It may be the most sensational court case in Britain since the Great Train Robbers went on trial in 1964.
Jurors in London have been hearing evidence against four men who are accused of stealing cash and jewelry worth 14 million pounds — about $21 million — from the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd. last April.
Martin Evans, who's been covering the case for The Telegraph, sat down with NPR's Scott Simon to give an update on the details of the case.
Interview Highlights
On how the alleged burglars pulled off the operation using a power drill
This robbery took place over Easter weekend in April, which is a long bank holiday weekend – a five-day holiday in the UK. All the businesses would've closed for four or five days. And around 8:30 p.m., the alleged gang arrived in a van and started loading equipment in the street.
Now to any passerby, they would've perhaps looked like workmen carrying out some sort of repair work. They gain entry to the fire escape, which is opened for them by an unknown member of the gang, possibly the only member of the gang who hasn't been caught. They then enter the building carrying this quite heavy equipment. They descend through a lift shaft into the basement of this building, where the safety deposit vault is, and then set about drilling through a very thick, concrete wall using a high-powered industrial power unit.
And it does take several hours for them to break through the wall, but unfortunately for them, when they get through the concrete, they come against a metal cabinet which is basically the back of where the safety deposit boxes are housed. And despite having some heavy machinery, they're simply unable to shift the metal cabinet.
So after several hours of attempts, they eventually give up and leave the building empty-handed. Now, less tenacious people might decide to call it a day, but this gang didn't, so they traveled to another part of London where they'd buy another piece of equipment and they return on the Saturday evening, once again gain entry through the fire escape and have a second go. And at this point, they manage to dislodge the metal cabinet, gain entry to the vault, and set about emptying the safe deposit boxes.
On the eight alleged burglars (four men are on trial and another four have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle)
They're certainly not kids, I mean the gang of eight have a combined age of 485. ... I mean they're no spring chickens, and when you hear what the physical aspects of what they went through to carry out this robbery, it's really quite impressive.
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
