Two In The Think Tank - 451 - The Pierre Hotel Heist

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

The Pierre is a luxury hotel located on the Upper East Side, facing Central Park. And in early 1972, it was the target of the largest hotel robbery in history... This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 08:06 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodSupport the show on Apple podcasts and get bonus episodes in the app: http://apple.co/dogoon Live show tickets: https://dogoonpod.com/live-shows/ Watch Do Go On The Quiz Show: https://youtu.be/GgzcPMx1EdM?si=ir7iubozIzlzvWfK Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/  Instagram: @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/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://www.insideedition.com/how-the-men-behind-the-infamous-1972-heist-of-new-yorks-pierre-hotel-were-never-officially-caughthttps://discover.hubpages.com/politics/The-Pierre-Hotel-Robbery-A-Daring-Heist-That-Shook-New-York-Cityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Hotel_robberyhttps://nypost.com/2016/04/10/last-living-crew-member-opens-up-about-infamous-hotel-heist/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Calm. Let's do it. Yeah. Acas powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Get ready to sashay into Season 2 of Think Queen. Your fiercest drag queen is back in the lab, honey, serving up even more STEM realness. We are kicking things off with an iconic guest, the GOAT of STEM, a legendary astrophysicist, you guessed it, it's Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Join me this season as I spill the tea on everything from the chemistry of love to the wild world of clear animals. So get ready to gag on knowledge and tune in to THINK QUEEN, where the world of STEM gets a major makeover. Acast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and as always, I'm here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart. Yo yo yo, Jess Perkins in the house. Uh, uh, Tallyho, good day to all.

Who's that? You have to say who you are. Oh, hello, it's Matt Stewart in the manor. What a lovely manor it is. I can see you behind there. You are streaming in via satellite. We can see you from the manor. We can see the grounds, the stables behind you. Yes, yes, yes. I have 17 horses. streaming in via satellite. We can see you from the manor. We can see the grounds, the stables behind you. Yes. Yes. Yes. So I have, uh, 17 horses. 17. Yeah. One just gave birth. So it was always a sweet 16 stables. That's what it's called that.

You're going to have to change your name now. Pretty frustrating. Or put one hand up as misery. Okay. I mean they are all miserable. That's something we should say. You guys did first out, I think. Get rid of that foal. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Wild foal. Howard, you're free.

Oh, okay. Yeah. I was getting rid of it in a different way, but yeah, no, free is better. That's much nicer. How would you, how would you? I don't think I want to get into it. Okay. I think that's probably the right call.

Matt, do you want to explain how this show works? Oh, sure. Yeah. The way it works is one of the three of us selects a topic, usually based on a suggestion from a listener. We take that topic away, start researching it, really jump in it, bathe in it, absorb as much as we can, put it into a report, everything we've learnt in sort of like, you know, grade 10, year 11 sort of school

report. And we read it out to the other two while they, to be honest, go on tedious dogshit riffs and interrupt. Don't even bother putting our hands up. No. No. Mias, can I do a dogshit riff? None of that here. And no, it's not year 12 level work.

Oh my God. No. Absolutely not. Year 10, I reckon. Yeah, year 10 is probably right. Year 9 maybe? Year 9, 10, 11. Year 9, but like they're pretty clever for year 9. Yeah. So a good year 9, but a shit year 11.

An average year 10, but a shit year 11. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excellent. We peaked it. 100%. I think I was all three of those actually. Yeah, I was just thinking that too. I was like, that's probably about how I went.

The brakes started hitting. The brain started slowing. Coasting in nine, 10. oh yeah, he's still going. Eleven, uh oh. Yeah, oh no. Should I be thinking about an apprenticeship maybe? That's not really hit the finish line hard. Dave, can't relate, can you?

No, I didn't hit the finish line hard either. I probably peaked in grade one. Oh, you reckon? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, OK. I was really good. You're really good with blocks. Really good with blocks.

You knew what a triangle was straight up. Triangle. Triangle. Anyway, what bit do we get up to explaining it? I think we've got through the gist of it, except to say that it's Jess's turn to report and we always start with a question to get us onto the topic because Matt and I were really completely in the dark. We don't know what you're going to talk about. Well, my question to get us onto that topic is what is listed in the Guinness Book of

World Records as the largest, most successful hotel robbery in history? Oh my gosh. Whoa. Also, I did try searching on the Guinness Book of World Records and could not confirm if this is true, but a few sources say this is the largest, most successful hotel robbery in history. But they didn't say about Guinness didn't rock up on the day and said to the person like wearing the full burglar outfit.

Congratulations. Here's your certificate. I just need to verify a few things and then. Well, the burglar would have had to have brought them along. They would have had to pre-organize to have someone there to verify. Yeah. Sorry, don't worry everybody. He's the guy without the balaclava.

That's Greg. He's just here from Guinness and. With a clipboard. And at that point, I wonder if Guinness is then obliged to call the police. No, I think it's Guinness client confidentiality. That's nice. They're there to do a job. Yes.

Do either of you know of any hotel robberies? No. The Ritz. Not the Ritz. The Ritz robbery would be cool though. That would be cool. To be fair, it's not a hotel I'm familiar with, but it's in a pretty big city. One of the big ones.

So it's not the New York Big Four Caravan Park. It's not the New York Big Four Caravan Park, but it's that's the right kind of area, I guess. New York is the right kind of area? Or Big Four, I'm not sure which one is. I'm going to put you out of your misery. It is the Pierre Hotel in New York. Oh, the Pierre Hotel. The Pierre. So when you said the right kind of area York. Oh, the Pierre Hotel. The Pierre.

So when you said the right kind of area, you meant the exact right place. Well, I don't know where the Big Four Caravan Park is. OK, good point. A lot of those Big Four's are actually quite outside the town. You know, it's like the Marimba Big Four, but it's like 20 minutes out of town. So I don't know. New York. The New York Big Four could be in fucking New Jersey, for all I know. Probably would be.

Don't the two football teams, the two New York football teams play in New Jersey? I mean, what's going on there? What's going on there? If that's true. Yeah, if that's true, that would be ridiculous. If true. But there's no way of us to verify that. Big disclaimer there. If true. If true. Ridiculous. Yeah, I can't believe the Rams play in Seattle. That's weird. If true. If true. If true, ridiculous. Yeah, can't believe the Rams play in Seattle. That's weird. If true.

If true. If true. So the topic today is the Pierre Hotel heist. It's been suggested by one person, Emma from Germany. And it caught my eye in the in Jack the Hat McVitie, where people can suggest topics. And I put it up to the vote. Our Patreons voted on it. And of course, it had heist in the title. So, of course, they were on board.

You weren't searching for Pierre. I wasn't searching for Pierre. I was just actually, I was randomly scrolling, to be honest. I went to like some of the most recent and just sort of scrolled up, just having a bit of a look around. That caught my eye. Good on you, because that can be an overwhelming experience because there is over ten thousand suggestions these days. So it is hard to find.

Putting a topic up for the vote can take hours. Yeah, because you've got to find usually three, if not four good ones that you'd be prepared to do if they won the vote. You have to sort of quickly do a check and make sure like, is there enough information on this? Yeah, that's right. The preliminary search. And yeah, it takes it takes a weirdly long time just to put up the topic for a vote. But the Patreons have spoken and they have chosen this, uh, this heist topic, which is not a surprise really.

Honestly, I'm excited. I would have voted for it. I don't know what the other options were. I would have picked it. Love a heist. There were some other good ones too. And you know, it's coming up to free choice for me, so I might get around to them anyway. Great, great, great. Was it three Pierre options? So like, cause Pierre Cardin, uh, the, great, great. Was it three Pierre options? So like, is Pierre Cardin the fashion person? I guess. Yep. I guess that's a person.

And of course. Isn't there a chef? Yeah, Chef Pierre. Something Pierre White? Oh, Marco Pierre White. Marco Pierre White. Was an option. And also then the St. Kilda Pierre. Oh yeah. Because I've never known how to say that word. Is it Pierre? St. Kilda Pier. Oh yeah. I've never known how to say that word. Is it Pierre? St. Kilda Pier?

A lovely pier. A lovely pier. Sorrento Pier. Oh my goodness. Dromana Pier. One of the best, the three best piers in Victoria. I'm going to start calling piers piers. You certainly must go on the Sorrento Pier. That's funny. That's funny stuff.

Oh la la. Instantly classier, isn't it? Yes. Oh, really? The Pier really classes up the Mornington Peninsula. to Pierre. That's funny. That's funny stuff. Instantly classier, isn't it? Yes. It really classes up the Mornington Peninsula and it needs it. Yeah. Oh my God. Disgusting. Dog shit down there.

You could get a house, what, three, four dollars? Ridiculous. I've got about 18 houses down there. Burn them all down. Worthless. Okay. So a bit of background for starters on the Pierre Hotel. It's a luxury hotel. It still exists.

It's on the Upper East Side on East 61st Street and Fifth Avenue. Oh, Upper East Side. Sorry, Jess, Upper East Side. That is where the Big Four is. Oh, OK. I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure. But that makes sense. They would put a Big Four on the Upper East Side. It just fits in.

Yeah, right next to the Nanny house where they filmed The Nanny that I almost went to when I went to New York last year. That is the humblest of brags. I almost went there. Okay, I'm going to New York in a few months. Please go for me. I'll go. Please go.

And give it a good review because a lot of people, I'm sure I talked about this at the time, have given it a bad review because they were annoyed that it was just the outside of a house that are actually apartments and they can't go in and experience the nanny house. Like it's some sort of tour, even though that has never been advertised. Yeah. People are great. I love people on the internet.

Anyway, so it's a luxury hotel. It opened in 1930. It had about a hundred employees at the time. Still open today, apparently with over a thousand employees. It's really expanded. That's huge. In the late 50s, some of the apartments were sold to private residents and some of the notable permanent residents of the pier have included Elizabeth Taylor, Mohammed Al-Fayed,

the then owner of Harrods and the late designer Yves Saint Laurent. Oh my goodness. So you know, we're talking fancy. I looked up their rates, the cheapest room available. And I was looking in sort of summer. I just picked a random date in July and the cheapest room was 865 a night. US. Whoa.

And that's $1,300 Australian per night. And is that like the janitor's closet type room? Yeah, it was, it was just the basic room. Sleeping with the moths. Which is still, still very nice, but you know, not my architectural style. Yes, a lovely closet. Lovely closet. Lovely closet.

A beautiful closet. That's a threat that the janitor mafia make. Hey, we're going to make you sleep with the mops. It's very damp in there. Yeah. A lot of mold. You'll get a cough. It's not very nice at all.

That's for sure. Will not be comfortable. Yeah. A lot of mold. You'll get a cough. That's for sure. Will not be comfortable. Was that Harrods guy the dad of Princess Diana's partner? Don't yell Fired. Oh, yeah, possibly. Yeah, it is. Yeah.

Yes. So at one stage lived in the pier. I thought you'd be more shocked at 1300 bucks a night. That's a lot. I know that for the cheapest room. Yeah. Matt, did you look up the penthouse? I didn't even bother. It would be tens of thousands.

And obviously it's more to have a park view. So I'm pretty sure that cheap room, it looks over a car park or something. It looks over the big four. It's just right, yeah. You can see the kids on the swimming pool. That big bouncy thing. Yeah, there's always a big bouncy thing there.

Not quite a trampoline. But it's like a half dome. Yeah. It looks dangerous. Yeah. I love it. Almost a jumping castle, but not quite. Yeah. Very, very, very weird. People were living there as well. So like that's that's a that's a lot for like monthly rent, let alone

daily rent. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's and that's yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's, and that's, yeah, it's wild. And it was most, it's still mostly hotel, but I think there are still, like, permanent residents there. I was just trying to convey this place is fancy. It's very fancy. And in early 1972, it was the target of the largest hotel robbery in history. Unverified. Guinness is still waiting to verify.

So let's meet some of our main characters in today's story. What I've actually written here is let's meet sour main characters today. Sour? Oh. I must've meant our, and I was writing late. Anyway. But I want to, are there any sour individuals? Uh, yeah.

Okay. No robbery? First two people to introduce are Samuel Nalo and Robert Comfort. How good is that name? Bobby Comfort. He should start a motel business. What would he call it? Bobby Comfort's motel business.

Not the Comfort Inn motel business. Not the Comfort Inn or anything? Okay. Bobby Comfort's motel business. That's good. I would love to invest. Is Robert Comfort, is he some sort of butler? No. Oh, that'd be amazing. They're both professional thieves. Okay.

Bobby Comfort. I love that you can go pro as a thief. Well, yeah. Maybe it's just, maybe it's, oh yeah, I wonder when you do consider yourself pro. Maybe it's sort of like when you start to consider yourself a comedian. It's sort of like some, if it's different for everybody, sometimes it's a certain number of gigs, sometimes it's like certain amount of money or- I think yes, when you have to start filing a tax return as a professional, I think.

Yeah, yeah. I think that would be a good sort of indicator that you go, okay, I can really call myself a comedian now. I've got my own accountant now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm making money from this now and yeah, so maybe it's about that. But you know, everyone's different. Yeah, it started out as a hobby and a passion. Yeah. And you know, they say, work a job you love, you never work a day in your life and that is- Absolutely not true. Blessing.

Yeah. You work more. You never really switch it off. That's the thing. So they're professional thieves. They've previously performed major robberies at the Regency Hotel, the Drake, the Carlisle and the St. Regis. I don't know what any of these are, but they all sound sort of fancy, you know.

Nalo was apparently the main planner behind all the heists. Comfort, also a major organiser. They were sort of, apparently I think the top two. Right, right, project managing together. They'd also notably stolen a million dollars in jewellery and cash from Sophia Loren's suite in the Sherry, Netherlands hotel. Now I Googled this and found several archived articles from the 70s and And it seems like Sophia Loren was robbed a lot. Really?

Because I looked up like 1971 Sophia Loren robbery and I was like, oh yeah, cool, there's some archived articles here from then. But it was for a completely different hotel. And then it also mentioned that the year before she'd been robbed in London. And so I was like, I think, unless unless the, I even, I was like, maybe the hotels change names. I don't think that's the case.

I think they're two different places. So I was like, unless they've gotten mixed up and this is the robbery we're talking about, she's been robbed several times, several times from hotels. Why would you stop, stop staying in hotels? Yeah. What to stop trusting the people. Yeah. You keep getting robbed. She's, you know, like, uh, people with a valet parking or whatever, they throw their keys. She just does that to anyone.

Yeah, you know, a lot of women get home from an event and take off their bra. She just takes off her diamond one million dollar necklace and throws it at a valet. Darling, look after this for me. Ah, good to be home, throws it. Where did I put that necklace? Somewhere here. Somewhere here on the floor. I've been robbed.

Yeah, she's just losing a lot of things and then saying it's a robbery. Oh, I got robbed again! She's just really messy. Anyway, the team for the Pierre heist also consisted of another Robert, Bobby Germain, an associate of the Lucchese family, a crime family. Now the Lucchese crime family, I think I'm saying that right, is an Italian American crime family, one of the five families that dominate organized crime in New York City. Each family has territory and an organizationally structured hierarchy, and they report to the

same overarching governing entity. It's very interesting. So we have Samuel Nalo, Robert Comfort, Bobby Germain, and then we also have Nikki Seiko, Val Visconti. Oh, that's great. Donald Frank-Francos, that's a good one. Donny Franks. That's a good one. Donnie Franks.

Don't know heaps about the three of them and sort of what their roles were, but we also have a contract killer who worked primarily for the Albanian mafia. His name was Ali Ben and his brother-in-law, Al Green. Really? Yeah. The singer. The singer. I know.

Wow. Four, five, six, seven, eight. We've got eight, eight people in the crew. Okay. So the gang arrived at the Pierre hotel at 3.50 AM on January 2nd, 1972. At 4 AM, Al Green dressed in a chauffeur's uniform, drove a black Cadillac limousine up to the hotel's 61st street entrance. Cause it's the middle of the night, all the other entrances are closed.

This is the only way in. Right. And you got to go undercover with a limousine. Yes. Cause Bobby got out of the limo and told the security guard, we've got a reservation, Dr. Foster, security guard calls the front desk, confirmed. Yep.

There's a reservation for Dr. Foster. This is Dr. Foster arriving at 4 AM. Um, that's because Bobby Comfort had booked and paid for a room for Dr. Foster. This is Dr. Foster arriving at 4 AM. That's because Bobby Comfort had booked and paid for a room under an alias because that was sort of the only way in. Hopefully he'll be claiming that on tax later on.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's an expense. So the security guard, he unlocks the door and was quickly held at gunpoint. Oh no. He's like, oh come on. I just let you in. I was just doing my bloody job. I checked. He's like, oh come on. I just let you in. I was just doing my bloody job. I checked.

Yeah. You got a Rezzy. You got a Rezzy white, you got a gun in my hand. Oh, come on. He's not having a good day at work. That's a bit much. Obviously they've chosen to arrive in the wee hours of the morning because there's going to be less people around.

That means less obstacles in their way. But the date of January 2nd was actually specifically chosen too. And I found this really great resource, sort of all about heists called wikipedia.org. And it said, most of the hotel's guests were soundly sleeping off their escapades from the previous New Year's Eve's extravaganza, which they'd attended wearing their finest jewels. The jewels were kept in safety deposit boxes downstairs until more secure bank vaults reopened at 9 a.m. that morning. So like the banks are closed on New Year's Day. So people are storing their jewels and stuff just in the hotel safety deposit boxes until they can take them back to

the bank where they're safe. Clever. Author Daniel Simone, who's written about this, said, they only had two securities on on duty at night. Most of the other luxury hotels had far greater security. And the second advantage to robbing the Pierre as opposed to the others was the fact that the guests were typically extremely affluent and wealthy. I mean, that's the same thing, isn't it? Affluent and wealthy? Yeah. You're just padding for words there, isn't he? But, I mean, it does make sense to target the wealthy.

I mean, you probably could have walked into the big four and held everyone up, but they don't have as much money as these people with the safety deposit boxes. Wow, Dave. Wow. Somebody hasn't stayed in the big four. Yeah, actually British ones have. That bouncy thing, that doesn't come cheap. That place has got two pools.

Two? You think you're paying bloody the cheapest rates you can. You're getting two pools? I don't think so. No, not on my watch, mate. That's ridiculous. Genuinely, they're not that cheap, Dave. But you know.

But they are, you know, a cheaper family alternative. Well, compared to the Pierre. Compared to the Pierre. Sorry, I compare everything to the Pierre. Sorry, I can pay everything to the Pierre. Yeah, you're not going to be paying 1300 bucks a night for a big four. That's true. That is absolutely true. But I don't know if it'll be that far off for like the deluxe cabin.

I think it'd be, it would be, it'd be up there. One time we went to Byron Bay and had booked accommodation for January instead of December and had to get the last Airbnb in Byron. There was also a music festival there over New Year's, so all accommodation was gone. We had to get the last Airbnb, which was a shitty little cabin in a Big Four. It had one towel and cockroaches and it wasn't cheap. So you know, but that was sort of demand and fuck ups on somebody's part. Who's? Not mine.

OK. Never mind. No, OK. OK. Coward. It wasn't me. She's looking at me. It wasn't me. OK. I booked a place with two towels. Anyway, still Daniel Simone here saying, it was known in those circles that many of the guests were loaded with jewelry, bearer bonds, cash, and they would use the hotel safe deposit box to store their valuables.

Why are they carrying bearer bonds around to a hotel? I don't know what a bearer bond is. They, you know, they're from die, you just steal them and die hard. Yeah, and also like- Stocks and such on paper, I believe. Sometimes people have got huge wads of cash in the safety deposit box, like over a million. And it's like, what were you going to be doing in New York that you needed a million dollars of cash? Like, how long are you there for?

You know what I mean? They have banks. You can go to the bank to get some cash out if you need it. You don't have to take a million out at once. In cash. But I guess they thought, you know, the banks are closed January 1st. You got to, just in case. Just in case. You know, you see the Lambo that you want. Yeah. Just in case you want to build it, you want to buy a hotel in cash while

you're there. So I get it. I take that back. So the crew held the sole security. Jess, can I tell you? Yes. Big four deluxe room. It's funny why you went quiet for a second. On the wit Sundays, only 211 a night. Oh, what a bargain. On the wit Sundays.

Deluxe room. Does it say how many towels it has? Unlimited towels. Unlimited. How many does it has? Uh, unlimited towels. Unlimited! How many does it sleep? Is it three? Can we go? Sleeps five.

Oh my god. Oh my god, we can all take a teddy bear! I was gonna say we can all pick up. Well, two of us could. Well, that's a queen. Yeah, Matt would never be able to pick up. Yeah, good luck, mate. Oh, I'll take the single bed then.

Yeah, of course. There's also a single bunk, so one up, one down, one on the single and two in the quaint. Do you, how many of the rooms at the Pierre have bunk beds? Oh, I didn't check. Does the Deluxe Suite have bunk beds? I'm sure it does. Multiple, a room full of bunk beds.

They do have a hostel style as well. But that is a, on the Whitsundays, that's a bloody bargain. That's great. Okay, yeah. So we, you know, we were saying the big falls on that. That's pretty good. Yeah. For five as well.

I mean, I'm sure that's for a family and I'm sure the kids are contributing. So you split that five ways. Yeah, exactly. That's nothing. Hey, son, I'll just give you my bank details if that's okay. You just transfer me for your share. Thank you. So they had the security guard.

They took him captive, took his clothes, which one of the thieves put on. So now he's pretending to be a security guard. I thought that they were like really desperate. They're like, just in case this doesn't pay off, we'll have to sell the security guards clothes. That's what you thought. Yeah. We'd have to sell the security guards clothes. And how much would you get for a security guard outfit?

I don't know, 30, 40 bucks? Yeah, what do you reckon? In the 70s? In the 70s? Probably a pair cut down. It'd be like real designer stuff. Yeah, it'll be good stuff. Yeah.

Okay. It's just a backup plan. And once you open the safety deposit boxes, then you give him his clothes back. You say, I don't need this anymore. I've made three to four dollars. But until that point. Yeah, yeah. Because he's got to cover for the, you know, the up-fronts that Bobby Comfort paid to book the room.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So you got to at least break even. You don't want to do a job and be paying for the privilege. I mean, they are passionate about it for sure, but. Yeah. I mean, sure, when you start out in comedy or robbery, that short, sometimes you are sort of paying money.

It's a full exposure. Exactly right. Yeah. But you got to get back what you can. You got to take the free drink cards. I reckon, did Bobby Comfort go straight to the breakfast buffet and say, just give me an hour in here. Yeah. I'll load up, I'll eat as much as I can and then we'll open the boxes.

Yeah, I think that's, that would be reasonable. And I'm sure the breakfast buffet is open at 4am. Is the omelette bar open? Actually, this is in New York, isn't it? Cause I think, I think, um, open mics over there, some of them you do have to pay to be on. Right. Okay. Yeah. So maybe that is fair enough over there. Different culture. Yeah. Yeah.

That's crazy. But whatever. Hey, it's the home. It's the home. It's the home of, I think of it as the gym. That's where I go to work out. Also the minimum spend for each customer when you go in there. Do you drink minimum or that kind of thing? A beautiful place. Can't wait to spend so much time there.

Okay, so they rounded up all the staff members who were working and a few guests who were unlucky enough to not be in their rooms at this time. Frankos guarded the 61st street entrance, handcuffing anyone who confronted him and leading them to Visconti, who brought the hostages to a large alcove near the registration desk where he ordered them to lie face down on the ground. How many handcuffs does this guy have? That is so funny you mention that, because several articles do mention how many sets of handcuffs they have.

They had three dozen, apparently. That is crazy. That's a logistic. That's crazy. Well, they had the number of hostages grew to ultimately about 19. Oh, OK. And they were handcuffed, but gently. They didn't handcuff anybody who looked ill or sick, and they referred to their hostages as sir and miss.

They never raised their voices. They were very polite in terms of, we're robbing the place, but just, you know, just chill out and it'll be over soon. So they all, they were all dressed in disguises as well. Nalo wore a huge wig, fake nose and eyeglasses. How big are we talking? It's funny that it says huge wig. Couldn't get through a doorway.

He's having to like dump. He has to pull the sides in to get through doors. I'm not going to fall like Marge Simpson. Yeah. Straight up. So it's tall. It's really tall. It's not necessarily wide. It's very tall. It's hard fool like Marge Simpson. Yeah. Straight up. So it's tall. It's really tall.

It's not necessarily wide, it's very tall. It's very tall. It's hard to run too. He's off center. It's quite heavy. Yeah. Oh, oh, put these handcuffs on. All the burglars wore gloves and carried guns.

Nalo forced the hotel auditor to provide the index cards that matched the boxes to the depositors. So they had these little records of whose safety deposit box was whose. They only broke into lock boxes of people whose names they recognized, which were not names that I recognized, but the examples given were Harold Uris, who was a real estate entrepreneur, Tom Yorkey, who was a major league baseball executive, and also apparently ahead of the heist, Bobby Comfort had apparently befriended a woman who worked at the pier who oversaw records of what was in each safety deposit box.

So they also sort of had that. And so they knew which ones particularly they wanted to target. As in like he befriended her, like, so she became part of it or he just got a bit of information out of it. I think he got a bit of information out of it. I think he got a bit of information out of it. Just by chatting. Yeah, yeah. And then they, I think ended up having like a bit of a list of, so they knew this one's

probably more worthwhile trying to break into because it's got X, Y and Z in it. This one, it's only got like 50 bucks, don't worry about it. I feel like that wouldn't even be that sus, you know, Bobby Comfort. If you met someone and their job was knowing what was in those things, it'd be something you could ask without being like, hang on, why are you asking that? You trying to rob us? You know, it would be interesting. Are these celebrities staying there?

What do they got in their lock boxes? Don't you reckon? Well, I turn into like a game like, um, deal or no deal. I bet you don't know. I bet you can't remember them all. Like, for example, I bet you don't know I bet you can't remember them all like for example I bet you don't know what's in number 17 oh really you know that one how about 18 19 but actually now I think about it there's no way for me to verify if you have some sort of master

list of what's in all these things then I could quiz you yeah give me the answers and I'll say all right number one and he's just sort of taking all in yeah he's got a photographic memory that's brilliant you're right Matt that's not suspicious at all. I think if that was your job, you'd shut the fuck up, you know? I would probably not be telling people stuff. What, but this guy just met her. Surely, surely a guy you've just met. Oh yeah, you're right actually. Shit, sorry, I forgot that element of it.

You're giving him the benefit. A guy I've just met, I'm telling him anything he wants to bloody know. Somebody I've known a long time, I'm putting the wall up. Okay? Because I know not to trust them. And I'm going, why do you want to know that, eh? Why are you asking how my day's going? You, sir, you sick son of a bitch.

All right, Dad, you're weirdo. Get out of here, Dad. Anyway, so four of the criminals comforted the hostages in the lobby, kept them calm. Bobby comforted them. Bobby comforted them. That's good stuff. And, and it's unclear exactly who a couple of the different resources say different people were the ones downstairs in the vault, like breaking into the boxes.

Um, one resource says it was Sammy Nalo and Nikki Seiko, others say it was Robert Comfort, not 100% sure, but they used everyday tools to begin raiding the safety deposit boxes. Time was of the essence and so the group used records Comfort obtained from this woman who worked at the hotel to plot out a strategy to target the safety deposit boxes containing the most precious and expensive valuables. So they have a lot of info that they need. Great. To really maximise their yield. Yeah.

So over the next couple of hours, the gang got to work with a couple of them working on breaking into the boxes while the others kept watch of the hostages. And a few hours have gone past. So presumably the breakfast buffet is opening and these people are handcuffed, missing out on the breakfast that they've paid for. And you want to get there early too because otherwise you're getting like the dregs. Oh yeah, yeah, the worst little, the last bits of baked bean or the crispiest bacon that's just beyond.

Yeah, it's not fun crispy. It's just, it's- No. Oh my god. I'd be furious at these guys if I was saying the omelette bar is only open until 8.30. Yeah, it's not fun crispy. It's just- No. Oh my god. I'd be furious at these guys. They'd be saying, the omelette bar is only open until 8.30. Breakfast at hotels are always a strange time.

It's always 6 till 8.30 or 9. Like, when a breakfast ends by 9, I'm like, fuck you. Yeah, I love when they're open till 11. 11! That's what it should be. 6 till 11. On holiday! I know some people are up early and they're sickos! Yeah, they're disgusting. But, ugh, what about the rest of us who are

on holiday and want to have a little bit of a lie in? Yes, please. Okay, Jesus Christ. Breakfast is served from 6 till 6.30. I'm like, fuck yeah! Yeah, when they try and make it really difficult to get in. Yeah. Then out of spite, I'm there at 6. You wake up, have too much food and then go back to bed. I look like absolute shit because I haven't showered, because you didn't give me any time to, so I'm in my Pidgeys still. I'm shuffling in there, give me that food! This part I read made me laugh and I think you'll enjoy it as well.

This is from Inside Edition, who quotes Claire White, the Director of Education at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, said, they know that a hotel environment is going to pose all of these risks and they're willing to absorb some of that random chance. And that is one of the things that does make this into such a Hollywood story. So this is, among the moments unable to be accounted for ahead of time was the uncovering of an affair between a newlywed staying at the hotel and his apparent mistress. A newlywed? Yes.

So. What? You can't even make it through the honeymoon period? Isn't that wild? He missed his mistress. Oh, okay. No, I didn't think about it like that. Yeah, no one ever thinks of a mistress.

That's love. He missed her. She probably wasn't even allowed to go to the big day. Yeah. So it's one full day, hasn't she? No? Yeah. Can you believe that? What, you go one full day without your mistress? Come on, mate.

Come on. So this is all from Daniel Simone, the writer who's written a book about this. He says, there was a newly married couple in the hotel and it turns out that the groom, a Brazilian magnate, had planned on seeing his mistress in one of the other rooms of the hotel after his wife, his new bride, would have gone to sleep. However, the groom's mistress was one of the hostages in the lobby. Unaware of what was happening downstairs or why the elevators were shut off, he made numerous calls to the front desk until some of the thieves, pretending to be hotel employees,

went to his room. They then took him hostage, waking his wife and her mother, who was along for the trip, in the process. Okay, I'm starting to understand why there's a mistress. Your mother-in-law is on the honeymoon with you? She's in the hotel room. Boundaries, lady. She's in the hotel room?

In like a different bedroom, but in the same sort of suite. Come on. But did they wake up the mistress's mother? She was also there. No, she slipped through. The robbers also brought their mothers. It was a different time. It was a different time.

You couldn't travel without a chaperone slash mummy. I do love the idea that he has been so annoying and called the front desk so many times, like, that's it, we have to kidnap this man. Yeah, this guy's really annoying. I'm so bored of his calls and complaints about the lift. We're busy. No one cares about the lift, mate. We've shut the lift off,

so nobody's fucking coming up and down, mate. It's four a.m., go back to bed, you idiot. Go to bed, what are you doing? Yeah. So when they brought him downstairs, they brought down the groom and his wife into this alcove. The mistress was dumbfounded to see him with a woman and the two women started squabbling. The mistress didn't know about the wife.

The mistress didn't know. She didn't know she was, she didn't think it was suspicious that he only came in for one hour at 4am every day. And stayed in a different room to her. Alright, I'm going back to bed now. Well, she has to, yeah, she must have known. So they started fighting. And of course, um, then that's when it's revealed that she is his mistress and that he was sneaking out of his room in order to meet her in the lobby to spend

the rest of the night with her in a separate room that he'd already booked. So Nikki Saco, one of the crooks, he was interviewed extensively for the book that Daniel Simone wrote about this. And he recalled the fight between the newlyweds. He says, there you're robbing this place and you got to listen to some marital problems that the guys just got married. What the hell did he get married for? Yeah, it's a good question.

It's a great question. Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Get ready to sashay into Season 2 of Think Queen. Your fiercest drag queen is back in the lab, honey, serving up even more STEM realness. We are kicking things off with an iconic guest, the GOAT of STEM, a legendary astrophysicist, you guessed it, it's Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.

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I'm so glad you had that bit because I thought it was pronounced Squarespace AI. Anyway, sell exclusive content on your site by adding a paywall to sell memberships or courses or sell files your customers can download. I don't know if I'm hitting all these words as intended like PDFs, musics or eBooks. I would love to buy Matt's eBook. I'd like to buy Matt's course and you can do that. Squarespace has the tools you need to create and sell your own online course.

Be more like Matt. Oh, one. I won. Wow. How many, does it go to one or two? It goes all the way to one or two. You can customize everything with next generation editing technology. You can create engaging lessons your audience will love

and then set the price. You can charge a one-time fee or sell subscriptions. Matt, how much is it to be more like Matt 101? Oh, three mil. Wow. Wow, like per month or? Yeah, USD. Awesome.

Head to squarespace.com slash do go on for a free trial and to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Squarespace.com slash do go on for a free trial and to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Squarespace.com slash do go on. Also from this inside edition article, there was an, this is the only place I read about this other wild part of, of the night. In another instance, one of the hostages suffered a heart attack. One article I read, so they learned that a guest to the hotel was a doctor and they went

and got him and then also kept him hostage in the end But you a doctor. Yes, put this handcuffs on come with me But the article on inside edition says comfort quickly sprang into action and called 9-1-1 what? He didn't want this man to die because then this wouldn't only be a robbery. It could have been a murder as well So the argument being that he wouldn't have had a heart attack unless you did the robbery, you therefore killed this man. Maybe, yeah. Oh my gosh.

He just didn't want anybody to die. They didn't want anybody to be hurt. Yeah. So, Simone keeps writing about this. He says, this is why this is such a daring, daring act that they did, but they did it in good conscience because their intention was not to hurt anybody first and foremost. The police arrived and they relocated all the captives inside the safe where the safe deposit boxes were stored.

They locked the doors so that even if they yelled and screamed, nobody would have heard them. So they just moved the hostages out of the way. The, um, like an ambulance turns up and the man suffering a heart attack, he was taken to the hospital. He ultimately survived, never mentioned anything to the police. What? About the heist. Did they say to him, you can't?

Yeah. Like threaten him or something? I guess so, yeah. Well, yeah, they did that to everybody else. So I assume they'd done that to him. Because that's the biggest risk is that, yeah, in the ambulance, he's like, oh, by the way. By the way, they're robbing the place. They're robbers. You might want to send some people back there. Did he leave? Was it like his wife left behind, maybe? And they said, maybe.

Don't say anything, because we've still got your. Miss O. Or maybe they said, your your mistress is upstairs and we will bring her down to your wife. Yeah. If you say anything. Every man in that hotel had booked two rooms. And he said, wait, which one? Oh, no, I've said too much. That man had booked two rooms. And he said, wait, which one? Oh, no, I've said too much. That man had booked eight rooms, hence the heart attack.

He was going at it nonstop and slept in a week. It was too much. Too many mistresses. Anyway, so when the police came, naturally, the police were concerned about getting assistance, medical assistance for this man. They didn't notice anything abnormal. Bobby Comfort was wearing a concierge's jacket. He acted like he worked at the hotel. And so the- He was wearing the jacket, but no pants.

No pants. Weenie the Pooh style. He's like, well, it's 4am. Yeah, he's standing behind a desk. They're like, oh, can you help us carry him to the ambulance? I can't come out there. I cannot. My pants are over there. I can't. But thank you. No, thank you. I'm telling you. His pants are burning in a bin in the background.

As every concierge does. Come 3am. Take off the pants, burn them, start fresh at 6. So all of this happened in the space of about two and a half hours. Wow. Crazy. It's a big night. It's a big night. This is very Hollywood movie. I can see the movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you can see it with a real ragtag bunch. It's got an Ocean's Eleven vibe to it.

Love that. You know, they planned it for ages. They got this guy who's good at breaking into stuff. And this guy is the tech guy. This guy is an actor. They always need an actor. Who is an actor? Yes. Yeah, they're sort of slightly eccentric and they love doing characters and costumes. And there's always a moment where the actor is sort of put on the spot and everybody else is, there's a moment where he pauses and everybody's like, oh no, this is the jig's up.

This is going to... And then he bang and he's into it and he's really convincing and amazing. And they're like, whoa! It's like in the A-Team where one of them is being spoken to in a different language and they're like, oh, fuck, this is this is going to be... Oh, he can't speak this language, surely. And then he does speak the language! And you're like, what?

And he's like, what you can't see is there's cue cards with the sounds written out behind the camera. Vincent D'Onofrio played that character in the Kevin Hart film that I watched recently is called, it's called, I can't remember the name, but it's something really it's like the drop or something It's something and then they go. All right, it's time for the drop They say it in the film. So it's actually really sick That's not the name though, I'm gonna have to look it up. I'm so sorry. Okay, please we'll bite

All right, I mean sure wasn't Vince Vaughn. I'm freaking confused with Vincent D'Onofrio. Oh Are you sure it wasn't Vince Vaughan? I'm freaking confused with Vincent D'Onofrio. Oh, no. I mean, no, I'm not sure. Hang on, hang on. Come on. Geez, it's done. Oh, lift. It's called lift and it's all about them lifting, like stealing things.

But do they say you've got to do the lift? They're going to do the lift. But I think his code to let them know that they're ready to go is, all right, it's time to lift. So good. That's inspiring. It's really good, actually. That's inspiring. Oh my God, the director's F. Gary Gray.

What a great name. F. Gary Gray. Yeah, F. Gary Gray. He knows what he did. You change your name by deed ball just to take a shot at Gary Gray. He knows what he did. You change your name by deed ball just to take a shot at Gary Gray. Cause your name's like Roger or something. Yeah. Roger Gary Gray.

I want to F him. Different. Oh, hang on. No, that's... All right, you can't change your name more than twice in a year. Okay, I'll have to wait a year and then I'll update you. Okay. So anyway, this is all happened in about two and a half hours. Love it.

Within that time, Bobby G and Bobby Comfort were able to... See, this is where it's saying this time... This particular resource was saying it was Bobby G. It was the Bobbies that were breaking in. But anyway, they were able to break in to close to a quarter of the 208 lock boxes in the vault. We got into quite a few in two and a half hours. And they just smash and grab.

You said it was just tools. Yeah, I'm not really sure. It was like drilling and hammering and that kind of stuff. Not 100% sure how, how, you know, precise they're being or how delicate or whether it's just like smash this shit open. Yeah. Interesting that they didn't- Dynamite!

Boom! Are the keys just not behind like somewhere? Great point. Great point. It's got to be keys. Yeah, it's got to be keys. But it's also, it's more fun to smash and grab. Yeah, I reckon it would be.

This is from the New York Post. After a little more than two hours, the robbers had four suitcases filled with loot. We had at least 75 to 100 boxes we didn't open, Sako said. It was time to leave, but Nalo wanted to open one more box he thought belonged to a princess. He was obsessed with these princesses, Sako recalled. I said to him, listen Sammy, we got four suitcases, money, jewels, and everything, buy yourself a princess. Everybody started laughing.

That's so good. Even in his memory, he's like, it crushed. Even the hostages saw the funny side of that one. Fuck yeah, Nicky, you got it. You got it. Buy yourself a princess, bitch. So, so strange. So at about 6.15, Bobby Comfort informed the hostages that they were leaving and to not

tell the police if they were able to identify anyone or they would be murdered. Oh, okay. If you figured out who we are and you tell them, we'll kill you. Okay, that's a proper threat. But so that's not that's a proper threat. But, so that's not, that's not very nice. But before departing, Comfort gave a twenty dollar bill to each hotel employee that they'd detained. They had more twenty bucks, except the security guards, because he sort of saw them as cops. But the other hotel employees that were hostages got twenty bucks.

So the cops, the security guards lost his outfit and he's down twenty dollars. Yeah, I wonder if they gave the clothes back or if they'd like sweat in them and he's like, I don't want them back. I'll dry clean these and I'll bring them back tomorrow. I'll bring them back tomorrow, but you are naked now. But without $20. You just got to get home from work and whatever. I think that Concierge is still wearing pants, just no top.

Yeah. No jacket required. That's the most important part of his uniform. He is going to be heavily penalized for that. More than $20 too. Imagine that Pierre's like, sorry, man, you really, you know, left a duty. We, part of the deal is you have to wear your uniform for the whole shift. No matter what.

So we're not paying you for this shift. Yeah. And he's like, I just fucking, it's all I got was 20 bucks. That's probably more than they'd make in a day. So maybe 20 bucks is actually quite a bit. I think it is. In the 70s. Pretty big, big, big money.

In the 70s. We were talking big money. In the 70s? We were talking about this the other day when my parents bought a house. Mum said something like she was earning $58 a week or something like that. Oh my god. So 20 bucks is probably quite a lot. Yeah, my dad would say like, on the way to school, you buy a can of coconut pie for 14 cents or something. Yeah.

What the fuck? So 20 bucks, you'd probably be quite happy with that as a tip. Yeah. It's probably a week's wage. That's a lot of pies. Oh, you know what? I'd be happy if somebody gave me 20 bucks, you'd probably be quite happy with that as a tip. It's probably a week's wage. That's a lot of pies. You know what? I'd be happy if somebody gave me 20 bucks now. Yeah. Realistically, if for nothing, somebody just said, do you want 20 bucks?

Yeah. Or just handed me $20? I mean, I wouldn't be upset about that. If you were quite, you know, probably fearing for your life for two and a half hours. Yeah, that's why I said for nothing. That's why I said for nothing. Not that. I just mean like, you just happened to have, you had too many $20 bills that were overflowing in your wallet and you're like, can you take one of these?

I'd be like, all right. I wouldn't be upset about it. That's all I'm saying. If you want to give me 20 bucks, go for it. That's very generous of you. You have my bank details. Anytime. Transfer me $20.

So they gave them 20 bucks. They left at about 6.30, just ahead of the hotel's incoming 7 a.m. shift. So they're like, before we have an influx of people arriving for work, we're going to get the fuck out of here. Clever. Apparently though, and again, I only read this in one resource, their getaway didn't go as smoothly as they'd hoped either. Oh dear.

This is from Daniel Simone again. As they attempted to make their getaway, one of their cars, a limousine parked in front of the hotel, wouldn't work after the car battery died. Another one of their cars then made an illegal turn to jump start the limo, which police nearby noticed. Rather than give the men a hard time for the traffic violation, the police gave the men a hand in jumpstarting the limo. That's sick. Oh no, we just jumpstarted the limo.

Oh, fair enough. Well look, you know, it's like 6am, not a lot of traffic. Yeah, boys will help you out. We'll give you a hand, but you know, do be careful, mate. All right? No illegal you-jams. This is a warning. Just don't do it again. You can't chuck an eerie just anywhere, all right? It's New York City. And they hate cops as well, so they just quietly run away. This is a warning. Just don't do it again. You can't chuck it you. You're just anywhere. All right? New York City. Yeah. Okay. And they hate cops as well. So they just pull out of the venue.

You fucking cops. So they've managed to get away with quite a haul of stolen goods. So that's twice now police have attended this venue. So they've managed to get away with quite a haul of stolen goods. Accounts vary a lot. But the main sort of amount that people say is that it's believed they made it out of the hotel with approximately three million dollars, which would be about 27 million today. I can't think about how many pies and cokes that is.

That's so many. If 20 bucks was a lot, three millions, that's too much. Unbelievable. All of a sudden those tips feel a bit tight, don't they? Yeah, true. But again, I wouldn't like three million today. Of course, that's going to buy you a lovely home, set you up. You'd be comfortable.

I wouldn't say no to three million. OK, if somebody, if somebody wanted to give me three million dollars, I wouldn't say no to that. It's good to know your scale. You know, it's it's life altering, not life changing. Three million. Yeah, it wouldn't change a thing. It wouldn't change. It wouldn't change.

It would still have to work. Still have to work. But it would certainly help a little bit. It would still have to work. Just a lot less hard. Because I already work very hard. I don't know what Bobby Comfort and the others are going to think of you taking the whole three million.

No, I'm just saying if of you taking the whole three million. No, I'm just saying if somebody wanted to give me three million. Like Bobby, Bobby, one of the Bobbies, if you just want to give me all of your cut and everyone else's cut, I would take it. I'd take it. I wouldn't. I'd be all right with that. So the New York Post says the heist made headlines for weeks, but media accounts of the time said the men got away with three million, far less than the 28 million Simone believed was taken. He reckons it was 28 back then. Oh, wow.

Some things he says were like, it's the modern equivalent would be $450 million or something like that. He says it's a lot more. And he offers several reasons for the disparity. One is that Comfort and Nalo didn't disclose the full size of their take because they didn't want to share it all with the other criminals. Another is they simply may not have realized the value of some of the jewelry and the wealthy victims of the robbery may have had reasons for not fully reporting their losses. How do you explain to the IRS $3 million in a safe deposit box?

Yeah, right. Or you've got a necklace that's worth $300,000. But yeah, where did you get the money for that? That kind of thing. So it could be that some of the wealthy, maybe slightly dodgy guests that were robbed. This is great. Good news, a victimless crime then. Yeah. If they if they have lost like three mil and don't want to report it because

that'll beg other questions. Yeah. So they're just happy to have a loss of three million dollars back then. Yeah, they're probably they're fine. They're OK. None of the hostages were hurt. Everyone's OK. Good. I mean, they were out just inages were hurt. Everyone's okay. Good. I mean, they were out just in time for breakfast because it closes at 6.30.

Yeah. So, no one missed out. They all got breakfast? No one missed out. But what do you do with that kind of cash without rousing suspicion? That's the other thing with jewels and stuff. You have to sell them to get the money for it, right? Exactly right.

It's not cash or... So, from Claire White again, she says, you can plan a burglary, but what you can't always plan for is how to sell off those goods. You can't take a $500 bill to the corner convenience store and use it to buy goods. Yes, I did then immediately Google $500 bill and they were a thing. What? Wow. They were taken out of circulation a long time ago, but they were still legal tender. So I think even then they weren't.

Oh right, so that would raise even more alarms, wouldn't it? Yeah, absolutely. People are like, $500 bill, we haven't been making them in my lifetime. Exactly right. Why are you spending this at the milk cart? They used to have like, a thousand, two thousand, five thousand notes. Isn't that crazy? That was like a $50 million bill. Because I was like, is she just being hyperbolic? Like, you can't take a bloody

$500 note somewhere else. No, that used to exist. Wow. The last $500 bill wrote off the press in 1945, formally discontinued 24 years later. Copped that President William McKinley, who was on the front of it. Oh, brutal. The McKinley family must've been shattered. Yeah, because their legacy.

So yeah, she's saying you can't take a $500 bill to a corner store. You've got to find someone who's willing to take it and launder it for you. You can't take an eight-carat registered diamond to a normal jeweler and expect them to purchase it from you with no legitimate paperwork. So you've got to find ways to launder this money, to sell off these goods. The New York Post says, Seiko said he had a little trouble getting rid of his share of the loot. He and his compatriots had had contacts in the city's jewelry districts on 47th and in those days, Canal Street, or as Matt says, Canel Street.

Wait, I just said the same word twice. They found experts who ground away any identifying marks on the gems they'd swiped. So we'd lose half a carrot, Seiko said, but they didn't care. The stones were set into new rings, necklaces and other settings and sold jewelers across the country. That's a lot of hassle. And you're losing a bit of value on the jewels. And that's all that matters.

This is where it becomes a job. Like the passion is the highest. This is when you realize you're a professional. You know, you think like, oh yeah, the job's only going to take two and a half hours, but really the work that goes into it after the fact, it's a lot of work and then you kind of have to weigh up, well, how much am I getting here? Half a mil? Is it worth it?

Is that worth the dozens of hours I've had to put in here? Dozens! Literally dozens. Dozens! How do you think they divvied up the jewels? Do you think they all put them in a pile and they just got to pick like you were picking a soccer team in high school? Yeah, you're first picking at the blue big one.

The big red one. That's mine. I wanted the big red one! Well, I got first pick. Sorry, you're next. I want the big red one. Well, I got first pick. Sorry, you're next. I want the big blue one. And then it comes up to my turn and like a really famous diamond walks in. Hey, what's going on here guys?

I'll take the real famous diamond. Oh crap! Meanwhile, the NYPD didn't have very much to go on. With no surveillance cameras and no one talking. It was not going to be an open and shut case for them. Claire White thinks that the way that the thieves treated the hostages probably helped. She says, one thing that I think the crew did really well was treat the hostages in a way that really did make them think that they should not tell the police anything. I'm not defending these criminals, but I do think that that that behavior is above and beyond in a hostage situation Because they were nice to them not because of the murder threat because of that one nice to them nice to them

They were just like hey, he's 20 bucks. I'll kill your family if you tell all right And she's like I think it's cuz they were nice You know, it's just so nice and not because they said I'll kill you family because the handcuffs were loose. That's right It wasn't too tight. I was comfy. It was okay. I got a bit chilly. They got me a blanket. They were fluffy cuffs. It was Very nice. I actually felt quite sensual They let me keep them For me and the mistress one of the money But Daniel Simone also thinks that perhaps there's another reason the people in the hotel didn't want to speak to the cops.

So this is essentially what I was saying before, but I'll read his quote. Many of the captors who had items that had been stolen, they didn't want to admit that they lost anything. They didn't want to admit that they even had any items of value in the safe deposit boxes. I mean, how do you explain to the government, to the IRS, that your 84-carat necklace was stolen? Because the question may present itself, well, where did you get the money to buy a necklace for $300,000? Yes.

So that's so funny. Who's the real criminal here? It's just, they're just, they're just taking the loss rather than facing, um, jail. So the police apparently suspected that Samuel Nalo and Robert Comfort had something to do with the crime. They were known to police, but ultimately couldn't prove it. But the Crocs didn't exactly get away with their crime. Oh, meddling kids?

It's always meddling kids. According to Wikipedia, Nalo went to a Lucchese family consulieri, Christy the Tick Fenari, to fence the stolen goods. I'd never heard fence, but it's like hiding the goods. Right. You gotta fence the goods. Fenari demanded an outrageous 33% of the take. Nalo became so enraged that he transported the bulk of it to a friend's house in Detroit.

Nalo also owed a lot of money to illegal bookies and his whereabouts at one point were revealed to police by an informant. He was arrested as was Robert Comfort for having stolen items in their possession, which were items from different robberies. Had nothing to do with the Pierre. They never gave up any information about the Pierre hotel robbery. Never said they had anything to do with it. Both Comfort and Nalo served four years in prison.

Another source said 19 months for possession of stolen goods. Their charges were not, again, not connected to the Pierre Hotel robbery. In fact, the case of the Pierre Hotel robbery remains officially unsold. Oh my gosh. Mystery? It's not quite a mystery, but it's still fun. Exactly. Good one. So they got away with it.

But the story's been told. Yeah, because other people have since told their story. So what happens- Is it like a statute of limitation sort of thing? It's more- well, we'll find out in a sec. So what happened to the others, and most importantly, the loot. So shortly after the arrests of Comfort and Nalo, Nalo's friend in Detroit became nervous. They were the ones, like he'd gone and dumped all this stuff with them.

So they got a bit nervous because they got arrested. So they turned over $750,000 in jewels to police. Millions more in currency and jewels were taken by another friend of Nalo's who absconded to Mexico and was never heard of again. Ali Ben and his brother-in-law, Al Green, read in the newspaper about the stolen property recovered in Michigan and perceived that Nalo had tried to swindle them out of their share. And so they fled the country to

somewhere in Europe. They had some money. I think maybe Nalo had more. So they were just like, let's get the fuck out of here. And they just went and lived like kings in Europe for a bit. From Wikipedia, Robert Comfort then fenced the jewelry to mobsters in Rochester, New York, to the New York mafia. The mobsters kept the loot and when Comfort attempted to retrieve some of it, they nearly murdered him. What loot? Donald Frankos was supposed to have received $750,000 and was enraged that all he initially received was 50 grand.

Over time, he was given a total of 175, the same with Bobby G and Val Visconti. Seiko received about two million. Oh wow. So it's all like really, so I reckon it probably is the case that Nalo and Comfort, it was a much bigger haul than they'd let on, so they were holding on to more. But we're not, we don't know. Robert Comfort ended up with about 1.5 million. Samuel Nalo received his jewels that his friends hadn't stolen. So they were both still fine after this robbery.

Donald Frankos chiefly blamed Nalo for the ripoff and vowed to murder him. And in 1988, Samuel Nalo was murdered by an unknown gunman, although it was not Donald Frankos, but maybe maybe or somebody associated with. So Samuel Nalo was killed. Frankos did, however, murder both Ali Ben and Al Green in 1981. Oh my gosh. Although I'm not entirely sure of the motive. Two sentences earlier, it says he was also angry at his co-conspirators, Ali Ben and Al Green, but Frankos knew that they too had been cheated by Nalo.

Right, but he killed him. And he killed him in 1981. Robert Comfort died of cancer in 1986. Oh, wow. And the only one who was still alive a few years ago, I assume still is, is Nick Sacco. That's the curse. It sounds like they robbed Tutankhamun's tomb. Well, they were also all connected with mob families.

So they were involved in a lot of like dangerous crimes. I don't see any correlation here. What are you saying? There's a lower life expectancy for mob connected people. I think so. I think I've read that. Yeah. It's sad.

Sad actually. They're all cursed. We have to do something about it. This is a quote, it says, Seiko owes his longevity to the witness protection program, which he entered in 1975 after telling authorities what he overheard in jail about a mob triple murder. So he's been in witness protection ever since. Since 1975? Yes.

And this happened in 1972. Wow. He collaborated with author Daniel Simone on his book at the Pierre Hotel Affair, which was released I think in 2015. Oh, so that was just about the mistress. Just about the mistress. It was my own, yeah, there was like, it's like a 400 page book. 300 of that is about the fight between the mistress. It's really in depth. That's not the best way to be in witness protection though, is to publicly write a book.

Yeah. Well, there's a New York Post article written and it says, he and Simone speak on the phone and share documents via Seiko's post office box in California. They've never met in person and Simone is not sure California is where Seiko really lives. Oh, interesting. So Seiko is sorry, his days as a crook are over. I get lonely.

It's so boring, he said of his life today. I miss it. That type of money, I never would have had that type of money in my whole life. When you're born to poverty and you start making money, it's different. Yeah, wow. So that was a few years ago now. He was in his late 70s, so he may still be alive. He may have passed, not really sure, but he's the only one who kind of

survived after the eighties. The rest of them all died of, the others that aren't really mentioned, I think just sort of died of unknown causes. But yeah, Donald Frankos killed a few of them as well. Wow. Wow. So. Does feel like a curse. Yeah, it does a little bit.

But yeah, that's a story suggested by one person into the hat. Great one. That was really fun. And so that's the story of the Pierre Hotel Heist. Has there been any movies on that? Because it feels like it could be a movie. There is a documentary series hosted by Piers Brosnan. P.S.

P.S. Brosnan. Bit of fun. That's fun stuff. Lovely. And there's an episode about this. And he's doing his natural Irish. I hope so.

Beautiful voice. I hope so. Piss Brosnan. Don't get me started. Do not get me started. So yeah, there you go. It was called, can you say it again? Because I'll do it in the proper French accents.

The Pierre Hotel. Heist. Pierre Hotel Heist. Beautiful. That was the most you've enunciated when speaking French ever. It was nice. It was nice to see. It was nice. It was nice to see. It was a nice.

It was nice to see. Well, there you go. Well done, that was great. That's very, very interesting. Thank you again to Emma. For Emma from Germany for suggesting that one. If you, yeah, if you come across a story you think makes for a fun report, chuck it in the hat. Please do.

You'd be surprised. Sometimes it is just suggested by one person. Sometimes the topics, you know, you find it, you go, that's interesting, and you search and it's been suggested by tens of people. That's right. But we need your suggestions. We love them. Yes. You can do that at our website, dogoonpod.com, or there's a link in the description of the very episode you're listening to right now. Anyone can submit it anytime. Just a short little form.

And you really should. Yeah, we want to know. What love is. Cool stories. Yes. I want to know what love is. Please, Sholos, please. I want you to show me.

I knew we'd jone in. Ding do ding dong. Well, that brings us to everybody's favourite section of the podcast. When we kick Matt out. Yeah, exactly. And then the real podcast begins. Yeah, we've said goodbye to Matt because he was zooming in from Brisbane. And quite honestly, it's technically annoying.

So we're like, you just go, we'll handle this. Yeah, there's a bit of lag and made it a little bit, a little bit harder. So he's gone off to have some breakfast at 1pm and we are, he's doing that festival lifestyle. We are here to do the Patreon section, the section to show where we dedicate a little bit of time to thanking the people that support the show at patreon.com slash do go on pod. That's right. Also a link in the show notes and people support the show in exchange. They get they get a range of benefits, some awards, rewards.

Yes. What do they get? They get to vote on the topics that we do. This one was voted on by some of our Patreons. They get to have early access to any live shows that we do, any events that we put on. We tell them first. Tell them first with a discount code. That's right. There's also the Facebook group,

the most beautiful corner of the internet. And we also currently do three bonus episodes per month. And there's over 200 in the back catalog that as soon as you support us on the bonus episode, level or above. You get them. You get access to that. So it's literally hundreds of hours of bonus content where we do reports, we do Phrasing

the Bar where we've nearly watched every single Brendan Fraser movie over the last three and a half years now. I think there's one movie to go. At the time of recording. At the time of recording, it might even be out now. The Killers of the Flower Moon. Yeah. I think we'll have watched it by then.

But then there's also fun stuff where we got, for example, go through a childhood book that I wrote in grade six. Go through it in detail. We'll play our version of Celebrity Heads, which we now call, Am I a Dead Woman? Exactly. So there's a lot of fun stuff there. And we should mention as well, something we haven't talked about enough, and it's probably pointless because the people listening to this are probably the Patreons.

But if you are in the car and just haven't turned off the episode yet and you're not a Patreon, we also have ad-free. We have an ad-free episode up on our Patreon as well. So if you're listening to this and the ads kind of do your head in, you can join up over on Patreon. You get access to all of those bonus episodes. You get 200 new episodes you can listen to, and you can listen to these episodes ad-free. Ad-free, and also those bonuses, they're all ad-free as well.

They're ad-free as well. So that's just a little something for you. Ad-free. And also those bonuses, they're all ad-free as well. They're ad-free as well. So that's just a little something for you. Something to enjoy. The first section that we are going to do, I can read these if you like, Dave, but it's a little section we like to do and I believe it has a jingle. It goes a little something like this. Fact quote or question. Ding.

Oh, he always remembers the ding. So if you're going to read it, I'll explain what it is. So the fact quote or question is basically. Hang on, I just have to say, I always remember the ding. So if you're going to read it, I'll explain what it is. So the fact, quote, or question is basically... Hang on, I just have to say, I always remember the sing. Okay, now go. Thank you. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Matt usually is in charge of this part of the show, but basically people submit on this level or above a fact, quote, or a question, a brag, a suggestion. Basically it's a way to be part of the show, to submit some content for us to chat about. And they also give themselves a nickname. Yeah. Or a title. They do. And first up on the Fact Criter question, we have Nathan Hanson.

Nathan has given themselves a title. Sometimes I feel like I'm a seahorse. Sometimes I think that I'm a horse, shoe, crab. That's beautiful. Oh my God. And Nathan has given us a suggestion, which I love to see. That's right. Hopefully it's not go fuck yourself, but we'll find out. That would be- that would hurt.

We're having such a nice day. That would really, that would really throw me off, if I can be honest. So let's see. Hopefully Nathan's been nice. Okay. Here we go. Cause we don't ever proofread these. We never proofread these.

So that's why we fumble through them a lot. Okay, here we go. Because we don't ever proofread these. We never proofread these, so that's why we fumble through them a lot. Exactly. Here we go. Nathan says, I recently traveled to Texas to view the total solar eclipse in April. I highly recommend anyone with a chance to see one of these celestial events to do so. It's one of the most amazing experiences I've had. There will be one in Spain in August of 2026 for all you European listeners. Cool.

And in July of 2028 in Australia. Oh, put it in the calendar. That's very cool. Thank, and in July of 2028 in Australia. Oh, put it in the calendar. That's very cool, thank you. That's a really wholesome suggestion. I love it. It's not like, I think you guys should shut the fuck up. Or I think maybe the episodes were better eight years ago

when you were much younger and dumb. You know, cause we can't change that. But this is just a wholesome suggestion. That's lovely. Like here's something everybody should do. I can't remember ever seeing a proper eclipse. Did that ever happen? I remember as a kid, a lunar eclipse was happening,

and I asked mum if I could stay up to watch it, and she was like, go to bed, I'll wake you up. Oh no. And I woke up in the morning, I was like, you didn't wake me up! And she's like, are you kidding me? I woke you, we sat outside for like an hour looking at it. And I have no memory of it.

And to this day, I feel guilty for like having a go at mom, but also I'm a bit sus. That sounds like, yeah. I'm like, I think you forgot. And you gaslit me. What are you talking about, Jess? You loved it. We loved it.

We sat out on the little swing chair we had out there. It was nice. And you said I was the best mom ever. And then we went back to bed. And you said you were going to be a very good girl today. I can't believe you've forgotten. Gut feeling, do you think it happened? Yeah, I would. I do.

If it was dad, I'd be like, he was lying to me, but I don't think mom would. Dad would have slept through and just gone, oh, you did. But mom would have actually gotten up in the middle of the night for her child to see it. She's a nice lady. Um, thank you, Nathan. That's very wholesome. And I'm, I'm delighted for you that you got to see that. Very cool. Love it. I'm going to Texas and I'm excited about it. I imagine they have these eclipses all the time.

All the time. I think it's a Texas thing. It's a nightly thing. So yeah, I'll just go see that. Whatever night I feel like it when I'm in Texas. Next up we have Brayden Douglas. Brayden's title is Pizza Folder 5000, which I love. That's excellent. And Brayden has a question. Brayden's question is, oh, it's, it's kind of a long one.

Here we go. Hey peeps, yesterday in the office, I referenced something that I realized isn't a common cultural touchstone or anything. And it got me thinking, do any of you have a common reference or in-joke that's mostly just for yourself? Like if you said, I'm walking here, everybody would know what that was about. But if you reference some kind of kids cartoon from 30 years ago that no one, but you watched, the reference would go over everyone's head.

In my case, the other day while my coworker was folding some paper, I went, uh, you call that a fold in reference to a probably 10 year old Domino's ad in Australia for the New York style pizza range, where they had a little skit with a New York Italian guy saying, the slice is so big, you got to fold it. And then he's, then he's ma heckling him with, you call that a fold. I kind of thought that was a recent and recognisable enough that other people would know it. But yesterday I realised it only made an impression on me. Anyway, love the pod.

Bonbon. Now, Matt, obviously, this would be a great question for Matt, because he does reference ads a lot and we never have any idea what he's talking about. Always ads. Because they're from, like, early 90s when he was an old man, but we were babies, so we don't remember. That's like 89% of his entire memory is ads. I'm sure there is stuff that I think of all the time and I can't, oh, you put me on the spot, but there's definitely like TV shows and movies that I reference that, or that

I, the phrases from it that I say that nobody really understands. Yeah, I'm sure there's... The first time I ever saw Alan Partridge was when I was 11 on a plane. It was just something you could watch on the plane. And I watched his TV show, the sitcom. I didn't think I knew Alan Partridge had been around for that long. Oh, yeah, since the early, like, start in the early 90s. Oh, shit. OK, cool.

And then it's been through many different iterations, like he hosted a fake chat show and then this is I'm Alan Partridge, which was just a sitcom. And my whole family didn't watch it, but I did. And I there's a a bit in it. I'm trying to remember now because I have watched it since. Such a great show. A lady singing. And he interrupts her and says, don't sing, Susan. It sounds bad.

The whole trip. And even when I came back to primary school, I would just say that line and no one had ever heard of Alan Partridge in my class. Don't sing, Susan. Sounds bad. Yeah, there were always like, yeah, movies that we referenced a lot. My brother and I watched Wayne's World a lot together. So fantastic.

There'd be lines from that that we would just. Shwing, swing. Yeah, shwing. Oh, I mean, we did one, we do one nearly every time we set up in this studio. Camera one, camera two. Yes, because there's three different cameras and we can never remember which is which. And I'm like, is that camera one? I say, and then we all go, camera one, camera two. Yes, because there's three different cameras and we can never remember which is which. And I'm like, is that camera one? I say, and then we all go, camera one, camera two.

It's from Winesworld. Classic stuff. I'm sure. Yeah, that's a great one. I reckon over the next week, a bunch will come to me and I'll say something and go, absolutely. That's the perfect answer for that. I think it's actually, yeah, it is quite a universal experience, but it would be with such different niche references. I think we all do it, but with different things. Very cool.

My wife now has it with TikTok, which I'm not really on. Oh yeah, okay. And she'll make it. Eww, brother, eww. Or she'll reference something and I go, that's really funny. Did you come up with that? She'll go, oh no, it's a big TikTok thing. And I'll go, well, you should have just lied

and said it was yours. And I would have been like, you're a genius. Okay, we have a running joke in my house that I'll say something funny and Aiden will go, where's that from? And I'm like, me, I just said that. I'm just saying it right now. And so then it's become this joke that he doesn't believe me, the comedian could

have possibly thought of something funny. Could have possibly come under that. Very good. So that's good stuff. Um, thank you, Braden. Pizza folder 5,000. That's excellent. And finally, Austin Horst.

Austin's title is placeholder. Add think of cool title to my list. And I hope, I hope you did and I hope you have a cool one for next time. I don't know why I'm having to go. And Austin has given us a question. Austin's question is. Are we buzzing into this? Ah, yes.

Okay. What's your answer? 640. Incorrect. Hey guys, it's been a while since I've submitted an FQ&Q. I'm very good at procrastinating. A while back on the weekly planet, James and Maiso mentioned that an Aussie show called Upright was great and worth a watch. I took their advice and really enjoyed both seasons of the show.

Being from the US, I don't think I would have discovered the show without their recommendations. My question this time is, are there any other Aussie shows, movies, other media that you love that I should check out? Definitely Jeannie from Down Under. Oh my god! Was that Reese Muldoon? I think it was! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that's a 90s show that was like a kid's... I don't think I know. Upright. Upright. It's Tim Minchin. That's the only thing I know about it. Oh, cool. Well, you've given us a suggestion.

I think Fisk is on Netflix internationally now. Watch Fisk. That's great. Fisk is great. They're short episodes. It's very funny. I really enjoyed it. Marty Sheagold, very funny in it. Julia Zamiro, very funny in it. And the old version of Thank God You're Here as well was fantastic.

Newer one? Right. Not so much. I'm trying to think of other classic Aussie shows that they might not have heard of. Or just any other sort of like, any Australian movies or just TV shows that you think are good? Yeah, I've really enjoyed Fisk. We don't get to make a lot of stuff to be honest. Yeah, I'm sure there's a bunch.

Oh, fucking Deadlock. Oh, yeah, I didn't actually get to see that yet. The Cates. It's fantastic. I've heard great things about it. It took me a little while to get into it because it's dark visually, like on purpose, and, um, it sort of starts kind of heavy or like there's characters that are just a bit annoying. Stick with it because it is, it's fantastic. So yeah.

On the ABC it's not funny but a couple years ago the news reader, did you ever watch that? No. They've had a second season of that. That was- It looked great. Very good. Yeah. Very good.

Good one. You can find the newsreader on from the ABC somewhere online. Good on you for giving it a go. Yeah, give Aussie stuff a go. Thanks. Thanks. On behalf of Australia. You might get to make more stuff. Oh god, that'd be nice. So yeah, there you go. That was our fact-quota questions for this episode. Thank you again to Austin, Brayden and Nathan.

Well, now we get to do another bit of thanking Patreon people by thanking them, by reading out their name and then usually Jess comes up with a game connected to the episode or the topic in some way. We give them a little nickname, a little shout out in some other way. What about what they've got in a safety deposit box at the hotel? That's great. So we've smashed it open. We're in the vault, smashed it onto the floor.

What have we seen? What have we seen? What questions do we have to ask? What the heck? I love that. So do we seen? What have we seen? What questions do we have to ask? What the heck? I love that. So do you want to go one for one? Yeah, let's do it. Beautiful.

I'll kick things off if you don't mind. I would like to thank for supporting us on Patreon. I'd like to thank from Fairbolt. Sorry. The size on my screen is not enough. I've zoomed in a bit. It's Faribault. The size on my screen is not enough.

It is not enough. Zoom in. It is not enough. I cannot see. It is not enough. Okay. Yeah. I've solved the problem now. Yeah.

From Faribault, Minnesota, which is the the problem now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. From Fairbolt, Minnesota, which is the county seat of Rice County, Minnesota. I've now looked it up. Sam Temp-all. Oh my God. Sorry. They've gotten too big because now you're blocking off. I'm doing a letter by letter. Sam Temp-all. Sam Tempall from Fairbolt.

Sam Tempall. You know what's in their safety deposit box? And this is quite embarrassing. Their hotel room key. Sam Temple from Febbel. Sam Temple. You know what's in their safety deposit box? And this is quite embarrassing. Their hotel room key. They can't get into the room. They're actually thankful they've been robbed. Yeah, they're like, oh yeah. Actually this is really helpful.

Yeah, thank you so much. Thank God. Thank you so much. Honestly, thank God to you. So we had to crack that open so that Sam could get back into their room. Thank you, Sam.. Thank you Sam. So good one Sam, but really the safety deposit box mate, they are actually for like higher valuable things.

Not just your card. I would like to thank from, oh, what is this place? Belgium? Would that be Gent or Gent? How exciting. This is great. Is it Belgium? Dave's be Gent or Gent? How exciting. This is great. Is it Belgium? Dave's looking it up.

It's Belgium. Wow. Very cool. Well, from Belgium, I would like to thank SJA. SJA. I can tell by your email address that those are your initials. Also, it's not like C-ger or something. Yeah, it's not like C-serer which is S-Z-A.

Gotcha. It's just S-J-A. What is Ghent famous for is when you look it up, Ghent is a special place. It has three towers and the Ghent altarpiece. Holy shit. A vibrant energy due to its many students, magnificent museums, medieval streets,

and countless cultural hotspots. That sounds absolutely divine. And we have a wonderful listener there. How exciting. And what has SJA left in the safety deposit box of the hotel? Left inside the safety deposit box is, and thank goodness we're getting it out because it was getting a bit hungry, a killer python. A real one, not the lolly that we have here.

What? An actual python. But you couldn't just say python because you're a child who grew up in Australia in the 90s, so you just had to say killer python. Which was just a really big candy snake. They were awesome. They were so big. It ruled.

They were really, really good. And they'd be different colors, so sometimes they'd be different flavors as you went along. I want a blue head. Yeah. It was very important to get the right one. That's great. Okay, so they kept a python in a safety deposit box. Yeah. And again, like if it gets stolen, they're not going to say anything because possible

possible they don't have a license for it. Yeah. You got a license for these things. I'm going to just pronounce now from Google, how you say G-E-N-T. OK. Gant. It's Gant. It is Gant. We got it. Thank goodness. Do you want to thank the next person? I'd like to thank from a location that is unknown to us because it has not been shared through Patreon.

I believe that means they're probably deeper than the fortress of the moles and trying to cover up their tracks. It is Xavier. Xavier. X Xavier. I think I like when people say X Xavier. Like it sounds cooler to even though Xavier makes more sense. It sounds cool for sure.

But also in Australia, we always shorten that to Zave anyway. Yeah. So you'd be Xave. Xave. I don't like it. Xavier. Xavier. And your email implies that you have possibly a surname or a second name that starts with C

in case you're not sure. This is you. This is you. This is you, baby. Xavier actually left in the safety deposit box because Xavier was at the hotel for a wedding. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a groomsman in the wedding.

In the Ysive wedding? Um, yeah. And left his whole suit. Shoes, pants. Rolled up in there? Because it was like a three piece. So the vest, shirt, blazer, the boot, the little button hole, the little fucking, what's this called? Lapel. The lapel flower thing. Yeah. That's not a boutonniere, is it?

Maybe. Sounds good. Sounds good to me. It's all in there. It's all in there. Cuff links. Just sort of rolled it up like a sleeping bag. Rolled up, chucked it in there.

And then went back up to, you know, have some morning mimosas with the boys in preparation because that's what the boys do in preparation for weddings. And then they're all like, where's your suit? And he was like, oh my God, such a deal. I went down there to get the rings that were kept in the safety deposit box and instead I put my suit in one. What am I doing? And then he was quickly demoted. I'm falling apart. Yeah. Kicked out of the party. Kicked out. Kicked out. Can't be trusted. So yeah, this has pretty serious consequences. I would like to thank from Myrtle beach in, is that South Carolina? I believe it is. Oh my goodness gracious. I would

like to thank Robert Hamlin. Robert Hamlin, smash open Robert's box and inside it is, it's just a, the four of diamonds card and then a little post-it note saying, is this your card? Whoa! And you know, one in 52 chance that it might be. That's cool. That's a ball of move. I like that a lot. Claudia Robert, your magic. I would like to thank also from Tempe, Arizona, it's Evan Burger Mini or Burger Meanie. Oh, that's a good name.

Also, a mini burger. Your name could basically be Evan Slider. That's good. That's good stuff. And actually what's inside the safety deposit box is Evan's great-grandmother's famous family recipe for sliders. Oh, wow.

She made the best mini burgers. And those kind of recipes, like Coca Cola recipes, literally in the vault. Really? Locked away. Really? Yeah, do you remember, I did a report on it. Of course I do.

Seven years ago. Yes! You remember, it was like- I loved every detail. Possibly our first ever live show. Really? At the Melbourne Comedy Festival, 2017. God, we were babies back then.

We were. But this, what I'm saying is the Slut recipe, that's very valuable. It's very valuable. That's why. So I hope the crooks haven't overlooked it. I hope they've put it in into the bag. Oh, good point. Yeah, they opened it like, oh shit, we shouldn't have opened this one. Paper. Just a bit of paper. What a waste. It's not even a bearer bond, whatever that is. Important paper. That's good stuff. On you, Evan. Thanks, Evan. Sounds like you're sick, it's actually safe. I would like to thank thank from Newlands in Wellington over in New Zealand, it's Tani Lapine. Oh, Tani Lapine.

That's a great name. Don't mind if I do, Tani Lapine. And inside Tani Lapine's safety deposit box is a Venus flytrap. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Shove my gosh. Yep. Shoved it in.

Wow. And it's going okay without any daylight or? It's a bit like when you open one of those jars. So they open the safe deposit box and the Venus flytrap kind of goes like boing out. So it's pretty scary. Wow. And then it will obviously like eat you. It attacks you.

So it's just an extra level of security. But does it sing Little Shop of Horrors style? Yes. Absolutely it does. It's pretty exciting stuff. I would like to thank from, oh, how do you say this place? Is it Poo Yarlop? I think you might be right. Have we had this before? Just, it's ringing a bell. Oh, I looked at WA as well thinking it was Australian, but it's Washington. Okay, I think that's what's happened last time. Yeah, yeah. Is we've thought it was Poo Yallop. It can't be Poo.

Okay, I'm gonna do this. No, I don't want the British pronunciation of an American place. Give me this. Okay, here we go. Here we go. We're gonna, we're gonna hear it. Poo Allop. Poo Allop. Poo, Poo Allop. Poo Allop. Poo Allop. But we're just, yeah, just do it. That's perfect. In that accent. Poo Allop. Not Poo Yallop. Poo Yall it. That's perfect in that accent. Puyallup. No, Puyallup. Puyallup. That's what it would be in Western Australia. Yes. But in Washington, I would love to thank Brian Duthie. Brian Duthie. Brian Duthie, maybe?

Duthie? Inside, that's it, if he's from WIOB, Duthie. Inside Brian Duthie's safety deposit box is a bar fridge. And inside... What? Stocked? Stocked with basically everything you get in a hotel, like one beer, one can of Coke, one white wine.

$15 worth of M&Ms, which is actually very small. Some Pringles. A Pringles, yeah. Small Pringles. A biscuit. Oh, yes. High-end chocolate. Yep.

Yep. You don't touch any of it. Yeah. It's all been sitting there for years. But if you were to take them out, have you ever been, I've never seen it, but my mum told me about once there was a place where if you pick it up, you get charged. Yeah. You've waited. No, I've heard of it as well. I'm not saying fancy enough places. So she picked up to have a look and then they put it on the bill. She's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, didn't have that. But that's what Brian's got as well for double security so no one can rob his bar. Very smart. Very smart. Is it your turn? Yes. Yes, I think I would like to think from Ashland. I believe this is Oregon.

All right. Ethan Robison. Ethan Robison has got inside the safety deposit box a gun. Oh my gosh. And so the cop, the criminals break it open. They're like, whoa, they look closely. It's actually cake. Sorry, bad time to take a sip.

That's great. I've been getting really into TikTok videos that are, is it cake? Is it always cake? It's not always cake. Oh right. Cause it's not very satisfying if it's not cake, right? You're like, oh, I've just seen a chest of drawers. But sometimes you're like, that looks, that's 100% real.

That's a real orange and then they cut into it and it's fricking cake! Yeah, that's, see that's satisfying. It's really fun. But you can't, can't be cakey every time. So this is a cake gun. It's a cake gun. It's safe. So one of them's picked it up and like tried to point it at someone and then Ethan's like,

come on, mate. And then they've like pulled the trigger and realised it just crumbled because it's cake. Oh no, oh no. Incredible stuff. It's marzipan. It's marzipan! they've like killed the trigger and realised it just crumbled because it's cake. Oh no, oh no. Incredible stuff. It's marzipan. It's marzipan. And finally from us this week, we'd like to thank from Sandusky, Ohio, which Matt would

say is God's country. Fantastic. Agreed. Martin Drabik Hampshire. What a name. Incredible name. Martin Drabik Hampshire. And inside the safety deposit box is my mum.

What? Let her out of there! Annie, get out of there! Annie! What are you doing? And inside the safety deposit box is my mum. What? Let her out of there! Annie, get out of there! Honey, what are you doing? She's being punished for lying to you about the eclipse all those years ago. Get out of there, you bloody goose. But she's happy, she's got a little pillow, she's reading a book.

You know, it's a happy place. I'm having a sleep in here. She's actually just having a bit of peace and quiet. This is the only place I didn't think I'd be found. Dad had the bloody whippersnipper going, she was like, I need a bit of pee and quiet. This is the only place I didn't think that would be found. Dad had the bloody whipper snipper going. She was like, I need a bit of pee and cue. I'm going to New York. I'm going to New York.

I'm going to get in that safe deposit box and I'm going to finish my book. It's cheaper than bloody getting a room there, am I right? It's true. So thank you. Is that everybody? Yes. No. Yes.

That's everyone. Thank you. Martin, Ethan, Brian, Tarnie, Evan, Robert, Xavier, SJA, and Sam. And the final thing we need to do is see if there's any people to induct into the Triptych Club. We have a couple this week. So how this works is these are people who have supported us on the shout out level or above for three consecutive years.

They've already had their shout outs. They may have put in some fact code or questions. And this is just where we get to welcome them in for supporting us for three years, which is huge. It's a long time and we appreciate them so much. And we like to think of it as like a cool exclusive club. You know, I think of it as an airport lounge. Dave, you think of it as more as like a boys club.

Boys, boys, boys. Boys, boys, boys. Cause you're disgusting. That's not true at all. To me it's actually- Cause you're a bad man. I'm actually describing it as a ladies lounge. Oh my God. You can't have that.

Um, that's, that's a reference to, uh, a museum in Tasmania had an art installation called the ladies lounge that only let women in and a man sued. What a fucking loser. What an absolute loser. I'm gonna do it. Cause the whole point of the, of the ladies lounge was like a commentary on people not being allowed into certain spaces based on their gender, et cetera. I just can't believe it.

And so he sued. Who has the time? And he won. And then he went in there and was like, what's it all about? What's it all about? I need to get in there. I've got nothing else in my life. Shut up, you fucking loser.

What a loser. Anyway, that's the kind of man that Dave is. And so... No, no, no. This ladies lounge, what's just a lounge? We've got a lounge. Yeah. We've got a lovely lounge.

So enjoy it. Kick back. I'll just save you here, mate. How it works is that Dave, Matt is usually with the clipboard, he lifts the velvet rope, he calls your name. We cheer you in. I'm behind the bar. The bar is only open from 6.30 to 6.35, so do make sure that you get in for your breakfast.

I'm only opening at- That's good. You weren't listening. No, no, no, that's good. That's good. No, that makes sense. Half an hour. Love it.

That's good stuff. No, it was 6 to 6.05. Is that what you said? Yeah. Okay an hour. Love it. That's good stuff. No, it was six to six oh five. Is that what you said? Yeah. Okay. I wasn't listening. It was five minutes. Okay.

Get in there. Get in there, everyone. It's a bit of fun. And if you miss out, well, sorry. You got plenty of notice. We told you. I'm sorry. Wait for lunch.

And how long is lunch open for? It's from 12 till 12. 12. It's 12 minutes for lunch. That's pretty good, actually. That's pretty good. How much longer do you need for lunch? Yeah, just get it down. Now, Matt, usually you also book a band day.

Yes, and sorry, that's why I was on it for a second. I was just checking my emails to see if they're confirmed. I understand. And I was actually hoping that more of them would have said yes. I did reach out to the cast of Mamma Mia! The Movie. Meryl? Meryl isn't- Amanda? No, no.

OK. So a lot of them have said no. Bill Nye, is he in it? Bill Nye is not in it, no. Well, he? No, no. Okay. So a lot of them have said no. Bill Nye is he in it? Bill Nye is not in it, no. Well, he's also a no. Okay. I reached out to him by mistake.

Pierce Brosnan? Pierce is in! Colin Firth? No. Okay. Scarsgard? No. Okay.

Shit. Dominic, the guy who plays Amanda Seyfried's fiance. Let me just check. Dominic is a no. Okay. So, so far we have Piers Brosnan. Have we got Julie Walters? No. Okay. Rachel McDowell is a no.

Ashley Lilly is a no. Tommy Fransom who plays Stag, number seven, is also a no. Hen, number six, Christina McMillan, no. Is it just, sorry, I just wanted to check as well. Is it just the first movie or is the second one as well? I didn't realize it was a sequel. This is a sequel. It's fantastic.

Shares in it. Is sharing? No. Okay. So what you're saying is we have Pierce Brosnan? No, no, no, no, no. Okay. Well, yes to Pierce, but we've also got Lisa Reynolds who plays Hen number 21.

Wow. Back together at last, Pierce and Lisa performing in its entirety, the Mamma Mia soundtrack. Welcome to the stage Pierce and Lisa, aka Hen Number 21. Why did you go for the Mamma Mia soundtrack, if I may just ask that question? Um, well you're never gonna believe it. We talked about the Pierce Hotel and the documentary was narrated by Pierce Brosnan, who also stars in Mamma Mia. It was the Pierce Hotel.

Sorry, it is the Pierre Hotel. Nobody fucking listens to me. That is also a coincidence. That's good stuff. All right, so we have two people to welcome into the club. I'll read their name, Dave, you hype them up, I'll hype you up, okay? It's just going to be a big old hype fest. You're still not listening.

I'm not, because I could have got the guy from Simple Plans' name is Pierre, apparently. Next week. All right, be happy with Hen and Pierce, it's good. It'll be great. I mean, it's the songs of ABBA. It'll be good. Yeah, that's better than Simple Plan. They're fine, but ABBA's better. But ABBA's better. Yeah, sorry. ABBA is actually fantastic.

Simple Plan would admit that ABBA's better. I agree. They're not offended by it. They're a good band, but- But they're not ABBA. Exactly. ABBA are one of the great by it. They should. They're a good band. But they're not ABBA. Exactly. ABBA are one of the greats.

We all know their song. Even if you don't like them, you like them. Honestly, we should, when we stop for lunch in a few minutes, I'm going to play you Cher singing Fernando in Mamma Mia. Here we go again. That's brilliant. So we have two people to welcome in. Are you ready, Dave?

Yeah. So did you explain, you already explained that I hyped them up. That's what I'm about to do. Yes, but you don't fucking listen. No, because I was looking up pierce before I accidentally googled pierce and nothing came up. So anyway. Here we go. So first up from Milwaukee in Wisconsin, it's Kristin. They're Milwaukee here.

Shulred. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Shulred. Shulred be right. Kristin, this night ain't gonna miss him. It's Kristin Shulrud. Fantastic. And from London in Great Britain, it's Rachel Ball. I'm gonna have a Rachel. No, I'm gonna have a ball. The haircut. Give me the Rachel. Everyone's getting a Rachel tonight. We're all getting the Jennifer Aniston. Yes. We're all gonna have a ball, a Rachel bowl. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you, Kristen.

I'd love to have you on board. Enjoy the singing of Pierce and Hen 21. Please enjoy the lounge. It's a good name for a band, actually, Hen 21. Hen 21. Yeah. I like it. Thank you.

Or 21 Hens. 21 Hens, that was good. That's pretty good. 21 Hens opens for Hen 21. I'm just thinking merch wise. Imagine putting 21 hens on a t-shirt. Yeah. That's good stuff.

Look, the other thing we need to tell you is that, like we mentioned before, anybody can suggest a topic. So if you would like to, there's a link in the show notes. It's also on our website, which is do go on pod.com. You can find us on social media at do go on pod. We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook, we're on TikTok. We do go on podcasts on TikTok and we would love your follows, please.

Please. And also love on there. Yeah. Some love. And I can't remember. I think by now all, if not almost all of the episodes of our web series will be out. Yes. Eight episodes in total. Check it out now. Free to watch and enjoy at your own pace and leisure. Stupid old channel on YouTube. It's called Do Go On The Quiz Show. We have some amazing guests.

We had a really fun show that Dave works really hard on and Matt and I fuck around. Exactly. We all have a role to play. We're all very busy. But yeah, it's really fun. We'd love you to go and check it out. And that's all I have to say, Dave, if you want to boot this baby home. Hey, we'll be back next week, can you believe it? What? For the 452nd time, if I'm not mistaken. But thank you so much for listening.

Until then, I'll say thank you and goodbye. Bye. Bye. Yeah, that is, I think I can't, no, I don't can't remember. Okay. I think I did have a thought though. We believe that.

We believe that to be true that there was a thought and it's just gone. Can I just go get my power for the computer? Yes. Thank you so much. Okay, my theory is that he's just shit himself. That's why he lost his train of thought. And now he's quietly going to the cleaner. It's kind of like...

Oh, hang on. Oh, sorry AJ, on the video, Matt is getting the power cord, but he has gone off quietly to the bathroom. Yeah, and then I was thinking, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god. So I've lost my train of thought. I need to leave. I've lost my train of thought and control of my bowels. I need to leave the video frame.

I need to leave right now. Please don't ask me any questions. I need to close the laptop and never come back. I assume you've just sat in respectful silence since I've been gone. Absolutely, of course. I like it here through my headphones, like bleeding out was something about emptying my bowels. Yeah.

It came across, I thought that maybe, because you'd gone, started a sentence and gone, actually, I've lost my train of thought. And then you said, I just need to get up for a second. I thought that you'd shit yourself. I mean, you are pretending to get a power cord, but really you're rushing to take your pants off. Yeah, I'm needed in the basement. Just give me a second.

I'll just be, I'll just be a few minutes. Hang on. My power cord is in somewhere else. Can you see me just in the background. I'm putting my pants into a bin and lighting them on fire. Sorry, the power cord is in another pair of pants. You think you've turned your camera off, but you haven't. We're just watching you clean yourself up. We're watching you sort of start to cry.

Setting his pants on fire? Scrubbing. Ah, sad that that all has to be cut. Oh, it's funny though. Patreon exclusive.