All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s02e20 Curious Crimes.eng

[mysterious music]

Would you believe
someone actually stole

one of the most famous
brains in history?

- You are carting this
man's brain around

in a cardboard box?

There's grounds
for legal action.

- Or that a murder was
solved by a ghost witness?

- Out of nowhere, she sees
her dead daughter, Zona.

Zona points at her own throat,

as if to tell her
mother something.

- What about the time NASA
set up an elaborate sting

to take down a grandmother?

- Inside is a tiny
bit of moon dust.

She's badly in need of the cash.

- However, this remains
government property.

- Joann swears the lunar
artifact is rightfully hers.

- These are the crimes
so bizarre, so curious,

they are truly unbelievable.

[dramatic music]

Albert Einstein; the man
is synonymous with genius.

Everyone wanted
to pick his brain,

especially the man who
ended up doing his autopsy.

See how one man's
curious obsession

with Einstein's gray matter

puts him on the wrong
side of the law.

[mysterious music]

- In 1955, Dr. Thomas Harvey,

the Chief of Pathology at
Princeton Hospital, gets a call.

Albert Einstein has passed
away at the age of 76,

and they need an autopsy
to determine what happened.

- Dr. Harvey, who himself
is a man of science,

he is honored.

As he's opening up
Albert Einstein,

and doing his investigation,

he has someone looking
over his shoulder.

It is Otto Nathan, the executor
of Albert Einstein's estate.

They want discretion,
they want accuracy,

they want it to be
done the right way.

- [Dan] After determining
the cause of death

as an abdominal aortic aneurysm,

Otto Nathan leaves
Dr. Harvey alone

with Einstein's body
to finish up the task.

- Einstein, in his final wishes,

said he wants to be cremated.

He didn't want to
be buried anywhere

because he didn't want people
coming over to his grave

and worshiping his bones.

But Dr. Harvey sees this
as a great disservice.

[tense music]

- He thinks to himself,
"As a man of science,

it would be criminal to
not remove Einstein's brain

for the purpose of
scientific study."

- [Dan] Dr. Harvey
carefully removes the brain,

and stashes it in a
jar in his basement,

while the rest of
Einstein's remains

are sent to a crematorium.

- The key to getting
away with any crime

is to keep it a secret.

But he ends up notifying
the hospital director

of his actions and the story
ends up in the New York Times.

- And this is how the
Einstein family finds out.

They read about it
in the morning paper.

They had no idea the
ashes they scattered

weren't all of Einstein.

They are not happy.

- Theft of body parts
and unlawful dissection

does carry a huge prison
sentence with it,

and Harvey wants to avoid jail.

- [Dan] Desperate,
Dr. Harvey attempts

to get retroactive permission
from Einstein's family.

- He promises that this
is never going to be sold,

that Einstein's brain

is not going to be turned
into some sideshow spectacle.

This is going to be for
real scientific advancement.

- And he promises the family
that before publishing anything,

they will get to read it first.

And he even takes the extra step

of putting it all
down in writing.

- [Dan] Once the family agrees,

Dr. Harvey starts to
get oddly possessive.

- The military
reaches out to him,

saying they wanna help
him examine the brain,

and he turns down
the military flat.

He also refuses to
turn over the brain

to his boss at
Princeton Hospital.

And because you're being
insubordinate, he loses his job,

and because he loses his job,

he also loses his
research funding.

So now, Harvey has to find
somebody to partner with

so that he can keep
this research going,

because remember, that's
part of the condition

for him to keep
Einstein's brain.

- So he slices up the brain
into 240 different sections.

Some are thin slices, some
are just small chunks,

and it's with these pieces
that he starts to bargain

with outside researchers.

- [Dan] To Harvey's surprise,

few reputable doctors want
any part of this research.

- Things continue to go
wrong for Dr. Harvey.

He's jobless, he's penniless,
his wife leaves him.

It's almost as if the brain

has become a floating
curse in a jar.

- So Harvey decides to move
out west, and of course,

he takes the brain with him.

Some in a glass jar,

and the rest in a couple
of cardboard boxes.

For decades, he
roams the country

with Einstein's brain in tow.

He's hoping to finally get money
or connections to a partner

to finally finish
his research paper.

- Wherever he goes, Einstein's
brain is right next to him,

maybe in a closet, maybe
stored in the basement,

sometimes even just in
the trunk of his car.

In 1978, he gets
an unexpected call.

On the phone is a young
reporter, Steven Levy,

who's doing a story for
a tiny regional paper,

the New Jersey Monthly.

And the story is, "Whatever
happened to Einstein's brain?"

- The reporter makes a
plan to meet with Harvey,

and he's expecting to see
some elaborate lab set up

with Einstein's brain in
there, being examined.

That's not what he finds.

- [Dan] The reporter
Levy is shocked

to see the brain of this genius,

in what looks like a pickle jar.

- The article and the
photo send shockwaves

through the science community.

The disrespect and the
dishonor that's being shown.

Einstein's family, Hans
Albert and Otto Nathan,

they're looking at this
article and saying,

"This is not what we agreed to."

You are carting this man's
brain around in a cardboard box?

There's grounds
for legal action.

- [Dan] Luckily for Dr. Harvey,
charges are never filed.

[tense music]

- Finally, in 1998, a much
older and beaten down Harvey

returns to the scene of the
crime in Princeton, New Jersey,

and he does maybe what he
should have done decades ago.

He turns in the brain.

- Today, you can see
slices of that incredible,

brilliant, fugitive brain
at the Mutter Museum

in Philadelphia,

next to President Grover
Cleveland's tumor.

Wonder what Einstein
would've thought about that.

Speaking of nicking body parts,

how about taking a
five finger discount

on two slightly used toes?

[mysterious music]

- In May, 2018, the Body
Worlds Vital Exhibit

is making a stop in
Auckland, New Zealand.

The display is a
whole bunch of corpses

that have been preserved,
and they're skinned,

and posed in various positions
to essentially show people

how the human body works.

It tours the world, and over
45 million people have seen it.

And Auckland is no exception,
the place is packed.

- [Dan] But one day, as the
caretakers are closing up shop,

they're horrified to discover
that one of the exhibits

has become a crime scene.

- They look at this display
of a female acrobat,

and they realize,

someone has not only
broken off two of her toes,

they've taken them.

- The panicked caretakers
call the police.

The cost to actually replace
these two missing toes,

it's thousands and
thousands of dollars.

Moreover, somebody has
desecrated a human corpse,

and essentially
stolen their toes.

I mean, this is
gonna be a felony.

- This is a case where there
aren't any ready clues.

The security cameras
are not trained

on that part of the exhibit

at the time when
the toes go missing.

Luckily, the police
actually end up catching

an unbelievable break.

- [Dan] It turns out the only
thing this thief likes more

than stealing toes is
likes on social media.

- Foolish 28-year-old named
Joshua Williams posts a picture

of himself on social
media with the toes,

bragging about his crime.

The post reads, "Chur to the
Body Works. I stole a toe!"

- [Dan] Williams' ghoulish
plot might earn him clout

on social media,

but it also sends the
police right to his door.

- He gets arrested and
charged with theft,

as well as interfering
with a dead body

of an unknown person.

Such a charge can land
you seven years in prison.

- This charge is serious,

but the judge decides
that a dead body

actually can't be property,

which means you can't
technically steal it.

- Therefore, the theft
charge has to be dropped.

As for the next charge,
which is interfering

with the dead body
of an unknown person,

Joshua is no grave robber.

- Judge Hastings decides
this is kind of more like

taking something
off of a mannequin

than a human dead body.

He tosses out all the
other charges too,

and Joshua ends up maybe
the luckiest person

in a New Zealand court ever.

- Joshua Williams returns
the toes to the exhibit,

and walks away a free man.

- When it comes to solving
violent murder cases,

detectives never know how
they might catch a big break.

For cold case cops in India,

help comes from the
most unlikely source.

- It is December of 1983,
near the city of Agra.

The Singh family of Bad, India,

welcomes a lovely boy into
the world, who they name Titu.

[mysterious music]

- He's precocious, but one day,

he starts behaving strangely.

He claims he has a
beautiful wife named Uma,

and wealthy parents in the
neighboring city of Agra,

and he even owns a radio shop.

- He further tells his
family, "I'm not from here."

His name is not Titu,
but it is Sutesh Verma.

- [Dan] He also tells them
something else quite shocking.

That he was murdered.

- At first, Titu's
parents are dismissive.

"Our son just has an active
imagination like many children."

But when they tell him to
knock it off, he gets incensed.

He's angry. He says these
things happened to him.

- He tells his mother
that his wife Uma

wears much nicer
saris than she does.

His home in Agra is bigger,
and cleaner, and nicer.

And by age four, he's
absolutely adamant

that he comes from a better
life and better circumstances.

- [Dan] In 1987, Titu's
big brother, Ashok,

decides to help out
with a little recon.

- He drives around town,
looking for this radio shop.

He doesn't find a radio
shop named Sutesh,

but he does find
one named Suresh.

He goes inside, he
goes up to the counter,

there's a nice woman
at the counter.

She says Suresh isn't there,

because he died
in August of 1983.

- She also says that
she's Suresh's widow,

and her name is Uma.

[tense music]

- He asked how Suresh died,

and Uma tells him
that he was murdered.

- Ashok is surprised. The
story's starting to line up.

Ashok tells Uma
about Titu's claims

that he is her husband
come back to life.

- [Dan] Intrigued, Uma travels
to Bad with her in-laws

to hear Titu's strange
claims for herself.

- Titu recognizes
them immediately.

He calls Uma by her
first name, and he asks,

why are they arriving in a
car he doesn't recognize?

"What happened to my Fiat?"

Uma is shocked.

How would he know that
their car was a Fiat?

- [Dan] Titu doesn't just
know intimate details

of Uma's deceased
husband's life,

but also his unsolved death.

- He remembers driving home,
honking his car horn twice

to have Uma come out and
open the gate for him.

And then he remembers
this next part vividly.

Two men coming down the street,

one takes a gun out, and
shoots him in the head.

[gunshot firing]

- [Dan] Unbelievably,

Titu's memory matches
the police report,

but he's also able
to recall something

that's evaded the authorities
for over five years.

- Titu claims to remember
one of the assailants

as someone who Suresh did
business with at the radio shop,

Sedick Johaadien.

- [Dan] There's also
another strange piece

of evidence uncovered.

- On Titu's head, there is a
birthmark on the right side,

and a scar on the left side.

And both of these roughly
correspond with the entrance

and exit wounds as per
Suresh's 1983 autopsy.

With all this
circumstantial evidence,

the courts take
extraordinary action.

They allow reincarnation
evidence into the docket,

and allow the police to
reopen the investigation.

- The police actually
locate the two men

that Titu remembers.

They are charged with
murder, found guilty,

and sent to prison.

- It's gotta be tough
enough for police

to trust a reincarnated witness.

Now, imagine one
that doesn't exist.

[mysterious music]

- It is 1897

in the Allegheny Mountains
of West Virginia.

A blacksmith named Erasmus
Shue, known as Trout,

settles down with
his bride, Zona.

- It's a chilly January morning,

and things are kind of slow
at Trout's blacksmith's shop.

So he sends his assistant, Andy,

back to the home
he shares with Zona

in order to find out if she
needs any errands being run.

- Andy knocks on the door,
doesn't get an answer,

so he carefully lets himself in.

And what he finds is terrible.

[tense music]

- Zona is at the
bottom of the stairs,

dead.

- [Dan] Andy desperately
calls for Trout.

And when he sees his wife's
body, he is overcome with grief.

- He is crying and wailing,

and he sends Andy to
go get the coroner,

which is Dr. George Knapp.

- Trout carries
Zona up the stairs,

and is immediately
just beside himself.

- Knapp comes to
the house with Andy,

Trout is screaming hysterically,

and Dr. Knapp can get nowhere
near the poor girl's body.

- [Dan] Because of
Trout's emotional state,

Dr. Knapp does not
examine the body.

Instead, he determines
the cause of death

as an eternal faint,

a euphemism at the time
for a sudden heart failure.

- There's a tradition
within the community

that the women of
the town would come

and prepare a woman's
body for burial

by cleaning it and dressing it.

But when the women
of the town arrive,

Trout has already done this.

She's wearing a crisp,
high-collared dress,

with a large crepe veil,

and he's even wrapped her
favorite scarf around her neck.

- [Dan] Trout puts Zona's
body in a pine box,

and she's buried the next
day in the local churchyard

with all the town folk present.

- Weeks pass, and
then one night,

Zona's mother,
Mary Jane Heaster,

is sleeping in her bedroom,
when out of nowhere,

she sees her dead
daughter, Zona.

And Zona points
at her own throat,

as if to tell her
mother something.

- She kind of chalks this up
to, "I am a grieving mother.

My brain is playing
tricks on me."

But then the next night, the
same thing happens again.

It happens a third night,
and then a fourth night.

After this, Mary
Jane is convinced

they need to look
into this death.

And she actually gets in
touch with Dr. Knapp and says,

"I think we need to exhume
my daughter's body."

- When Trout gets wind
of this, he is incensed,

arguing that he does
not want his wife's body

to be disturbed.

- [Dan] Despite Trout's
protests, Zona's body is dug up.

And when they remove the scarf
Trout placed around her neck,

a brutal truth reveals itself.

- They find markings
of strangulation.

Of course, with murder charges,

they always look at
the spouse first,

and Trout's actions
were considered suspect.

His carrying on and crying,

keeping the doctor
from examining the body

point to someone who's
trying to conceal evidence.

- [Dan] Trout is
immediately arrested,

and he's put on trial for the
murder of his wife, Zona Shue.

- In court, Trout's attorney
attempts to make Zona's mother

seem crazy for suggesting that
her daughter had come to her

in an apparition.

But the problem is, the
forensics back up her story.

- [Dan] The jury sides
with Zona's mother,

and I suppose, by
extension, Zona's ghost.

They find Trout guilty and
sentence him to life in prison,

but they also set a very
unusual legal precedent.

- Zona Shue's case is the
only time in recorded history

of the state that a ghost
actually provided testimony

that resulted in the
conviction of their killer.

[mysterious music]

- Ghosts solving murders?

Sounds like the plot of a
successful Demi Moore movie,

if you ask me.

- Sometimes in life,
it's hard to tell

the bad guys from the good.

They don't always
wear ski masks.

And that dilemma
certainly holds true

for some confused bank
tellers in San Francisco.

[tense music]

- It's Saturday,
December 13, 2014,

in downtown San Francisco.

It's just two weeks
before Christmas,

and the place is abuzz
with people shopping

and getting their errands done.

And there's a bank all
done up for Christmas.

It's got Christmas trees,
lights, wrapped presents,

all for the impending holiday.

So nobody is surprised
when in walks a man

dressed as Santa Claus.

- Witnesses say Santa
goes up to the teller,

says that he has a gun,

and if she wants to stay
off his naughty list,

she better start
handing over cash.

- She freezes.

Although the teller
doesn't see the gun,

she hands him a
sizable amount of cash.

Santa puts it in his sack,

and he gets the
hell out of there.

- [Dan] As the bad Santa
escapes from the bank,

and into the streets,

you'd expect him to stick
out like a sore thumb.

But not today.

- This day is the
annual SantaCon.

It's essentially a big
Christmas time pub crawl.

People dress up as
elves, as reindeer,

and there are hundreds of Santa
clauses roaming the streets.

He basically disappears
into thin air.

- [Dan] The FBI and San
Francisco police work together,

and go through hundreds of hours

of surveillance camera
footage, but to no avail.

- How are you gonna
find a single Santa

amongst thousands of Santas
on the street that day?

It's like trying to find Waldo,

but the book is
full of all Waldos.

- According to the FBI,

December is the worst
month for bank robberies.

People get desperate for
cash to buy presents.

Banks are carrying
a lot of cash.

It's just a rife time to
be hit with a robbery.

- As of now, San Francisco's
bandit Santa remains at large.

Greedy Santa's not the
only unlikely thief.

Consider the story of
a band of anti-heroes

who pull off one of the biggest
heists in British history.

[tense music]

- It's 1950 in
Glasgow, Scotland.

And Ian Hamilton
is a 25-year-old

politically active
college student.

He joins a group called the
Scottish Covenant Association,

which shares his belief the
Scots should rule themselves,

and not be ruled by England.

Ian has a plan to bring
greater attention to the cause,

and that is to steal
the Stone of Destiny,

which sits beneath
the coronation chair

in Westminster Abbey.

- Every English king
or queen since 1296

has been crowned
sitting on that throne

with the Stone of
Destiny underneath.

It is a symbol of the power
of the British monarchy.

[tense music]

- [Dan] Before that, however,

it belonged to the
kings of Scotland.

Now, Ian wants it back.

- Ian prepares for this robbery.

He takes out every
book from the library

on the Stone of Destiny,

and he does reconnaissance
missions to the Abbey.

- Considering that the
stone weighs 335 pounds,

he brings in his friend,
Gavin Vernon and Alan Stuart,

to help him move the stone,

because these guys are
built like brickhouses.

- He also recruits
22-year-old Kay Matheson.

He knows her from the Covenant,

plus, he may have a
little crush on her.

- Because the stone
is 335 pounds,

the plan is to take two cars.

One for the stone and a driver,

and the other car
for the other three.

- [Dan] What could
be more brazen

than stealing a
national treasure

from the royal family's church?

How about doing it in the wee
hours of Christmas morning?

- Kay pulls up
alongside the Abbey,

and she's serving
as the lookout.

The other car pulls up to a
door known as the Poet's Door.

The first thing they try
to do is pick the lock.

Quickly, they realize
that none of them

have ever picked a lock
before in their life.

They go to the next plan,

which is just pry
the damned door open.

[mysterious music]

- This is not a quiet process.

They get the door open, but
they make a ton of noise.

- [Dan] Afraid they've
already alerted the guards,

they race through the dark halls

to find the coronation throne

and the Stone of
Destiny beneath it.

- The muscle guys come forward,

and they're trying to shift it,

but it's so heavy even they
can't really manage it.

So Ian gets his overcoat,

and the plan is let's get
the stone onto the coat,

and use it as a sort of
sled to drag the thing out.

But then, the stone
falls to the ground,

and cracks in two.

- Ian, freaking out,
completely panicked.

He picks up a 95 pound
part of the stone,

and just books it for the door,

leaves Gavin and Alan
behind in the Abbey.

- [Dan] Ian sprints
to Kay's car,

carrying over half
his body weight.

While his speed is
incredible, his timing is not.

- Also arriving on the
scene is a police officer.

And Kay says, "Quick, kiss me."

- She does not
have to ask twice.

And they begin making out,

as though their
freedom depended on it.

The officer taps on the window,

and Ian and Kay pretend to
be surprised and embarrassed,

and they explained that
they're college students

who just got into town
and haven't found a hotel,

and the officer lets them
go, and they speed away.

Little does this officer know

that a priceless piece of
history has just driven off.

- [Dan] But this robbery
is nowhere near over.

Ian realizes that
in the rush to flee

with half of the stone,

he's dropped the keys
to the other getaway car

inside the Abbey and must return
to the scene of the crime.

- Ian walks into the Abbey.

His friends are
nowhere to be seen.

But Ian manages to drag the
230 pound stone to the car,

and he hops in.

- [Dan] The team regroups,

and buries both pieces of the
Stone of Destiny in England,

in separate holes, of course,

before escaping
back to Scotland.

- Upon realizing it is stolen,
there is an all out manhunt.

- Ian and the gang are panicked,

so they gather up the
bits of the stone,

give them to the Scottish
Covenant Association.

They try and keep the
whole thing under the radar

while they figure out what
the heck they're gonna do.

- [Dan] While the Covenant

has the stone fused
back together,

the cops close in on Ian.

- The cops make their way to
the University of Glasgow,

specifically to the library,

and they notice
that Ian Hamilton

has been checking
out a ton of books

about the Stone of Destiny.

- [Dan] Luckily for Ian, the
Scottish Covenant steps in

to return the now
repaired stolen stone

to British authorities, who
in turn drop all charges.

Even though Ian and his
crew get away with it,

they learn a very
important lesson.

When planning one of the biggest
heists in British history,

it's important to put
together a strong crew,

never leave a trail,

and make sure you don't
break the merchandise.

- When you think of hard-nosed
criminal interrogations,

I doubt NASA comes to mind.

However, they take guarding
their assets quite seriously,

as one entrepreneurial granny
finds out the hard way.

[tense music]

- It's Los Angeles, 2011.

Joann Davis, a 74-year-old,
4'11" grandma,

is about to meet a
new friend at Denny's.

Joann claims to be in
possession of a paperweight.

- Inside is a tiny,
tiny bit of moon dust,

no bigger than a grain of rice.

She also claims to have a
piece of the heat shield

from one of the Apollo missions.

She's spoken to Jeff many times,

and they've arranged this date
to make the transfer of money

for the moon rock
and the heat shield.

She's badly in need of the cash.

- As Joann and her second
husband, Paul Cilley,

sit across the table and
get down to business,

they're suddenly
surrounded by armed agents.

- Joann is wondering what
the heck is going on.

An armed agent is
searching them for weapons.

Now she's being read her rights.

- They drag Joann
and her husband

out into the parking lot,

and detain both of
them for questioning.

- [Dan] But the agents aren't
from the FBI, DEA, or ATF.

They're from NASA,

and they have some questions
about this moon rock.

- Joann swears up and down

that the lunar artifact
is rightfully hers.

That it was a gift by
Neil Armstrong himself

to her late husband,
Robert Davis,

who was an influential
NASA engineer.

She's arguing that everything
she's doing is fine.

She needs the money to
take care of her grandkids.

What's the problem here?

[shuttle booming]

- NASA does give moon
rock and similar material

to high-ranking government
officials as gifts,

but the understanding

is that this remains
government property.

It's not for resale.

And they will go
after aggressively,

anyone who tries to
profit from this material.

- [Dan] However,
it becomes clear

that Joann isn't aware
of this understanding.

- Joann had no idea
that she was trafficking

in stolen goods.

In fact, she herself
had emailed NASA

asking for tips
on how to sell it.

- Instead of just
responding to her emails

by telling her that this was
illegal and she can't do it,

they decide to create a sting,

where they drag her into a
Denny's, and then arrest her,

and then humiliate her in
an impromptu interrogation.

- [Dan] When the
moon dust settles,

Joann decides the best
defense is a good offense,

by taking NASA to court.

- In 2013, Joann Davis sues NASA

for detaining her in a
hot Denny's parking lot,

and interrogating her for hours.

The Ninth Circuit agreed
this was over the top.

There was no need
to treat this little,

4'11" grandma like that.

- She settles out of
court for $100,000.

It's not the seven-figure
score she was hoping for,

but not too bad.

- [Dan] This isn't the first
time NASA's found themselves

on the wrong side of the law.

- [Announcer] We have
ignition sequence has started.

- It's May of 1973.

Kennedy Space Center in
Merritt Island, Florida

is abuzz with activity.

NASA's Skylab is
about to launch.

- [Announcer] ...two, one, zero.

The Skylab lifting off the
pad now. Moving up.

- [Hakeem] And this
mission is set to prove

that humans can actually
live and work in space.

- Skylab is able to
successfully host

three different
teams of astronauts.

They perform more than
2,000 experiments,

take tens of thousands of
images of the Earth and the sun,

and generally prove that it's
possible to live in space.

- [Dan] Not bad for a
price tag of 2.2 billion.

But there are other expenses
that they hadn't planned for.

- By 1974, Skylab's
in a sorry state.

Clearly, the mission
cannot continue.

So NASA decides it's
time to deorbit Skylab,

and to do it in such a way

that the big pieces fall
into the Indian Ocean.

- On July 11, 1979, Skylab
does start to fall to Earth.

And most of it burns
up on re-entry,

but some of the pieces do
fall over western Australia.

It lands in a place called
the Shire of Esperance,

population 2,700.

- When NASA sends a team
to recover the debris

that fell in western Australia,

a ranger from the Shire
hands them a ticket

with a bill of $400 for
the crime of littering.

According to Article Seven
of the Outer Space Treaty,

governments and
states are responsible

for any damage caused
by their space objects.

- [Dan] But NASA
never pays the fine,

and the violation is
largely forgotten about,

until 30 years later.

- In 2009, on the
30th anniversary,

a US DJ, Scott Barley,
goes on the air and says,

"Let's pool our money, and
let's pay off NASA's fine."

The mayor says,
"Thank you very much,

but we wrote that
money off ages ago."

But thankfully, he reports that
no further debris from NASA

has fallen on any of
the local population.

- Ever notice in crime
movies and TV shows,

we often find ourselves
rooting for the bad guy?

But in rare instances,

that can be true with
real crimes as well.

Witness the strange case of
a very charming bank robber,

with a very unlikely fan club.

[tense music]

- It's August 1973.

Police sharp shooters
are getting in place.

There's a robbery happening
at the credit bank.

- Police commissioner Curt
Lindroth has gotten word

that 32-year-old career
criminal and safe cracker,

Jan-Erik Olsson has
taken four employees

of the bank hostage,
one man and three women.

- The police know
Jan-Erik means business.

He's already shot one
of the police officers

who responded to
the silent alarm.

- [Dan] His demands start
with money, and a getaway car,

but then get more audacious.

For instance, that his old
cellmate, Clark Olofsson,

be released from prison,

and brought to the
very bank he's robbing

to be an accomplice.

- Incredibly, the police
take him from prison,

and they bring him to the bank

to be reunited with
his criminal colleague.

On the surface, this
seems like a bad idea,

but the police have
a logic behind it.

- [Dan] In return, the
commissioner is allowed

into the bank to
see the hostages,

and get a better idea
of how to rescue them.

- When Lindroth enters the
bank, the hostages are unhurt,

but their demeanor
is outright puzzling.

They don't seem afraid
of their captors.

In fact, they seem
somewhat chummy.

They refer to their captors
by their first names.

- [Dan] The standoff
continues for days.

And eventually the Prime
Minister himself calls in

to speak to the hostages.

- Prime Minister
gets on the phone

with captive Kristin Enmark,

and she explains
that she and Jan-Erik

and Clark have a connection.

She wants to escape with them.

Things have so
flipped for Kristin,

she's putting the blame for
the standoff on the police.

- Then Jan-Erik tells
the Prime Minister

he wants a bulletproof vest,

and a car big enough to
transport all of them,

him and the hostages.

- He then tells him he's got
60 seconds to make up his mind

or there will be
no hostages left.

He begins counting down from
60, and hangs up the phone

when he reaches 15.

- [Dan] Worried the hostages
will either be killed,

or worse, become
criminals themselves,

the police fire tear
gas into the vault.

- And it works.

Jan-Erik announces from
inside that they surrender.

The police counter that.

"Let the hostages go first."

- [Dan] Incredibly, even
though the robbers surrender,

the hostages do not.

- The police have no choice.

They have to storm the bank and
arrest everyone on premises.

But the strangest thing happens.

The hostages and the
criminals embrace.

- They're begging the police
not to hurt their captors.

One even has a tear in her eye.

- [Dan] Many wonder,

how could you feel
this way about someone

who is prepared to kill you?

- A figure who causes harm

is sometimes also
viewed as a caregiver.

It's sometimes called
trauma bonding,

much like what you'd
find with people

who perhaps are
abused by spouses,

or parents, or
their own captors.

So there is this strange
and disturbing symbiosis.

- [Dan] A Swedish psychologist
comes up with a name

for this bizarre phenomenon.

- He calls it the
Norrmalmstorg Syndrome,

after the square in
which it took place.

Luckily for us, we call
it the much easier to say,

Stockholm syndrome.

- It takes a lot of
gumption to steal.

And probably even more
to steal something

that can bite your arm off.

[tense music]

- It's your average,
ordinary Sunday

at the San Antonio Aquarium.

There's a special section
that has open tanks,

where people have an opportunity
to get a little up close

and personal view
of the marine life.

- [Dan] But not everyone
is here to sightsee.

- Two men eye a 16-inch
gray horn shark,

a favorite among visitors,

known affectionately
as Miss Helen.

- In what appears to
be a coordinated heist,

one man nonchalantly
reaches into the tank

and scoops the shark up in a
net that he's brought with him.

- [Dan] Oddly, visitors
don't seem to notice

a man carrying a dripping shark,

as he disappears to a
surveillance camera blind spot.

- Back in view of
the security cameras,

he hands the bundle
to another man,

who places it in
the escape vehicle,

which in this case,
is a baby stroller.

- It's not just a
simple smash and grab.

He's got several accomplices,

including a woman
carrying a small child.

- [Dan] At this point,

aquarium manager Jen Spellman
suspect something is up,

and confronts the men.

- The sharknappers deny
that they've taken a shark.

They insist that
the baby's sick,

and that they have
to leave immediately.

They speed away.

But Jen has just enough time

to take down their
license plate number.

- Jen calls the police.

They track the license plate
to a private residence,

and they discover a
menagerie of aquatic animals,

some of them kept in a 6,000
gallon pool in the garage,

which includes a variety
of fishes and five sharks.

- [Dan] They find Miss
Helen safe in a large tank.

But aquarium workers notice
there's something oddly familiar

about suspect Anthony Shannon.

- The staff realize this
guy looks just like the guy

that came to the aquarium
a few weeks earlier,

saying that he worked
for the company

that sells them their salt.

- As he's posing as
the salt supplier,

he gains access to the
maintenance closet,

where the staff maintains
the filtration system.

There he sees buckets
which he can use

to transport the shark
out of the facility.

- While he's there, he checks
out the security cameras,

he sees where Miss Helen is.

This heist is actually
meticulously planned.

It's basically "The
Thomas Crown Affair,"

except this guy doesn't
steal art, he steals sharks.

- This is how he knew
about the off-camera

utility closet, where
he took Miss Helen

to transfer her to
a waiting bucket.

Despite his obvious
love for marine life,

casing the joint in disguise

means that Shannon can't claim
this was a crime of passion.

Miss Helen can now
proudly sport the T-shirt,

"I survived the great San
Antonio Aquarium heist of 2018."

From outrageous plots
to steal a shark,

to solving your own
murder in your next life,

or even the theft
of a famous brain.

These are the crimes so curious,

they can only be
called unbelievable.

Repair and Synchronization by
Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0