to. And Alex's given us a question, which is, What is y'all's go-to song that gets you pumped up for a workout? An Alex something which we always appreciate and encourage answered their own question. Mine is Wild Thing by X, mostly because I'm really into wrestling and it happens to be one of my favorite wrestlers' theme songs. Coincidence?

Muchis gracious. Very cool. Thank you, Alex. Whose theme song is it? Wild Thing by X. I'm just looking this up now. Yeah. That is the music used by John Moxley.

John Moxley? John Moxley. There you go. I don't think I'm as familiar with the John Moxley wrestlers I was hoping I was going to be there. Maybe a bit after when I was fully all in on WWE. But love, sounds like a great pump-up song. Do you have one, Jess? Well, I was going to say, I assume you do because you're an absolute gym junkie.

Yeah, man. It is hard to choose. I have recently been, I just use like, I usually just go to like Spotify and type in workout and just use one of those playlists because I just sort of want something to drown out the awful music at the gym and to also just be like loud in my ears with a high energy beat. That's all I want. My friend recently sent me her, she's made a playlist, her workout playlist. She shared it with me, which is very, very generous.

I think that's a beautiful, I don't know, I think that's a lovely friend. ship thing you can do. Oh, yes. It's like, it's the modern day equivalent of a mixtape. And sharing such an intimate playlist with somebody is really lovely. It is so much pit bull, though. That's a lot. And it's the only time where you want to listen to pit bull in my, you know,

and sorry if you're a big pit bull fan out there, but it's just a lot of, there's a lot of like remixes of, like there's a remix of Bulletproof, you know, LaRue. Oh, yeah, great track. Great track. There's a remix of Snoop Dog Sweat. There's a remix of Shania Twain in here as well. I mean, Shania Twain, man, I feel like a woman,

is always going to get you kind of pumped up. But when it goes like, bam, bam, ba da da da, da. And then like this thumping beat comes in. You're like, well, now I'm going to lift 400 kilos, aren't I? And you're here, let's go, girls. Yeah. And you're like, yeah, I love it.

So honestly, for me, it's just anything fast and loud. Fast and loud. I think, yeah, I like a sort of rockin tracks. I'm talking Motley crew, kickstart my heart. Okay. You go for some classic rock. I sort of go for like dance music. Yeah, sure, sure, sure.

I haven't really put it into practice at the gym yet, but I will. Oh, I believe that. I think you. 100% I believe that. Yeah. Any day now. That's a great question. I'd love to know what other people's pump-up workout songs are.

At the time of recording, I've just shared in the Patreon group the playlist that I made for our 400th show that are all songs that kind of tie into previous topics and stuff, little deep cut references. It's a really eclectic and kind of bonkers playlist. But anyway, maybe I'll put a little link to it as well in my link tree in my bio on Instagram if you missed it and want to catch. it but maybe maybe somebody could get started a playlist of like do go on workout songs that's cool that'd be fun great idea alec maybe you can get on that and thank you to alec sophy andy sandy sky now another part of the second half of our show is we also shout out to a few people that have been supporting us on the shoutout level or above jess you often come up with a little game for how we thank these people usually give them a little of a nickname or something anything to

coming to mind. Well, how about, because you remember the, um, the, the operation code name was operation magician. Yes. I'm thinking maybe we could give them an operation name. And I say that because I want to use the horse name generator. Oh, yes. Love the horse name generator.

What do you reckon? So it'll just be operation and then I'll, I'll give it a word. I love that. Now, before we fire up the horse name generator, how about a horse name fact shared with me, but the great man, my father, Martin Warnocky, when I was hanging. out at my parents' house last weekend and he said, oh, you've been listening to a bit of the show lately and you did the horse name generator and he wanted me to tell you, Jess, did you know, famous horse name that inspired a name? And that is, do you know, Tim Tams, the Biscuits?

Yeah. Named after a famous race horse. Really? Yeah, there you go. So I can only imagine that they were on the old school horse name generator. Tim Tamm came up. Tim Tamm is so cute for a horse. Yes. The rest is history. Or even any kind of pet, I reckon, because if it's your dog, you can just call it Tim. Timmy. Oh, that's a great fact. I love that.

I also love Tim Thames. Yes, me too. They're so good. I don't remember who it was. I saw a TikTok recently of an American woman trying Tim Tams for the first time, and she took a bite and just lost her freaking mind. She was like, oh my God, it's so good. And I shed a little tear of patriotism.

I felt really proud to be Australian in that moment. That's so great. All right, let's thank some people. Do you want to kick it off and I'll get the horse name generator going? Right. You get the name generator fired up and I'll have some names here. First of all, I'd like to thank from Norwich. Uh-huh, down the road from Alan Patrick.

I can only assume Amanda Hully. Operation Jet Set. Oh, that's good. That's a good one. You can actually, I could see that happening. Operation Jet Set. I like that. Because, you know, they often do like when they, you know,

that you team up with the Canadian. Canadian police teams up with the Irish police to do some sort of like crack operation. And it's good. Amanda, thank you so much. I would next up like to thank from Carnegie here in Victoria. It's simply Jennifer. Operation Bullseye. Yes.

That's great and a great horse name. Bullseye, very good. Yes. Next I would like to thank from Bristol in Great Britain, a fantastic place we visited a few times. Mackenzie Tyler. Operation Rush Hour. That's good. How good are these?

These are really good. Because have you got it set to operation somehow? No. Because I feel like these are all better operation names than horse names so far. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Like jet set, you're like, oh, that's all right. Operation Jet Set.

All right. Jet set's kind of cool for a horse. Would you call the horse rush hour? I suppose that if they're racing, maybe. Yeah, that's kind of good. All right. All right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry I miss match the horse name, Jenner.

You're right. It was ridiculous. I would like to thank next up from Bay. Water in Western Australia, Madison Owen. Operation Pegasus. Yeah, that sounds good too. Yes, I don't know how, but it's really, because sometimes, just for a peek behind the curtain, often I have to like refresh these quite a bit to get something that's going to be

perfect. I've refreshed it once and gotten like three out of this, and I've got another one I can do from this. Oh, this is great. And then I'll refresh, but it's crazy how good this is working. Yeah, Madison Owen, Operation Pegasus. You can't complain about that. That's really good.

Yeah. Next, I'd like to thank from Springfield in what I believe is Missouri. But I will fact check that as Jess fires up the horse name generator. This is Curtis Prost. Operation Black Cloud. Oh, fuck. That is so badass. That is so badass.

Operation Black. Do you think that this is what cops do? Maybe. I mean, where'd they get magician from, you know? Yeah. Where do they get that? Nobody was doing magic. Yeah.

I love it. I think I should be a cop. Well, I should work in the copywriting for cops. I'll name your operations, boys. Off you go. You're easily influenced this week. You're like, I should be a cop. No, I should be a DJ.

I should be a DJ. I'm great at this. Hey, look, more often than not, I think I'm incapable of everything. So let's just embrace that for once I've gone, I could do that. Because that's a nice feeling. You absolutely could. You've already proved that you could be a DJ. Tick it off.

Don't have to do it again. You've won't. done. Nade just have to prove you could be a cop. Yeah. How hard can it be? How hard can it be? Just got to put your life on the line.

I would like to thank now from Brighton in Essex. Looks like it in Great Britain. It is Zach Huntley. Operation Milky. That one just sounds a bit gross. Yeah, it does. Operation Milky. Milky.

Oh, okay. I've just refreshed and I've got some really good ones. Do you want me to read some or do you want to keep going? No, this system seems to be working great. Okay, great. Here we go. Here we go. So thanks, Zach from Brighton. Next up, I'd like to thank from Maropna in the Australian Capital Territory. It's Caitlin Hall.

Operation Zanadu. Yeah. Zanadu. Incredible stuff. That, oh, my God. And then, like, for short, like Operation X. Yes. Very cool.

You are going to love the next one, too. Awesome. Well, the next one belongs to someone. We don't know where they're from. We can only assume they're deep within the fortress of the moles. Listen to this episode where we are quite popular. Emma Nicholson. Operation Molder.

Yeah. Kind of perfect that its location unknown because it's actually a different planet. Whoa. I didn't know Mulder. Oh, man. I love Mulder. So great. Thanks, Emma.

And finally for this section, we've got one operation ready to go. And it is from Wheatridge in Colorado. Thank you to Al Mason. Al Mason from Operation Capitaine. Capitaine. How good is that? That's really good. Oh my God.

This might be my favorite website. It never misses. It never misses. Do you have it? favoriteed. Is it in a toolbar somewhere? It is. Yeah, it is.

That's so good. On my laptop, which is what I usually have with me at the studio for the podcast, it absolutely is. But also, I just, I start to type in horse and my computer's like, horse name generator. Is that what you want? And I'm like, yes, please. Thank you. All right.

There is just one last thing that we need to do. And that is to welcome some people in to the Trip Ditch Club. Sorry, that was everybody, wasn't it? Shoutouts? Have I moved on too early? Fantastic. That is all and thank you so much to all of those people. And one more time of those people were Al, Emma, Caitlin, Zach, Curtis, Madison, McKenzie, Jennifer and Amanda. And the last thing we have to do is welcome a few people into the Triptitch Club.

Now, I'll explain what that is. It is an exclusive club for people who have supported us on Patreon.com on the shoutout level or above for three consecutive years and they are welcomed with open arms into this club. It's a very cool clubhouse. Think of it like a cool bar, lounge type space. It's got everything you could possibly want. We've got food.

We've got drinks. We've got a band. Matt is behind the velvet rope normally. He's lifting the rope. He's got a clipboard. He's reading out your names. Perhaps I'll read out the names this time, Dave. Because you can hype them up.

And it's a role that you do so well. And then I hype you up. So I'll read a name. You say something and I'll hype you. You know, I'll keep some momentum going unlike Matt who just kind of like shuts you down. criticises and completely disrupts the flow. So I won't be doing that.

I can't think of food and drinks. What about we have those do-go-on cakes that we gave out last night? Yeah, we gave out cute little custom cakes. I'm so happy with how they came out. They were adorable. Okay, three different designs that you whipped up, Jess, and they looked fantastic. I think I could be a graphic designer. I think you could too.

I'm getting cocky. You're on fire. I can do it. You're great. I feel like, have you seen a careers counselor lately? Oh, God. What was my careers counselor's name? He kind of sucked.

I think his name was Mr. Bruce. I don't think we had a great one on my school either, but I can't remember what they told me I should do. Mine told me to drop drama and take up biology, and I was the drama captain. What? And then I sort of went, okay, and was like, walking away, like, well, that's not going to happen. But then he went and told the drama teacher, Jess is going to be dropping drama. And then the drama teacher, and then the drama teacher, you're going to be dropping drama. Drama teacher came to me and was like, you can't drop drama.

You're the drama captain. And I said, I'm not dropping drama. And he said, what? I was like, who told you? Oh, Mr. Bruce tell you, I'm not dropping drama. That's crazy. All because I was like, I think I might be interested in nutrition. And he was like, well, you'll need to drop the one thing you're really good at.

I was like, I don't, why don't think that's a good idea? Anyway, he sucks. So, okay. But it's also, okay, food and drinks. It was a British topic. So we're having British food. what's that bangers and mash oh bangers and mash yes please

a pie with peas full of eels and we're having pints oh what about bad pizza you loved it you loved it I like it I like all their food we had one horrendous pizza at a hotel near the airport I think there might have been two horrendous pizza

I think it's two from two to be honest but we did have one fantastic fantastic one. Where was that one from? There was one, it was at the venue that had hen in the name. Oh, hen and chicken. And they brought us some food in our little backstage area. And that was a fantastic pizza.

That's in Bristol. That's right. The comedy box, the venue there. Fantastic. But the worst pizza I'm talking about was, it was on our, like, last night. Remember we put ourselves up in a hotel for the last night just to, like, have some space. and gets a hotel near the airport too. The hotels near the airport are never good.

And we couldn't be fucked going anywhere because we were so exhausted. So we all had room service to our rooms and it was terrible. But I didn't care. I didn't have to leave my bed. Yeah, exactly. And they had Poirot on the TV and that's a country. I respect. Yes, that was great.

Oh, great. Anyway, okay, so let's welcome some people in. Have you booked a band by any chance, Dave? You're never going to believe it. What? I couldn't believe my ears when you said this episode is about the Millennium Dome. Why? Because performing their album, Millennium, in full, it is the back street boys.

David, get the fuck out. Can you believe it? I can't. I don't believe it. I refuse to believe it. Let me just read you the first three tracks of this album. Larger than life. I want it that way.

What? Show me the meaning of being. lonely. That's just the first three tracks. Oh my God, we're going to have such a good time while we're eating bangers and mashed and having pints.

And I'm going to demand that they wear those white outfits that they're wearing on the cover that I'm looking at right now. They look so great. And they'd look really good now when those guys are in their 50s. That'd look really good.

All right, are we ready to bring some people in? Yes, so I'm going to hype these people up. Here we go. This is their big member. They're running in. They're running into the club. We're high-fiving him.

You're high-fiving them. No, I'm hyping you. Okay, here we go. Absolutely. From Auckland in New Zealand, please welcome Roy Salazar. Salazar. Salazar. Yeah.

Like, I don't have to do anything. That's such a great name. Salazar. It announces itself. Exactly. Like, it's, you know, the last name may as well be Shazam. Exactly right. It's the same kind of sound.

An explosive name. Oh, fantastic. From Sydney, New South Wales. It's Tim Everingham. You're Everingham to me. Every thing to me. Yes. No, it's.

It was very clear. Good job. Yes, welcome in Tim. From Wellington in New Zealand, please welcome Hillary McKay. More like hilarious McKay. Oh, my God, he's so good. Yes, hilarious McKay. From Canton in GA.

Is that Georgia? Must be Georgia, yeah. Tyler and Mandy Edwards. The Tyler's the limit hit the Mandy bar. Oh my God, are you kidding me? What is this? I don't know. That's straight from the dome.

from the Millennium Dome. Is this just that you needed somebody, oh, fuck, that was very good too. Is this just that you needed somebody to believe in you? Because Matt's usually like, oh, pretty like, ugh. Yeah. So then he has a go at one and it's so bad. Anyway, okay, yes. From Orange and New South Wales, please welcome Megan.

Megan. So good to see you. Yeah, no. Very clear again. You nailed it. From Braintree in Essex in Great Britain. It's Joe and Pippa. Oh, my brain tree is exploding right now with joy.

Joe and Pipper. Flo and Skiper. Shipper. Yeah, Flo and Chipper. That's what I say about you. And finally, I would love to thank from three hills in Canada. Where in Canada? A-B.

I don't know where that is. I think is that Alberta? Oh, yeah, probably is. Elbota in Canada. Jesse Malps. Well, you went up one hill. You nailed it. You went up a second hill.

You're there. You've gone up three hills, and I bow down to you, Jesse Mel. Yes. We did it. Thank you to Jesse, Joe and Pippa, Megan, Tyler and Mandy, Hillary, Tim and Roy. And congratulations on being welcomed in on the 400th episode. That's quite a milestone. This, yeah, this is one to remember.

You'll never forget that you were part of the 400th episode. Yeah, and we'll never forget. Never. Never. But that's everything, I guess, isn't it? Have we done it? We've done it for the 400th time. That's it. I can't believe it.

I can't believe that. I would just like to say before we go that if people wanted to suggest a topic, they can. There's a link in the show notes. You can also go to our website, do go on pod.com. You can find us at Do Go On Pod on social media. And remember to wash your butt. Great advice as always. Hey, we'll be back next week with the 401st episode of the podcast.

But until then, we'll say thank you so much for listening over the years. And until next time, it's goodbye. Otis, bye. 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.

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