Bad Grandpas | These Old Men Robbed a Bank

In a wild episode of *Things I Learned Last Night*, the hosts dive into the true story of the 2015 Hatton Garden Heist—where a group of elderly men, dubbed the 'Bad Grandpas,' pulled off one of the most audacious bank robberies in British history. At the heart of the heist was Brian Reader, a 70-year-old mastermind inspired by a Sherlock Holmes short story, who orchestrated a meticulously planned burglary of a London safe deposit vault. Using a diamond drill and hydraulic battering ram, the crew drilled through a 20-inch concrete wall over two days, only to discover the safe was bolted to both floor and ceiling—rendering their tools useless. After retreating, they returned on Saturday, broke through, and stole £14 million in jewels, gold, and cash. But their downfall wasn’t due to poor planning—it was their arrogance. They bragged about the heist in a pub, used personal phones, searched for tools on unsecured browsers, and left digital breadcrumbs. One member, Basil, evaded capture for three years by living off-grid—no bank account, no phone, no digital footprint—until the police finally tracked him down by monitoring their pub chatter and lip-reading their boasts. The judge sentenced them to eight years, acknowledging their age and giving them a lighter sentence than usual. The episode ends with a meta-commentary on modern surveillance, the irony of old criminals failing in a digital world, and a hilarious, self-aware dig at the hosts’ own podcasting habits.