Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Cop Who Was Also a Bank Robber - The Story of The Stander Gang

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

The is the story of The Stander Gang of South Africa

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My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos. Watch the Hulu original series. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bumno subscribers. Terms apply. This police officer is so bored with his job that on his lunch break, he's going to go rob a bank and then return to work as if nothing happened.

Now the guy, his name is Andre, and Andre is kind of a thrill seeker, and he's police captain at Kempton Park in South Africa, and unfortunately he's not happy with his life, and he starts looking for a bigger thrill. And then one day, boom, he decides he's going to rob a bank. So, he catches an early flight from Johannesburg to Durban, and there he rents a car, drives to a bank in town, puts on a wig and fake beard, and he walks into the bank, and he points his pew-poo at the teller, and he asks the teller, will you please fill this bag with cash? Then he takes the cash, and he leaves, and he catches the next flight back to Johannesburg.

And so, boom, the robbery is a success, and it's a thrill for Andre. So, he decides to rob another bank, and another bank, and another bank. And soon enough, every time he gets a day off from work, he flies to Durbin and robs another bank. He even starts robbing local banks in Johannesburg on his lunch break. Like he'll rob a bank and then later on that same day, he'll go back to the scene of the crime to investigate the robbery. Because he's the police. And he disguises himself so well, none of the witnesses ever recognize him. And he's really good at this bank robbery thing.

He knows exactly how the bank security systems work, so he knows how to avoid getting caught every time. And this goes on for three years. Andre robs around 30 banks during this time, and this is a huge thrill for him. But then one night, he screws up. So he's at this party one night, and he's getting a little tipsy. And he starts talking and having a conversation with his friend, this guy, Core. And Andre's bragging to Core that he's been robbing all these banks and that he's so good at it. Here's the thing about Core, though. Core just happens to work for the Bureau of State security, which is kind of like the FBI. And Corp feels like, because of his job, he just can't keep a secret like this. And eventually, he tells his supervisor. So the next time, Andre flies back

from Durban, having just robbed another bank, police are waiting for him at the baggage claim. And so, bam, they arrest him. And he's supposed to spend about 17 years in prison, but that's not going to happen, because he's going to bust himself out. Now, while Andre's in prison, he meets this guy. McCall. And he meets this other guy, Hale, both of whom are in prison for robbery. And pretty quickly, they all three become friends. And after about three years in prison, Andre and McCall and Hale, they come up with this wild plan to bust them all out. First, Andre and McCall, the two of them, they fake injuries, so that the prison guards will escort them to an outside physiotherapist for treatment. And then once they're at the physiotherapist, bam, they overpower the guards. And they grab the guards,

Pugh-Pews and then they steal the physiotherapist's car and they use it as a getaway vehicle. And then once they've escaped, they lay low for a while. Three months later, they go back to where Hale is, guns ablazing and they bust him out too. So now the three of them are together, on the run, hiding out. And so what does Andre want to do? He wants to start robbing banks again. He wants that thrill back. So then, kaboom, the three of them hit up a bank.

And then, kaboom, they hit up another bank. And then, kaboom, they hit up a third bank. And these guys just keep going, robbing bank after bank after bank. And they always wear ridiculous disguises. Sunglasses, fake mustaches, fake beards, they almost look comical. But despite that, they're a good team. They can execute a full bank robbery in under five minutes. Sometimes they're able to rob four banks in the same day without getting caught.

So, because of all this success, soon enough, word starts to get out. And the local people, they start hearing about this gang of bank robbers on the news. And strangely, a lot of the public are cheering them on because they're making the police look like fools and it's funny to them. So Andre and McCall and Hale, they become like folk heroes and people start calling them the Stander Gang after Andre's last name. So this crime spree goes on for several months. The Standard Gang is hiding out at safe houses, hitting up banks when they can, collecting a lot of cash, and hanging out with lots and lots of escorts in their spare time. Now, before you start cheering these guys on too, just know that during this time on the run, Andre was known to approach random young women pretending to be a professional photographer.

He would then lure them back to his hotel room, pretending he's going to take professional pictures of them, and then he would essay them. And at least two of these women end up reporting him to the police for this. And this will come up again later. So, eventually the Stander Gang is named South Africa's Most Wanted, And their photos are suddenly everywhere. All over the media, everyone's talking about them. And the three guys know it's just a matter of time before they get caught.

So they come up with a plan to flee the country. So first, they decide they're going to buy a small yacht. And they're going to leave the country that way. I guess it's supposed to be safer than all three of them flying commercial. So then Andre uses a fake passport. He flies to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And there he's going to finish negotiations on the sale of this yacht. The next day, back in South Africa,

police show up to one of the safe houses the gang had been hiding in. Apparently, police had been tipped off by some of the escorts the gang used to hang out with. So police are suddenly outside of the safe house, and it's 5 a.m. And McCall is the only one home. And police are like, Stander Gang, come out with your hands up. And McCall, he's butt naked, because I guess he sleeps naked. And he gets his pew-poo, and he gets into a crazy butt-necked shootout with police. And they storm the place, and they're shooting at him.

And he's running from room to room, shooting back. And then finally, once they have him cornered, he turns the pew-poo on himself, and he unalives himself. Meanwhile, there's Hale. As soon as Hale gets a tip that police are onto them, he bounces. He uses a fake passport, and he hops on a flight to Greece. So he's long gone. While police, they raid all the gang's safe houses. And in one of those safe houses, they find photos of one of the women that Andre had essayed a few months back.

And this not only confirms her story about being essay. but it also confirms that this safe house belongs to him. And that safe house leads police to the yacht they bought. And that yacht leads them to a crew member they had hired to sail it. And that crew member tells them that Andre is supposed to deliver the yacht to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. So now police know that Andre is in Florida. So then newspapers in Florida get word of this, and they start publishing Andre's picture in the paper. So now people in Florida are on high alert, looking for Andre.

And so then, one more. one morning, it all starts to fall apart for him. Because Andre is at a used car dealership, trying to get his car painted a different color because he had just stolen it. And there, the salesman recognizes him because his pictures had just been in the local paper. And that salesman doesn't say anything then, but he later calls the police. So then later that night, police show up to Andre's apartment and they surround it because they're about to bust in. But Andre is actually not home. However, crazy enough, one of the officers just happens to spot him riding by on a bicycle.

And the officer knows it's him, so he runs over and he confronts him. And so then Andre realizes what's going on, and he jumps off his bike and he makes a run for it. And then the officer chases after him and he catches up to him. And Andre stops and he pretends he's going to give up, and then he grabs the officer's shotgun. And then thinking quickly, the officer pulls out his other pew-poo, and then bang! He shoots Andre four times, and he unalives him. what Andre looked like in real life. So then that only leaves Hale.

So Hale, he ultimately ends up in London. And there, he tries to commit another robbery, and he ultimately gets caught. And they throw him in prison for almost 20 years. Later, he does his time and he gets out. And he becomes a better person, and he starts public speaking. And he actually dedicates himself to educating people about the horrible consequences of living a life of crime.

The major regret actually is the fact that I've wasted talents and abilities and I have achieved nothing. That's wild. Shout out to South Africa.