All language subtitles for The Jewel Thief 2023

I've never
even heard of anything like this.

Nev... Never even heard of it.

It's ingenious.

It's-it's mind-boggling.

What makes it romantic

is the thievery behind it.

- This is the story of
a conniving, creative,

intelligent man committing
frauds that were fairy-tale like.

- Blanchard is probably
the savviest criminal mind

I've ever experienced
as a police officer.

- He's a professional.

He looks like my doctor.

- He was like a James Bond kinda
guy on the other side of the fence.

- He's been committing crime his
entire life and never getting caught.

- It sounds like the script
from a Hollywood movie,

from bank robbery and fraud

to stealing a diamond broach
from an Austrian museum.

- Okay, this precious, uh, piece
of jewelry was, uh, stolen,

but at least by somebody
like James Bond.

Mr. Blanchard
ranks at the very top.

There have been more
factually complex cases,

but none quite as
bizarre and entertaining

and unusual as Mr. Blanchard.

The son I
raised is very caring.

He's very loving to the people
that are important to him.

He has a lot of skills

that had he not put them
towards a life of crime,

he could have been
extremely successful

in whatever he chose to do.

For sure
I take pride in what I've done.

My story's probably
very fascinating

because everyone wishes they
could do the things that I've done

or go do these James Bond 007s.

My son has had a
lot of things to overcome.

He had learning disabilities,
borderline dyslexia.

When you
were a little kid,

people dream of robbing banks
or making all this money

and living the lifestyle
that I've lived.

So I think it's a fantasy
that most people have,

but they actually never
executed it like I did.

- If he'd have told me
that he was gonna be

a mastermind
international thief,

I would've just, pfft, blown it
off and go, "Yeah, sure you are."

You know, "Okay, kid."

But he's always been, you
know, as you say, a little guy.

He looks like a nerd.

You know?

He looks like a nerd.

- When I was a kid I was very
quiet and I kept to myself,

and I studied electronics
and took things apart.

Everyone knew me.

They knew my street
name as MacGyver.

I would build like little
electronic contraptions

and because I would always do these
little jokes with other students.

So I was adopted at six days
old by my mother, Carol.

When my mother and
stepfather broke up,

we went from this very
nice house in Canada

to basically being poor
in Omaha, Nebraska.

Omaha, Nebraska, it's not
the nicest place to live.

It's actually one of the worst,
and only the strongest survive.

I remember from early childhood

when the bank was trying
to foreclose on the house

that my mother and I
and my sister lived in.

I remember my mother
crying talking to the bank

saying she would make payments
and the bank didn't care.

So I've always had this
grudge against the banks.

We didn't have milk for the
cereal, and I'm not exaggerating,

like, I used to use like,
ginger ale for milk.

That's how bad it was.

So I had to go steal
milk from the neighbors.

He never stole milk.

I mean, that's part of his story,
but they did steal penny candy

and they got walked right back
to the store to return it.

So, those kinds of stories I
think are just enhanced stories.

- Things weren't good for us

until I learned to go into the store
and I could steal food from the store,

which got my addiction
to my life of crime.

It's
a police officer.

Are you video recording me?

Yep.

You said
there's a police officer?

- He wasn't shy about it.

He'd tell the kids in
class what he was doin'.

Record me.

I am recording you.

You are? CLAY: Yep.

Damn,
a police officer.

Bless you.

Anyways...

Excuse me, sir.

Yes?

- Do you give lots of
tickets for speeding?

I think he
definitely liked the attention

from cameras and stuff that
people our age just did not have.

Thank you.

I'll see you later.

And here goes Dan
running because he stole a map.

- Well, like I say, I documented
my whole life from back in the '80s

when the VHS video
cameras were out

way back in the
day, the big ones.

And I documented my whole entire life
so I could look back and watch things.

- No, get away from me!

People
knowing, you know,

talking about what he did,
he liked that attention.

- This was his way to make, make
him known, make himself known.

Gangs
were super prevalent.

And he had a little, I think it
was a slight speech impediment

and with his thick glasses,

you just would think

that th-this little scrawny
white kid's gonna get killed.

Going to a
school that's really tough,

you have to, like, make
a name for yourself

in order to be accepted
around peers around.

How-how you feel starin'-starin'
at the barrel of a... gun?

- He could move in and
out of these circles,

and everybody had a
certain respect for him.

So he created an
individual identity,

and that identity is the
one that he carried through.

Uh, I'm gonna say the life
of crime that he was living.

- Hey, look, she's busy.
- Danny.

- Clay, you smoke, don't you?

Hurry up, man.

- Shh.

He's coming now.

Oh.

I had to run out
and check the gas.

- Where'd those cigarettes go?

- Oh, you put those
cigarettes up there.

Remember, you stacked
them up there?

So...

- Why are you two laughing?

- Well, I don't know.

- Clay, these immature girls
don't know anything, like...

Back in the early days,

I was stealing from the stores
and it was all a play. Like,

you have someone
go talk to someone,

you distract this person, you steal
this, and then you could go sell it,

and it was a challenge to see
if you could get away with it.

And I was pretty good at it.

- After he would
pull somethin' off,

it was just like,
uh, elation almost.

And you could see it just in his eyes,
almost what he lived for I think,

and his drug was the thrill
of... getting caught.

♪ Been Caught Stealing by
Jane's Addiction playing ♪

Let's get the
shoplifter here.

- Please.

What's up?

- I couldn't believe some
of the things he pulled off.

They were amazing.

- ♪ And I walk right
through the door... ♪

He
likes excitement

and he likes doing stuff

right underneath your nose
when you're least expecting it.

We looked for trouble
to find excitement

because... you know, the normal
life wasn't that exciting.

They got
a security camera

even doesn't work.

It's not fake.

It was
jewelry, silk shirts,

cell phones just coming,
and pagers being out there.

RadioShack was sort
of like a go-to place.

Just the idea
of walking in there,

distracting the salesman

and havin' a eight-millimeter
camera underneath both armpits,

underneath the bomber jacket.

Pretty evident
even from an early stage

that he was gonna be, uh,

what I would call,
like, a master thief.

Look at that butt.

- Yeah, all those girls like that
butt. That's the thing about it.

- ♪ Walk right
through the door ♪

- It seemed like he
wasn't satisfied, um,

and he wanted to take
more and more risks, um,

and not just, you know,
shoplifting something.

- ♪ The best stuff ever ♪

Brought
to you by RadioShack.

Put the whole
world in your hand,

with RadioShack's new
portable cellular phone.

A price and technology...

Stop, I'm
getting sucked in.

Back in the '80s,
RadioShack was like the Best Buy.

It was like, the number
one store in North America.

I'm a fugitive.

Freeze, or else
I'm gonna blow you.

We literally took
so much stuff from that store.

Millions of dollars every year.

It's a nice, strong motor.

- Yep. This here, trying
to steal them all.

And what ended up happening
was Easter Sunday,

we actually cleared out
the whole entire store.

We, like, disconnected the alarm, took
everything out with a moving truck.

I just became too confident.

I was at work,

and when the SWAT team
showed up at my house

and broke in my front door
with their battering ram...

- my son called me and he goes,
"Mom, you might wanna come home."

He said, "The police just
broke in the front door."

And I was like, "What?"

He said, "Yeah."

He said, "I'm sure they're
here to arrest me."

My house
was a chaotic mess.

It looked like a tornado
went through everything

and dumped every
drawer everywhere.

I mean, underwear
drawers. Hello?

What electronics is some woman gonna
keep in her underwear drawer, really?

Well, we won't talk about that.

Race
played a big part.

I was the white kid
that went to school,

and in the court system when
they see this little kid,

"Oh, he stole some
stuff from RadioShack.

"Let's give them probation

versus sending him off
to juvenile school,"

it helped a lot.

It's recording? CLAY: Yep.

- Hi, my name's Dan.

I got back. It's, uh, 22nd of

um... October.

The 2nd of October.
This is a commitment.

I'm stayin' outta trouble,
and Clay's gonna make sure.

Alright. Thank you.

Hi, Mom.

Aren't you glad I'm home?

- I'm thrilled to death. Hi.

- If I happen to die, anything
it's all up to my mom.

If I owe any-any
money, tough luck.

Who knows what might happen?
- What do you mean...

I mean, I didn't know what to
do. I was totally dumbfounded.

I could not even
fathom that my son

was this person they
were talking about.

He ended up living
a double life.

So he kept that life away from his
family, the people he cared about.

- I ended up getting probation
for, like, two years for this.

My probation officer
knew about my past.

He worked with a lotta kids in my
school, and he basically said, "Look,

can I have some stuff
from RadioShack?"

- I thought for sure that
he would straighten up,

but, of course, he
couldn't let it go.

He had to keep on doing it.

- And he just becomes smarter
and better and bigger.

We saw him remove
parts off of a cash register

to fabricate receipts
that were so authentic

that the stores could not tell
that they were a fake receipt.

We were coming
back from Kansas City.

Uh, we had a carload
of stolen merchandise,

and, of course,
we get pulled over

and, uh, asked to come in for questioning,
and he had receipts for everything.

Figured out a way to make
far more money off that stuff

by returning it right back to
the places he took it from,

and they gave him money for it.

It was just shocking.

What time is it?

- It's Gucci time.

I would keep everything
away from my mom.

I kept stuff in the lockers at the school,
at friend's house, in storage lockers.

We're gonna make some
money here, Dylan.

- I know.

What do you
say about that, Mom?

Are you down with that?

- Wrong way.

No, we're
doing it the right way.

Wrong... PHEGLY: No, the
sign says, "Wrong way."

Oh.

But she would always see me
with cars coming to the house

with boxes of merchandise
and I would just tell her,

"Oh, I'm-I'm reselling stuff

that I bought at an auction
or at a garage sale,"

stuff like that.

He would fill
up U-Haul trailers

sometimes full of
merchandise and return 'em

all around the country for cash.

- On a bad week we
make about $4,000.

On a good week we make
about seven, $8,000.

Oh.

A few good
holiday seasons,

he was approaching
sometimes six figures

of monetary gains.

He went from a
small-town little thief

to a money-making
machine type deal.

- Open a wallet and you got a hundred...
You know, ten $100 bills in there.

You-you're popular
all of a sudden.

When you
make money like I do,

you could buy anything you want.

♪ Hip-hop music playing ♪

- ♪ Get hip to it, it's a hit ♪

- One of these days I'm
gonna own this place.

I'll buy it.

I had close to 90,
$100,000 stored up.

On the backside of our house,
we had these concrete bricks

that are two feet by two feet.

I would lift up this brick and
I'd put the money in garbage bags,

and I dug a hole through the
sand, put the bags in there,

put the sand on top and drop
the concrete brick back on top.

I ended up buying a
house at the age of 16.

My mom was really surprised when
I told her I bought the house,

and I explained to her that
I bought it through a friend

and I basically said, "My friend and
I are splitting the mortgage cost."

And it felt good.

I didn't have to worry about
money 'cause I had plenty.

You work hard, ladies and
gentlemen, you can buy anything.

Come on in.

Look at our new kitchen.

Stove came from Mrs. B's.

The dishwasher came from
Nebraska Furniture Mart.

These cupboards were designed
by somebody, I don't know who.

I think Danny
progressed to a crazy level.

It was fun initially, but
became very dangerous and dark,

uh, towards the end
of our relationship.

And even not with
the thefts, uh,

even in the street
world with gang members

and other ways of trying to
launder money, and, uh...

It got to the point where
I pretty much thought

that he wasn't gonna
be around anymore.

That fuckin' pig.

Omaha fucking Police.

Look at
that fuckin' pig.

I think the anger comes
from being disrespected.

Everyone should be
respected no matter what,

but when someone outright disrespects
you, then you have a problem with it.

Or at least I have
a problem with it,

and I'll make you pay
for it.

For an example, a friend
of mine set his car on fire

to collect on insurance.

- Yeah, You know, what
it comes down to is, uh,

I-I helped Dan, uh,
dispose of a stolen car.

And
you don't realize

when you put ten gallons of gas on a car,
how big of a fire bomb it actually makes.

And a police officer was nearby.

And we both
could've walked away

and it would've
been no big deal,

but, uh, he chose to
confront the police

and tried to talk
himself out of it,

and it didn't work
out very well for him.

- I immediately recognized
the kid as, uh, as Blanchard,

'cause I've had past
dealings with him.

He was like, "Hey,
what are you doing here?"

I'm like, "I don't know,
some car's on fire."

- And as I get closer to him, I
could smell gasoline from him.

- I was watching him from afar

and at the time something
must have blew up in the car.

The gas tank or
somethin' blew up.

And at that point in time,
Dan was in handcuffs immediately,

and the cop knew he was
up to somethin', so...

Oh, it was comical.

They brought
me to the police station

and the police officer
totally disrespected me,

and I knew I was
smarter than him.

I knew I was better than him.

- I hop in the car, um,

turned the scanner on, and I hear,
"Suspect escaped from custody."

I'm like, "What?
Escaped from custody?"

That's about right.

- More or less the police walked
outta the interrogation room

probably to regroup 'cause
this kid's outsmartin' them.

And in that course of time, yeah, he
got up on the table like we're standin'

and scuffles way up
of a false ceiling,

put the ceiling pad back and he was
up on the ceiling the entire time.

I can see,
like, the whole ceiling

of the police department.

I'm up there and then I
hear the detective come,

and he was like, "Oh, shit!"

And
we hear just, you know,

some loud footsteps
coming down the stairs

and, uh, it's Detective Lieber.

"Did you see him?
Where'd he go?"

And we're like, "Wh-what do you
mean? Who you talking about?"

"Blanchard. He's
gone. He's-he's gone!"

- Me being a kid,
not very smart,

I was circling the police station
thinkin' Dan's gonna jump out of a bush

and hop in the car and
I can help him escape,

and that didn't work
out either for me.

And they
come back to the room,

like, 30 minutes later
with my friend Jeff.

And his exact words were,

"I came here to
help him get away."

And I was like, "Wow. My
friend's, like, really solid."

We're searching for
hours for Blanchard in the area,

and we're getting
tired, gettin' worn out.

At one point somebody calls, one
of the supervisors calls and says,

"Okay, we're-we're just gonna
have to call it for the night."

- He had the patience to hang out there
in the ceiling until everybody went home.

They shut down the police shop,
and then another fun night for him

as he got to explore the
inside of a police department,

where no one's allowed
all on his own.

And the
detective that insulted me,

I took his gun, his
badge, his walkie-talkie,

the pictures of his wife
and kids off of his desk,

his Rolodex file,

and I took a bullet
out of his gun,

put a happy face on it and stuck
it right on the middle of his desk.

Took his police jacket,

put all the stuff in the police duffel
bag and walked out of the police station.

Then I thought, there's
no way the police

would go to my mom's
house to arrest me.

Why would I be so stupid?

But that's what I did. I
went to my mom's house.

- He was wore out, he was tired,
and that is his weak point.

I mean, he needs rest.

- The police ended up kicking
down the door that morning.

I look outside the
door and I see, like,

the SWAT vehicles going across
the park toward the house.

- I was part of the Omaha
ERU, Emergency Response Unit.

Uh, the SWAT team.

From the time we turned the corner
when we were running up to the house

to the time we hit that
door was 65 seconds.

So we searched and we looked,
"He's not here, he's not here.

Keep lookin', keep lookin'."

We looked in the closet several
times, there were all these boxes,

and it took us, uh,

ten fifteen minutes to get all
these boxes out of this closet.

There was a little cubbyhole, and
we saw Blanchard hidin' behind, uh,

I think it was a cement chimney
stack comin' out of the main level,

but he was just
hidin' back there.

Um, he, he was stark
naked, but anyway, um...

I... and I remember that.

So they put
me in the police car.

All the cops were
giving high-fives.

"Yeah, we got him.

"We found the cop, the badge,

the walkie-talkies from
the police station."

- So we're pretty
happy, you know?

The officers are
like, "Hey, score."

You know, we had had a
stolen car, uh, an arson,

um, an escapee all in one night,

and it was, it had been solved.

We got the guy arrested, so we
were pretty happy about that.

He was
already cuffed behind his back.

We put him into the
backseat of the cruiser.

Uh, the detective actually told
me, "Be careful with this guy.

"Uh, he's kind of slick.

He got away from Council Bluffs
Police Department last night."

So I was quick to tell the
detective, "Oh, don't worry about it.

You know, this kid's not
gonna get away from me."

I'm not sure if he had
ever been arrested and transported

to Central Station before.

If he had, then he would know what
the practice was of leaving...

- Keys in the car. They walk... They
lock their guns in a little box,

then they come back to the car,

take you out of the car
and take you to the jail,

which is in the basement
of the police station.

And there was the news media.

- No, there was no press.

I don't know what the
hell he's talkin' about.

Yeah, there was no press.

Um, so I get out, keys
are still in the car.

I jumped
in the front seat,

locked the front doors.

- I just happened to glance back

and I noticed Blanchard is no
longer handcuffed behind his back.

He's just like this with
his handcuffs in front.

At this point, my career is
starting to flash before my eyes

and I realize what-what's
about to happen.

- And I'm screaming at
him at the top of my lungs

that I'm gonna shoot him
through the windshield.

The car goes into drive,
there's a cacophony,

an explosion of
noise and tire smoke.

- Police officer
slightly gets hit.

Son of a bitch!

I smashed through the
front doors of the police station.

The news media are still
outside racking up,

and I'm driving away.

- You know, he's gone in an
instant, out-out of the garage.

And I stood up and I,

I-I couldn't believe what had happened.
I literally could not believe my eyes.

- Didn't surprise me
'cause we told him.

I know everybody was sayin',
telling the cruiser guys,

"You gotta watch him. You-you
just can't let your guard down."

So it was like, "Oh, my
God, here we go again."

Well...

Uh, I shit my pants
and, uh, figured,

"Well, uh, this... I, I guess this
is the way I'm gonna get fired."

So I ran outside and
I took my radio off.

And I hear
on the police radio,

"Blanchard just escaped
from the police station.

All units," blah, blah, blah. And
I'm like, "Yeah, he's heading here."

And it's me talking to them,

trying to send them,
send them the other way.

- Blanchard takes
off and goes back

into the state of Iowa
with an Omaha Police car.

He approaches an accident scene

that's being worked by Council
Bluffs Police Department,

and that's Officer Galvin
if I'm not mistaken.

- I'm just directing traffic, kind
of keeping-keeping people moving.

I go up and I wave to
the officers to go by

just 'cause that's
normally what we do,

uh, and I see the guy.

He sees Danny
Blanchard with no shirt on,

handcuffed and actually
slows down and waves.

- He waves back at me.

I-I seriously thought for a
second it was just in my head,

but clearly it was him.

- So Galvin literally
like drops his clipboard,

drops what he's doing...

- I got back to my cruiser,
I jump in, I take off.

He was weaving in and
outta traffic pretty good.

I ended up getting
off, like, ten minutes later,

took some side roads.

- Officer Brad Wright
says, "Hey, I got it.

It's comin' off of
Highway 6 right now."

And as he rounds the corner,

Blanchard is jumping outta
the cruiser and running

into, like, a wooded area.

Foot
pursuit took place.

He
starts chasin' him.

He's yellin' for him to stop.
"Stop or I'm gonna shoot ya."

Officer Wright realizes...

He can see that he's handcuffed
and doesn't have a weapon,

so he takes off after him and
tackles him at that point.

- When your child is taken away,

there are all kinds of terrible
things going through your mind.

He'd have black eyes, he'd
have a fat lip, his face...

You could tell clearly
that he had been beaten,

and it was difficult.

I'm sorry.

His day in prison, I'm
sure changed him a lot.

He wasn't the same person that
came out of there afterwards.

I used to do 1,000
sit-ups a day, 1,000 pushups a day.

I was in the best
shape of my life.

I was given a seven-year
prison sentence.

That drops down to three and a half years
and you're eligible for parole after that.

And then I was deported
back to Canada.

So the first day
when I arrived in Canada

after being deported
from the States,

no money, no nothing,

uh, Canadian Customs gave me
ten dollars to take the bus.

I bought a nine dollar disposable
camera, took the sales receipt,

photocopied it at
Staples for ten cents,

stole a couple of them and
started returning those cameras.

By the end of the day I had
a couple hundred dollars.

I felt like I was on top of
the world, back to my old self.

It was like
starting all over.

And he would have to do pretty
much everything on his own.

- When I arrived in
Winnipeg in 1997,

I met this beautiful
blonde girl,

and it happened to be
Aaron's girlfriend,

and that's how I met Aaron.

And we became friends
and I said to him,

"Hey, if you wanna
make some money..."

I said, "...I can
help you very easily."

I, you
know, I was 15 years old

and I had just gotten
out of the Youth Center.

I didn't really...

Like, I was pretty confused and I
was, like, getting into trouble.

Dan came along and he just
seemed like kind of exceptional.

The first day I met
him, he took me out,

we went to the, to the mall,

and he just had,
like, these keys,

and he was opening up like, the
showcases and stuff in all of the stores,

and it was just overwhelming

the amount of stuff he was
taking from the stores.

Aaron, look
through the mirror.

Some days,
like, with the returns

he would make 30, $50,000,

but I think he was a little
bit tired of it by that time.

He'd been doing it for,
like, 20 years, you know?

We're in, uh, Polo Park.

This guy's up from the States.
- I want...

Just did four
years in Fed, eh?

He's out and he's
fuckin' out and about.

Full of mischief and he's, uh...

- I haven't done anything.

Nothing. He
hasn't done a damn thing.

This guy is fuckin'
clean as a whistle.

Yeah. He's never done a thing.

Is it on right now?

He would
often sit there

and stare at things for hours,

and sometimes we
would, we would sit

and he would watch a store
or a bank or something,

and he would literally spend
eight hours sitting there,

uh, you know, eating
candy the whole day

and he would be hyper-focused.

So, I think that's when
he started, you know,

trying to progress
to bigger things.

I was driving
one hot summer day,

two o'clock in the morning
coming back from a nightclub,

and I passed a Scotiabank
in South Edmonton.

And I was like, "You know what? This
bank could be taken very easily."

And then I realized,

why am I doing these small
returns for small money

when I can actually just
take the cash from the bank?

So I rented a hotel across the street,
set up all my security equipment there,

watching the bank for at
least a month and a half.

If someone was inside
the bank, I was watching.

I'd studied everything.

"Okay, how am I gonna get into the bank?
How do you bypass the security systems?

"How are you gonna bypass
the motion sensors?

"Take them apart, figure
them out, analyze them.

"Where are the police
stations located?

"How are you gonna
open up the ATM door?

How are you gonna open up the ATMs?
How are you gonna get into..."

Every ATM has five trays, every
tray holds about 80 to $100,000.

Measure the whole bank
out. How many feet?

Practice exactly
what I need to do.

Put tape on the floor,
run from here to there.

It's like playing a chess game

because one mistake,

your freedom is gone.

That taught me a lesson in life
where if you're confident in yourself

and you plan things enough,
you'll get away with it.

Like, who else can go into a bank and
walk out with half a million dollars?

No one knows anything.
Like, it just vanished.

So my feeling is I
could only trust myself.

So growing up, basically
I was by myself

when I had to do
things or learn things.

I didn't have someone I could
talk to or take advice from.

Scene
three, take one. Mark.

Okay.

My name is Richard Fedoruk,

and I'm the biological
father of Gerald Blanchard,

criminal mastermind
of the world.

Okay.

My girlfriend was 15,

I was 17. We were
kids ourself,

and she put him up for adoption.

I had no say. She
was the mother.

And my older brother called
me up and said, you know, um,

"Your son's here and he'd like
to know if he could talk to you."

I said, "Sure, I'd love to talk to
him. Why wouldn't I? That's my blood."

And I said-said, um, "Dan, just
to let you know I'm recording you,

"so when I hit that
rocking chair when I'm 100,

I'll have something
to listen to."

And he said, "Don't worry,
I'm recording you, too."

So it's kinda like, like father,
like son, we're on the same page.

Maybe he felt, um, rejected
being put up for adoption.

- The way I see my relationship
with my father is just friends.

He hasn't been a
part of my life.

So I consider him as a friend,
but not a father figure.

- Maybe what made
him what he is,

I think he just wanted
to show the world that...

...the smartest man
in the world just got rejected.

- So I was in a new line of work
after the very first bank job,

and every bank that
I did after that,

I got better and better
at my unique techniques

to get into them.

CTV
News: Top Stories.

- Tonight, a sophisticated
robbery at a CIBC branch

in the Polo Park area.

This CIBC
branch in Empress Street

hadn't even opened yet, but its
automatic teller machines...

Eight
ATMs were robbed

while the bank was still
under construction.

More than half a million
dollars was stolen.

It's got
authority shaking their heads

over the high level of
sophistication it took

to pull this off.

For me, it
started as a... as a young boy.

- I was always impressed with
wanting to be a police officer,

and, uh, that was my
dream as a, as a boy

and-and the rest was
history, so to say.

They
were looking for the right-winger

on the, uh, Winnipeg
Police, uh, hockey team.

They approached me about maybe applying
and I ended up getting on and...

I just kinda, it was my niche.

It was, it was really
good because it's a team.

I've never
even heard of anything like this.

Nev... Never even heard of it.

An outright theft of, uh, three
quarters of a million dollars cash?

That's a big deal.

Um, you know, that's
a really big deal.

- This is a very
sophisticated-type break and enter.

This is not something
we saw every day.

Never saw it in 27
years of, of my career.

You
know, the CIBC just

constructed this
brand new building

that was so secure and,
well, it was circumvented.

It was really quite a mystery,

quite a mystery how
these locked ATMs

could have been opened so quickly,
and then the cash taken out

and there was nothing to be
seen, nothing to be seen.

People
kinda threw up and said,

"Well, there's other work to do

and this one looks a little
too hard to get done."

It looked to me that
it was solvable.

So we formed a task force that we
eventually called Project Kite.

Uh, we
had a war room, you know?

Where desks and cork boards up.

At the high of it, we probably had a
dozen, fourteen detectives, you know,

running around for us,
gathering what was needed.

- We didn't wanna go
to the task force,

but Mitch wanted us and
we were forced to go.

- I think the crime scene just really
was the open backs of the ATMs.

So at the time, nobody knew how
the person even got into the ATMs.

- So, you would've
seen media, movies,

and similar interesting thefts

or strange, uh, crimes
that have been committed

that were certainly outside
the lines of the norm,

and this is one of those.

- So we got a lot
of ground to cover

to finally figure out
how this happened.

Well, what
happened was I flew

to Winnipeg to visit my family

and my grandmother
was tellin' me

about how they're closing
down her CIBC branch.

And I said, "What do you mean?"

And she said, "They're closing
all the little smaller branches

"and putting seven or
eight smaller branches

into this one big mega branch."

And that piqued my interest.

There was
a big sign out front saying,

"Future home of the Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce."

There, the seed was set.

- 'Cause at that time there
was no securities on the banks

when they were being built.

No alarm systems, no guards.

It's just a shell, there's
no money, there's no nothing.

So I went across
the street to Home Depot,

bought a hard hat, a vest,
put it on, walked in there.

This
was an opportunity for him

to put devices into the bank

that would aid
him in the future.

Uh, I... I don't know how
people think that way.

- Well, the first
time was pretty easy.

I just went to Toys "R" Us
and bought a $50 baby monitor.

Screw that in there, plaster it
up, sand it down, repaint it,

and within two
hours you're done.

So, he
would've been able to listen

to the general contractor say,

"Okay, well, boys, this
room's gotta be done

"by such and such a day because
the ATMs are coming on May 13th."

So he would know that.

As
the bank is being built,

he's also putting ways to get in the
bank, ways to get outta the bank.

He had gone into the bank
when it was being built

into the back of
the motion detector,

and he'd soldered the wire and ran
it all the way back into the bathroom

so that he can go in
there and go, twist.

Now the motion detector
in the ATM doesn't work,

so when he drops through
the ceiling later,

it doesn't go off.

- The preparation takes as long
as it takes to build the building,

which could be several
months, could be a year.

The level of patience is
just mind blowing to me.

And so,
what happened is he realized

that each ATM holds about
$100,000 Canadian dollars.

All you need to do
is figure out a way

to get into these
"little safes."

And he figured out a...
brilliant way to do it.

- And the way it works is that,

you know, he brings
cart, has a fob,

and then he has, he has to phone
in for a code that works once.

So he spins a dial, punches
in a code, uses the fob,

and the door opens.

So it's fairly... It's
very secure... normally.

- None of that matters.

It's just show-and-tell.

It's like when you're doing
it from the inside out,

modify things, you
have full access.

Gerald
found a way to manipulate

a very sophisticated, well-engineered
lock by just manipulating

some of the screws that
held that lock in position.

It was ingenious. It was
absolutely ingenious.

The body of the screw

had been sawed through
to about 80% through.

So now when they reef on
the locking mechanism,

those already tampered
with screws sever,

and they all peel back

and the locking
mechanism swings open

and, shazam, there's your money.

On
the eve of when this bank

was gonna open to the public,
they were filled with money

to the tune of
about $750,000 cash.

And I
knew all that money

would be in my pockets,

so I just sat patiently and watched
and waited until the time was right.

I felt like it would be better
to have at least two people

because I figured if
there's seven bank machines,

there's going to be
four trays per machine,

that's quite a bit of
boxes to carry out.

So I had my cousin be the
driver for the vehicle,

and he's the one who wanted to bring
his friend John Doe into the mix.

So that night when
I did the robbery,

I climbed up to the roof,

had the steel bars in
the air vents precut,

dropped through the air vents,
crawled to the other side,

dropped down into the ATM room.

I could hear the fans of the
machines and it was nice and quiet.

Once I
twisted the two wires,

they gave me full access
to walk around the ATM room

without any security
devices going off.

Now, as soon as I opened the ATM machine,
I knew the alarm was going to go off.

- He was able to get into
these ATMs one after another,

probably within
20 or 30 seconds.

He just... We could see
by the alarms afterwards

that they went bang,
bang, bang, bang, bang.

The adrenaline rush
must be overwhelming.

So I
opened up the machine,

twisted the lock,

grabbed the four trays
from each machine,

sat them on the dolly.

The
police officers responded,

checked the bank.

There was no signs of forced entry,
uh, there was nothing suspicious,

and, uh, kinda cleared the call.

So after we
took all the trays out,

we closed the doors,
opened up the fire exit,

we drove away and then we went

to the safe house and
started counting the money.

If you're
the bank manager coming in,

that morning you
open the front door,

you look at the six ATM machines, "Mm.
Everything looks good here." Right?

It's only when you go into
the back room, behind,

where the machines are serviced,

that you would see each one
of the doors open, right?

And the cash trays gone.

Everything is, uh, intact.

It looks like if I close
the door, it would lock.

- They canvased the
area a-and the CIBC

was in a shopping mall area
and there was a Walmart.

So it just happened
on that night,

there happened to be a Walmart
greeter in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

that was checkin' for license plates,
and when they checked the plate,

it came up to a Gerald Daniel
Blanchard from Edmonton, Alberta,

and it was being rented
from Avis at the airport.

And from there, Gerald Daniel
Blanchard became a person of interest.

- Danny Blanchard, he
registered that vehicle,

rented it in his name.

- You ask yourself the question, "How
could someone so smart be so dumb?"

But I must
say, when the police

were in the ATM room
behind the bank machines,

fingerprinting everything,

trying to figure everything
out, I was watching them.

I could see what they
were talking about.

And they said, "Hey, this guy,

Gerald Blanchard had this
van in the parking lot."

- Uh, the bank manager
received a call,

uh, that someone from
inside the bank, cons...

That constructed the
bank was responsible.

Hi, I have a tip for you.

I know who robbed your bank,
they're going to rob you again.

But this time with guns blazing.

You better be careful.

I don't want anybody hurt.

- That totally
diverts the police

investigating at the time
on two different tangents.

- So we're running one way,

and he's-he's running outta the
city with everything he's got.

- You know, it's Gerald Daniel
Blanchard, uh, from Edmonton.

Who is he?

We didn't have any
intelligence on him.

- So, we make a phone call

to the Canadian Bankers
Association, and we say,

"Have you ever had
anything similar?"

"Similar?

Well, as a matter of fact,
Larry, yes, there have been."

We learned that similar
events happened in Edmonton,

similar events happened,
uh, out east in Etobicoke.

The, uh, Scotiabank
in the Branford, Ontario area.

Went to
the Alberta Treasury Board.

An additional CIBC.

Two or three at
least there were in Edmonton.

Scotiabank
in British Columbia.

- B.C., we had in Alberta, we had
teams locally here in Winnipeg.

- It started to get
bigger and bigger.

- And we had banks callin' us.

- I would say probably
in the dozens.

- I don't think there's
a number you can say.

You can see the smile to
my face, it was very good.

- More details
tonight from police

on the organized crime
ring with Winnipeg ties.

- As we started to move along,

it, uh, it really
started to expand.

- A sophisticated operation,

Winnipeg Police can't
help but marvel at.

I was
out of control.

I just wanted every
bank that was being done

as much as I could.

And that's why I went
from the bank in Winnipeg,

right to the bank in Toronto,
from the bank in Toronto,

back to the bank in Edmonton.

I was just a wild
man at the time.

I flew back to Winnipeg,

and there was a Royal Bank
ATM machine sitting outside

of the drive-through.

I put the tarp over the machine,

and I took circular saw and
I bought a diamond blade

that will cut through an
inch of steel like butter.

The door
popped right open.

There's $200,000 right there.

So, I look out the tarp,
and I'm being surrounded by the police,

but I had a backup plan.

I'm wearing a vest with
six smoke grenades.

I pull the two grenades
off of my vest,

throw them out from underneath the
tarp toward the police officers.

Smoke everywhere.

I run a couple blocks away,

and I hide under this car

and before you know
it, there's a dog.

Dog has me, I'm arrested.

So I go to jail, and as
I'm walking in the jail,

I look to my left

and I see this room and
it's like a classroom.

It has my picture
at the very top,

and it has like all my relatives,
and all my associates underneath.

And I realize there's a big
investigation going on regarding me.

And the detective, like,
yanks me and tells me,

"Mind your own business,"
as I'm walking by.

Strange thing is they give
me, like, $2,000 cash bail.

- He was interviewed
and then released

on what we call promise
to appear on paper.

And he used an alias.

So, his true identity
never ever came out

until later when we found...
We started running names

and-and doing background,
and then we went,

"Holy crow. He's upstairs."

I mean, he was just upstairs.

That's when things came up

that, you know, Gerald had at least
22 aliases and different names.

- He wouldn't say it was
Daniel Blanchard that did it.

It was one of his aliases, that
would again, have no record.

He would be released
shortly thereafter

of-of doing that break-in,

and then he's back
on the street again.

Down there. PERSON 2:
You can see the green tower there?

It's
not like the U.S.

Everyone knows here in Canada,

non-violent crime is
a slap on the hands.

In the U.S. I was looking
at 160 years in prison.

I knew the police
were investigating me,

and they were getting
in the way of my goals.

So, I would always
antagonize them

if they caused an issue with me.

- Very early on,
Gerald wanted to talk

to the people running the squad.

He knew our names.

I don't know how he knew our
names, but he knew our names.

He phoned
down to the major crimes unit,

posing as Winnipeg Police,

said that Gerald Blanchard
was a friend of his

and give him preferred, uh,
treatment, to treat him right.

He's just playing
with me, right?

At one point in time, he
sent me a-a text message

with a whole bunch of pictures
of him sitting on a yacht

and, uh, driving a Ferrari

and, you know, money on a ATM,

just to kinda poke me again,
you know? And just like...

- Pokin' the bear, I suppose.

He likes
to tease a little bit.

He sent pictures
when he was in China

and he's at an ATM machine.

He had piles of cash piled
up, you know, wrapped.

It's the game he plays.

It's the challenge he likes.

You know, he likes
that challenge.

Much like we or I
like the challenge

of trying to figure it out
and catch him, you know?

So,

different challenges,
but we all...

That was the most
enjoyable thing,

is trying to match wits with
whoever you're trying to arrest.

Well,
Larry and Mitch,

they had sleepless nights.

They had no vacation,
they told me.

They worked 24 hour
days sometimes,

exhausting days, to catch me.

So, they put so
much effort into me,

they felt like they knew me better
than they knew their own wife.

I hate
to say it, but it's a game.

It becomes a game.

We're always thinking, trying to plan
on how to, how we're gonna catch him.

How are we gonna get
evidence on this guy?

How are we gonna bring him to, to
the courts and-and prosecute him?

- Conditions of the courtroom,

all the rules around accusing
people, finding them guilty,

that's a different world.

- If you don't have your
evidence, you're done.

There
wasn't a lot there.

There was a few little
snippets of good information.

This file was really
calling for it.

It was just screaming

wiretap, wiretap.

- I-I lost the jug
of whiskey besk...

Betting that he wouldn't
say two words on the phone

and it'd be a waste of time.

And he never shut up.

- The same day
that we hooked up,

he was already active
and involved in crime

and that's really when
everything just took off,

because when you listen
to somebody on a wiretap,

you really get to know them.

- He was livin' the
life of Riley, you know?

He had money, lots of it.

He was keepin' company with,
uh, the rich and famous...

Beautiful women.

- Yeah, he was, he had
the-the world by the tail.

The
aha moment would be

is that he just continues
to commit crime.

It's not the money.

And you start to think,
"Well, why is he doing this?

He doesn't... He can't use the money.
He doesn't, he doesn't need the money."

- Some of his crimes
seem very petty,

actually almost comical.

- He would fabricate
badges indicating

he was the press or,
um, he was a special VIP

and get into Indy races.

Or
get a bird's eye view

of a Stanley Cup final game.

- He was traveling the world.

- So as you listen to him more,

you start to get a sense
of who you think he is,

and-and what he's all about.

- He does things just
for the thrill of it.

He did a-a break into our bank

and got $600,000 and then
very shortly thereafter,

he's shoplifting a toaster.

- There was this little wheel going round
and round and round and it never stopped.

In my experience, the more
you commit this type of crime,

the more you are in fact addicted
to the high that it gives you.

And you hear him on
the wiretaps saying,

"I know I am being taped,"

and then going into the
details of the crimes

that he has committed or
potentially will commit,

knowing full well that
there is a police officer

on the other end of
that listening device.

By way of saying, "I
can fool you big boys.

I'm just a little guy,
but watch me run."

- He deals with an,
an adrenaline rush.

That's what it is.
It's a challenge.

I have it, too.

I'm a professional fighter.

I've said to people,

"I wouldn't be afraid
to bite your eyeball out

"if it came down to it,
or bite your nose off.

I'm not out to lose."

While they're trying
to chase me all over the globe,

I actually kind of enjoy it.

I see them there, they
know that I see them.

I gave chase a few times to
the undercover detective cars,

letting them know like,
"Hey, I know who you are."

And it's like, "Catch
me if you can."

That's my th... my
thought at the time.

I wanna tell this
story to let people know

that there is another side to my
son and not just the criminal side.

When my son got sent back to
Canada was when he met Ramona.

That's so funny.

- As you see, Mother,
I'm doing good.

And this is my friend.

And your name is?
- Ramona.

- Ramona?
- Poss.

Poss?

And she's flying to where?

- Germany.

- For how long?
- For four months.

That must be nice.

- Hello?

And-and how can you
afford all these lovely vacations?

- Through my parents.

And what do
your parents do for work?

- Why do you wanna know
that? You know all that.

They're a real
estate ki... kicoon, kitoon...

What's that word?
- Owners?

No.
Real estate ki...

Cut. Do it again.

- We own estate, you know?

- I had no idea that my son

was living a double
life, basically.

I was extremely
happy that my son

had found a young woman
that I really liked,

and he seemed extremely
happy with her.

He felt confident, and he
was getting to live a life

that I couldn't
imagine living myself.

They started, you know, scuba
diving, they went snorkeling,

they went skiing.

They were doing
all kinds of things

that I never had the
opportunity to do.

I really, really liked Ramona.

I grew to love her, and she
became a part of our family.

So, I saw my son being happy.

According to my
son, financially then,

her father was helping
them establish real estate.

So, there was no question

about my son being involved
in any kinda crimes.

I mean, why would
I even think that

when he got established
with this family

who had money?

So I was
married to a German lady,

and her father was quite wealthy,
so we took a tour across Europe.

Ramona, nice?

And he received a private
tour of the castle in Austria.

And that's when I saw the Sisi
Star on display for the first time.

- It's the romantic part
of it, of the whole story.

It-it truly is.

Which comes along kind of
out of the blue to us, right?

Uh, we do an Interpol check

because, you know, that's,
uh, w-what you would do

in a, in a high-profile
file like this.

Uh, and lo and behold,

you know, we received this
information back that says,

"Gerald Blanchard of Canada

is a person of interest in
the theft of the Sisi Star."

- That would've been in, eh,
in-in like '98, '98, '99.

That's a long time ago.

It is so
much known and it's so famous,

these diamond stars because
there's such a story behind it.

Uh, It's such an important,
beautiful story behind it.

They're very rare and this
precious, uh, piece of jewelry

was-was stolen and everybody was
shocked, like, "How can this happen?"

Sisi, the famous empress,

she was a wonderful, beautiful
lady with long, long hair

and she used to adorn her
hair with diamond stars.

And she was painted with her long
hair with the stars in her hair.

And so, this got somehow iconic,

and these diamond stars
are very much known.

- After Sisi's death and
then after the monarchy,

it was not quite clear
where all these stars went.

They were gone.

We had one of the stars. We
had one of the original stars,

which Elisabeth wore.

It was just, um, a
highlight of the exhibition.

Alright.

Birdie, who are you talking to?

Let me see your walkie-talkie.

And how does it work?

- Play.

And then it explains what it is.

Empress Elisabeth from Austria,

nicknamed Sisi, was known for
her impossibly thin waist,

and incredibly long hair.

One of the most famous
depictions of her

is a portrait with
her hairs decorated

in a series of diamond
and pearl stars.

What you see now is the
last of Sisi's famous stars.

I just couldn't
pass up the Sisi Star

because it was so beautiful.

Like, it was shining under
the light, sparkling,

and I knew I needed
to take it with me.

- Reported to the police, the police came,
and the police searched the whole thing,

um, and, uh, no,
there was nothing.

Nothing.

If you can't
say what exactly happened,

there was a lot of kind of
mysterious, um, stories going around.

- The Star was
stolen, it's terrible.

But at least, uh, it's a very
good story how it was stolen.

And, uh, all... in all
the newspapers, uh,

and it's still in-in the
head of everybody in Austria.

- Okay, I have to be
careful on how I say that

- because if I outright say I
stole it... - Right.

- then I could be charged
in Austria for the theft.

So it was reported
in the newspaper

that I had jumped
out of this airplane

and landed on the
roof of the castle.

This is the Hollywood version.

He said he was flown

over top of the museum,
and he parachuted out.

No,
no, no, no, no.

No, no, no.

It would be absolutely crazy
to jump down with a parachute.

- I know there was a parachute
found in the garbage in the castle,

and the guards have a record
of the... finding a parachute.

- No. No, no, no.

We never, no, got any
information about this.

He climbed
down the side of the museum,

he went in through a window.

I don't particularly believe
that part of the story.

- The State Department has
secured from the outside.

So if somebody would
break in the windows,

if you opened the
windows, alarm.

If you walked in
the room, alarm.

The
glass case housing it

with the security
screws were removed,

a pressure-sensitive,
uh, device underneath

was somehow cheated in a way

that it could be
replaced with a fake.

- It was only until two
or three weeks later

it was determined that it was
a replica from a gift shop.

Yeah, it was sold
in the shop.

It was a, a shop
item, best seller.

- I'm quite astonished that
it took them such a long time

because, uh, 'cause
it's-it's quite obvious.

They look really different.

- Um, they must have had help

from probably-probably
even inside the palace.

But we-we still
don't know exactly

because Mr. Blanchard says he
kind of did something different.

- Which one do I believe?

I believe he shoplift
the, the-the gem

and-and, and went
and switched it out.

I think the other thing is just
to sell newspapers as they say.

- Actually I took it
because I knew maybe someday

this could be a bargaining tool for
future crimes that I had planned.

And it was a priceless
item from a museum

and that's why I took it.

Plus, it looked nice.

It's boring
to steal money,

but to steal a piece like
that, who is doing that?

Nobody else in the world.

So you get famous if
you steal the Mona Lisa,

if you steal a Van
Gogh, or whatever.

There-there are maybe hundred
of pieces in the, in the world

which are really special.

Everybody knows them.

In Austria everybody
knows the Sisi Stars.

So, you-you get
somehow immortal.

You get, you-you...

You might get famous
through-through doing that.

And he did get
famous, of course.

We went to
his grandma's house

and he was like, "I need
to show you something."

And I was like, "Okay."

So he pulls out the
diamond and he was like,

"This thing's worth
a lot of money."

And I was like, "It..."

To me it didn't really look...

Like, it looked old and kinda
like grandma's jewelry, you know.

I was like, "Alright, well,
let's get it up into the ceiling

"so we could get back out

and do whatever we were up
to before that," you know?

I was like... I wasn't really...

I wasn't really too interested
in it but I figured,

like, he told me, "If
we ever get arrested,

this is our ticket outta
jail, so keep it between us."

- It wasn't until later that
Interpol got information,

um, that he was responsible.

"A guy by the name of Gerald
Blanchard from Canada."

That's all they had.

But it was right around that time
that him and his then wife separated.

So, you can probably figure out
where that information came from.

- Things changed for him pretty
drastically at that point

after he and Ramona
were divorced.

At that time
I was married to my wife,

where she really didn't know

the type of person I
was deep down inside.

She found out about
my criminal past

and it was, uh, shocking
to her and her family.

- He ended up getting
into, uh, relationships

that, um, were more one-sided,

and I could tell

that my son looked
worried and stressed.

- He actually wanted me to join
his Mission: Impossible team.

But I was too into my
martial arts instead.

Like, uh, Canadian Wolverines.

Chuck Norris of Canada.

I would probably say my
right hand person was Angela James.

She was my girlfriend from the
past. We trusted each other.

We had good chemistry and
we worked pretty well.

And she was an hon-honest girl.

What's wrong?

- Get outta here.

Get that thing outta my face.

Fuck, you do
this to everyone else.

It can't be done to you?

- I don't do it to nobody.

- It's sitting right there.

I could've
stopped a long time ago,

but you always need that thrill.

It's-it's actually an addiction,

because I've had tens
of millions of dollars

throughout my life, and
I continued doing crimes.

But then started spiraling out,

once I met Sergei, or
I call him the Boss.

We
had gone for the day,

and the girls in the monitoring
room immediately phoned us.

I received a, a phone call
from, uh, the United Kingdom.

The person had a, uh, English
accent and, uh, he said,

"How quick can you get
your crew together, Danny?

I need you to do somethin'
for me in Cairo." Right?

And, whoa, what's
that all about, right?

- He's in Vancouver,
she's in Edmonton.

Aaron Syberg's in Manitoba.

- "The Boss" is the
only name we ever get,

but we understand him to
be very, very involved

in-in credit card fraud
all across Europe.

And that he, this is a big fish.

This was a trip like,

"I want you moving tomorrow."

That's the level of urgency
that there was to that call.

- As soon as he hung up
the phone with the Boss,

he was on his... he was
the phone to Angela James.

- She's, uh, you know, a
little bit beside herself,

doesn't know what to do,

and Danny says, "Well, put
your mom on the phone."

And perfectly describes what
they're going to be doing.

- He also included a, a person
by the name of Balume Kashongwe.

- From the time the phone
call came in from the Boss

to the time he was on a plane on
his way to Heathrow and then Cairo

was probably within
days or hours.

Now we're scrambling,
trying to cover that,

trying to, to
gather the evidence

and not really having enough
time to put everything in place.

- Alright, thank you.

They find
Saddam Hussein underground.

- We'll catch him.

- They will catch the rat.
- Yeah.

The rat,
they will catch the rat.

We'll catch the rat, we'll
kill the enemy.

Kill them. You know?

- America, it's like a movie, Hollywood.
- Yeah.

- They believe the magic more
than the truth. - Eh. Eh.

What
are you looking at?

- My ticket.

And where
are you gonna go?

- Back home. BLANCHARD: Ha,
ha, that's what you think.

So we land in Cairo.

We contacted the
Boss back in England,

and we're all going to start
hitting these ATM machines

using these debit cards.

They had
credit card recorders

that they had machines that
imprinted credit cards,

and he went with people
to ATMs across Cairo...

Stealing hundreds of
thousands of dollars.

There
goes Dan the man.

That's him? BOSS'
ASSOCIATE: With the master plan.

And we were
just standing there

for hours and hours until the
machines ran out of money.

After we went for the day, we'd
bring all these duffel bags in,

empty them in the bathtub.

The bathtub was completely
filled with money.

There was a lot, there
was a pile of money.

- Obviously they
were very successful.

There's video that
shows an individual

sitting in a closet
counting money

and, uh, as the camera
veers in you can see,

uh, you know, a pile like three feet
by three feet high of stacked money.

Uh, they were
obviously having fun.

- Uh, we got some pretty
specific information

in that Danny was
dressed in a burka,

which is the typical customary
dress of, uh, Muslim women,

so that he wouldn't be identifiable
on any of the video that might exist.

So there was this
man from small-town Omaha

committing frauds that
were fairy-tale like.

He dressed in a burka.

- So everything was good.

But Balume Kashongwe decided to

take some of the Boss' cards,

take some of the Boss' money,

and skedaddle off to, uh,
another point in Africa.

This didn't sit well
with the Boss, right?

And, uh, you know, Danny was
gettin' some pressure for this.

We should
go see if Ken's here.

The door.

I said, what,
did Mom and Dad grab my money?

- Ken took that money and
bought blood diamonds.

He jumped on a plane to Paris and
was thrown in immigration jail.

They found the diamonds
and they got seized.

Now, I had no idea
where Ken was.

He just stopped answering
the phone. He just vanished.

- Blanchard was very amped up.

He was... He sound concerned.

He said the guy that he was with
had taken off with the credit cards,

that the Boss didn't know where
he was, and he was now threatening

both Blanchard and Balume
with physical harm.

- Oh, he's scared.

He's scared that, you know,
"If they don't find him,

they're gonna find me."

- I'm sure he figured that
Balume would be killed

because now there was guns

and now there was things where he
felt uncomfortable and threatened

and was worried for his safety.

The Boss, he
was freaking out thinking

maybe we were going to stiff him

for millions of dollars
we had from Cairo.

So he sent another crew in
from Cairo to babysit us.

Sit down.

They're
basically his muscle.

They're like gangsters,
you could call them.

Like, they look like killers.

It
was pretty clear to him

that the London boss was
more than just a fraudster.

I learned that he
was the figurehead,

the leader of a
criminal organization

to fund terrorist activities
in the Middle East.

That's what I learned.

So
Gerald's stuck in Cairo now.

The Boss not letting him go.

They let Angela go home, but
they kept Blanchard there.

So I think he was
pretty worried.

Sit down!

- I think he appreciated that
the Boss was not fooling around

and not making vacant threats.

- He's got himself into something now
and he doesn't know how to get out of it.

- And what he had to do was figure
out another scheme to steal money.

He was upset and he didn't
know if he could trust us.

I said, "There's just so much more
money we could make than fighting over

a lousy $100,000 that's
missing from Ken."

He
lands in Vancouver,

but he doesn't do what we expect
and-and go to his residence and sleep.

He actually drives
90 miles inland,

and he attends to a bank there
that's under construction.

And we know this because he receives
a phone call from the London Boss.

The London Boss is very upset.
Very upset because the three guys

that he just flew from
Heathrow to Montreal,

he learned are now
being deported.

- And now that call,

'cause now he's doing
somethin' in Canada

and he's also doing something like
what we're trying to investigate.

- It's beautiful.

It's absolutely... It
was our crown jewel.

Here he was in a venting system

in the process of
doing another bank.

And we wanted to
catch him in the act,

and I found out exactly where
that cell phone tower was

and made a circle.

- And lo and behold, here's this
Scotiabank under construction.

We
were able to confirm

that there was a
projected grand opening

about eight weeks down the road,

and everything fit
that fit his MO.

- So we start formulating a plan
on how we're gonna take him down

and how we're gonna surveil him.

- It just cemented
everything for us.

- There was lots of things
going on with Gerald.

I know he-he was talking
about how he couldn't sleep.

He was so anxious and
I'm sure he was worried

about, you know, the Boss, who
is really not this nice guy.

"But I'm pretty much, now
I'm entrenched with him.

Like, what do I do?"

And he must be thinking in
the back of his head that,

"The police may know more
and-and I'm on a short leash."

- His, uh, future
would've looked very bleak

either paying a debt
to the London Boss

with either his skin or money,

and/or worrying about,
uh, law enforcement.

- This was serious stuff, and,
and I think at that point in time

that's really scared him,

and, uh, it was
way over his head.

Thank you for calling Canada Police.

- Oh, I felt the pressure closing
in, and I felt the doors closing in,

being followed 24/7, your
phone acting strangely.

So you just basically,
you're waiting

for an endless day
for them to come.

- And we wanna take him down

inside the bank in the
process of breaking in.

But then we're blindsided
by this information

that comes in through
his text messages.

He's now involved in
trafficking of firearms.

- Yeah, that's right. We
got blindsided a little bit.

We intercepted some
more information,

and it, it was very clear that Danny
was middle-manning an arms deal.

And the
information continued to come in.

"When are you getting 'em?
When are they coming?"

And at some point in time we
even saw pictures of the AK-47s.

And we
ended up having eventually

seeing that Blanchard
was buying ammunition.

- Well, when I
started reaching out

to the so-called
Boss from England,

I started branching out into
different types of crimes.

My motivation was greed.

Other people's
motivations in the UK

were to help their own
people regarding a war,

which I had nothing to do with.

- He turned the tables on us by
being involved in this arms deal.

- So Larry and Mitch
thought this arms deal

was illegal, and it wasn't.

I was never charged with
shipping ammunition.

I was never charged for possession
of unregistered firearms.

- We couldn't take the chance
of those guns ending up

in the streets of Winnipeg.

What if people would've
died from that?

They'd also said
that you had a rocket launcher?

I have no comment.

- We wanted to
catch him in the act

the night before the,
the grand opening.

- The plan was
that we would wait

till Gerald drove to the
bank, got in the bank,

and then that we
would arrest him,

which would be
the-the-the signal

that everybody else would now
execute their search warrants

and arrest all their people.

And it would go simultaneously so
nobody could contact the other.

So at a certain
time in the morning,

I can't remember if it was 5:30
Vancouver time or what it was,

it was obvious that he
wasn't driving to Chilliwack.

I noticed there
was a lot more police presence

around that particular bank.

There was always an undercover
car sitting close by,

so I decided to not do anything.

We found out later
that he actually was able to tap

into the bank surveillance
cameras at the bank

and saw somebody that
looked like a cop.

So a
decision was made at that point

that we would arrest him

on, uh, on the evidence
that-that we had.

- The authorization was to
go... Is to hit his place,

arrest everybody across Canada,

and do the search warrants
all at the same time.

Bang, bang, bang.

♪ House of the Rising Sun
by Chase Holfelder playing ♪

- ♪ There is a house ♪

♪ In New Orleans ♪

♪ They call the Rising Sun ♪

♪ And it's been the ruin ♪

♪ Of many a poor boy ♪

♪ And God ♪

♪ I know ♪

♪ I'm one ♪

♪ My mother... ♪

The first time
I met Larry and Mitch

was when the
emergency task force

broke down my apartment door
and they pulled me outta bed,

stuck their knee in my neck.

And they were like, "You're
going back to Winnipeg with us."

And I was like, "For what?"

And they were like, "For theft
of the money from the CIBC Bank."

- ♪ ...gamblin' man ♪

♪ Down in New Orleans ♪

- I had no clue that morning

that that was gonna be a life
changer for, for all of us.

And it was. When
he called and said,

"Mom, I've been arrested."

I was terrified,

and I was desperate.

It was difficult for me
to try and carry on life

as usual or as normal
with him there.

Sorry.

The best
sleep was the first night

in jail after I was arrested.

All the pressure
and the stress of

playing cat and mouse was over.

- Sad, I find it very sad.

But on the other hand, he
lived the life that he chose,

uh, which many people
cannot do and never do do.

Um, he came across
on his fantasies.

He actually realized
them in many, many ways,

which most people don't.

And who caught him?

A Walmart security guard.

That's what it comes down to.

One Walmart security guard.

It's not true.

I feel like I'm very
confident at what I do,

and I knew they didn't
have any information

other than that might be the guy
who stole the money from the bank.

The police made it seem like, "Oh, it
was the license plate of the Walmart."

It wasn't. It was John Doe.

John Doe was actually the one
that went into the bank with me

to unload the ATM machines.

He went behind everyone's
back at that time,

and to make a deal
with the police

to get off on his federal
gun charges in the States,

telling the police
how the bank happened,

and that gave them enough
information to get warrants,

tap our phones.

But the police can't discuss that
because he's a confidential informant.

One day he'll have his day in
street court, we can call it.

I think he'll be left
in a field somewhere.

My lawyer said it was one
of the most intense interrogations

that he had seen,

but they were willing to, like,
completely destroy my family's life

to get me to talk
about... about Dan.

Well,
I know, Aaron.

- I think it's Mitch, the
shorter one with the mustache.

He took me in the hallway and he said,
"Look, man, I wish you the best of luck."

He-he said to me, "You know, we really
thought that you were gonna be the one

"to-to crack and
give us what we want,

but, uh, I guess
you're not, you know?"

- Well, I felt betrayal
when it came to Angela

cooperating with the police.

But you know what? I'm a
forgiveful type of person.

And then once everybody was arrested,
when Angela James spilled the beans,

that was the nail in the coffin.

Had she kept her mouth shut,

I really don't think they would've
really had a case against any of us.

But it only took one
leak... one weak chain

in the link and it all crumbled.

- So Angie was scared after she
cooperated with the police and told them

that she feels that
she could be in danger.

And the reason why she felt that is
'cause she knows the type of person I am.

If somebody double crosses me,

I'll get them back
one way or the other.

She said to the police,

"I saw Dan crawl into a mirror
in the middle of the night

"and come out with
all this money

and all this electronic stuff."

So the police smashed all my
mirrors and all my drywalls

and found the safe room
hidden behind a mirror.

- But what we found was that he
actually had two hidden rooms.

The entry to it
was concealed behind a mirrored wall.

Uh, you know, there was a pressure
switch to-to get in there,

and it was full of evidence.

He kept
records of everything he had done

and what he bought.

He had literally
thousands of physical keys.

Video and
memory sticks and phones, and...

There
was cash and lots of it.

He had the security
guard uniforms.

All
his ID, all his phony ID.

Files on
all the different aliases.

- We had cops driving
a U-Haul van back

from Vancouver to Winnipeg
loaded with exhibits, right?

- But more importantly, what
the gem were was all his video.

He videotaped everything.

'Cause he...

He recorded everything
to his own detriment.

That's his downfall.

He kept everything.

- I picked the
strongest charges,

the most undermining in terms
of his criminal organizations,

uh, the ones that carried
the greatest sanctions.

- He was going to be convicted,

and he was gonna be convicted of
a number of significant charges.

- The maximum sentence on,
on some of those charges...

- The phrase the judge used

is, uh, the total, uh, number
of years he could face.

- Life imprisonment.

- One hundred and
sixty eight years.

The first
time I talked to Gerald,

it was in a, uh,
interview office setting.

And you're thinking, "Well, this guy's
gonna have the weight of the world.

"He's, you know, he's gonna
go to jail a long time.

The police have..."

No, it was just kind of like,

kinda matter of fact and-and
feeling good about everything,

kinda jovial almost.

- We had amassed an incredible
amount of evidence against him

that came from
various jurisdictions.

We had individuals who were
prepared to testify against him.

So we had a very, very strong
case against Mr. Blanchard,

and he knew it.

Look, we've
got troubles here,

so, you know, what
is it that we have

that the prosecution
might be interested in?

And at that point he
said, "Well, you know,

what about full restitution and,
uh, a diamond that was stolen?"

Well, you know, I... he hadn't
told me about that yet.

- So we ended up going to,
uh, his grandma's house

where he said he had the,
uh, Sisi Star hidden.

I made sure
that he understood

that if it wasn't there,

we were gonna have a lot of
trouble securing cooperation

from that point forward.

- Well, I didn't have
very much money, if any,

but I would've bet
that he didn't have it.

You've gotta think that this guy
is notoriously an escape artist.

So, like, he was handcuffed.

There was one guy
sittin' beside him

and-and, you know,
two in the front

and he wasn't gettin' away.

Hello, Grandma.

- There's something behind.

This is
my Grandma from...

We knocked on
Grandma's door and we go in there.

But Gerald immediately goes to
the far end of the crawl space

and he starts pulling
out the Styrofoam.

There was a cutout
where something was.

Larry pulled that out and
there was that Sisi Star.

- There was certainly a media release
that we had recovered this item,

and that sparked interest
all over the world.

There was a
theft of a royal crown jewel,

and it was recovered in
Winnipeg and we had it, right?

So it absolutely was,
it was notorious.

Larry and
Mitch were excited

because they never had anything
like this in their life.

So they wanted to let
the media know that,

"Hey, here are these
two cops from Winnipeg

"that caught this
international jewel thief,

man of mystery, criminal
genius," et cetera, et cetera.

And that's why there was so much
worldwide attention regarding my case.

- Look, normally
when you do this job,

you don't want the press.

But if you imagine yourself
as this romantic figure

that I-I think he did,

that sense of-of being known

was very, uh,
intoxicating for him.

Now, he had this
audience that was

aware of some of his capacity,

and, uh, he-he could
not help himself,

but had to talk
about everything.

Things that the police
didn't know anything about,

he was telling them about.

He
told us all how he did it,

the planning, what he
used, why he did things.

- We still didn't know
about the covert cameras

or listening devices.

He explained where they were.

- You know, you talk to a
guy and he admits to it,

that-that's one thing.

But when he goes into
the finite details

of all the preparation
and that he did,

that's something you don't see.

It's-it's
all about that ego,

that desire to be known as, uh,
the best and most interesting.

And, uh, that he
was a, a success,

and he wanted to be a success
that was recognized by the world.

- In the end I think I won

because it was my public persona

and my image that they created
that got me where I am today.

So when I was in prison,
I was a superstar.

He's been described
as a criminal mastermind,

an international jewel thief.

There was
this persona of Gerald Blanchard

being a mastermind thief.

And I think it really captured

the-the, the imagination
is because it was real.

It was real.

I think also
his ego is enormous.

And I think satisfaction
was given to that ego

and fueled that ego.

He knew that he was notorious.

And it's my understanding

that he tried to author
a book about this.

He's more than happy to
contribute his name to, uh, films.

- Well, when Warner Brothers
did the option agreement,

Zac Efron, was
supposed to play me.

But when that movie got
shelved, I was okay with it.

- Documentaries.

I mean, I think you
can see that yourself.

He-he is very good at showing
off what he did and who he is.

You can rob five or six banks
and never become famous,

but do what Gerald Blanchard
did, and you're a star.

You'll be remembered,
you'll be documented,

you'll be filmed, you'll be in every
newspaper in the world as he was.

So, I mean, he got
exactly what he wanted.

Notoriety, fame, and money.

You are curious
as to where he's gone from here.

I don't think he has
the ability to stop.

If it's, if it's not,
uh, actively doing it,

he's tied into some organized
crime or something. You know?

It-it's not all legit. Can't be.

He just, he doesn't
know anything else.

- He's never personally
taken anything from anybody

that he knows personally
or family members.

It's always been more
like corporate America.

And, yes, I'm gonna say
banks because his attitude,

and quite honestly, my attitude,

has always been the
banks are legal criminals

because they can do
anything they wanna do,

and they take money from
people all the time.

I mean,
I don't have any proof

that he, that he is
doing anything criminal,

but I'd be very surprised

if he wasn't, if he wasn't.

I think that challenge,

that, that, uh, need to conquer,

uh, is probably still there.

- Well, my drive to fight
is similar to Dan stealing.

I'm a survivor.

And I'm very proud
to say that's my boy.

In my
experience, it's my belief

that reform has no place
in Gerald Blanchard's life.

I don't think he's reformed.

Um, I don't think
he ever will reform.

I think he is the kind of man who
revels in this type of behavior.

And I don't think, frankly,

he could live without
this kind of behavior.

And when all the
cards came falling down,

it was a sense of relief,

because I knew I would
go do my jail time,

and then I would be free
someday to start over.

- ♪ Shining star
for you to see ♪

♪ What your life can truly be ♪

♪ Dream Your Little Dream by The Braun
Brothers featuring Lady Blackbird playing ♪

- ♪ Look into your future ♪

♪ You will see your past ♪

♪ Look into ♪

♪ The crystal ball ♪

♪ The light is dimming fast ♪

♪ Dream your little dream ♪

♪ Dream of starting over ♪

♪ Dream your little dream ♪

♪ Dream, dream ♪

♪ Dream ♪

♪ Look into ♪

♪ My hazel eyes ♪

♪ Dream with me if you dare ♪

♪ Hear the truth ♪

♪ It never lies ♪

♪ Follow me, I'll
take you there ♪

♪ Dream your little dream ♪

♪ Dream of starting over ♪

♪ Dream your little dream ♪

♪ Dream, dream ♪

♪ Dream ♪

♪ vocalizing ♪

♪ Dream, dream ♪

♪ Dream ♪

♪ Dream, dream ♪

♪ Dream ♪

♪ vocalizing ♪

♪ Dream, dream ♪

♪ Dream ♪

♪ vocalizing ♪

♪ Dream of starting over ♪

♪ Dream of starting over ♪

♪ Dream of starting over ♪

♪ Dream of starting over ♪

- For sure my friends and family were
trying to steer me on the correct path,

but... and I say, "But,"

that doesn't pay the bills.