TRUE CRIME...
Too Good to be True...
Crime!
From the narrow streets of Nice to the gleaning corridors of Wall Street, DARING CAPERS tracks some of the world's most fascinating criminals and their audacious crimes. Here's a rogue's gallery of bank robbers, art thieves, and debonair con artists who tried to steal their way to wealth through brilliant ploys and slick transactions. Their methods may amuse, their exploits may amaze, but their determination to make an easy buck is no laughing matter!
With dramatization, news footage and interviews with witnesses and law enforcement officials, DARING CAPERS takes you down the moral low road into the enticingly dangerous, devilish world of the criminal in 20 edge-of-your-seat episodes on 4 DVDs, originally aired on TLC, The Learning Channel.
These are the stories of some of the most outlandish and unlawful get-rich-quick schemes ever exposed. Some were even successful.
The high-rise burglar, the daring jewel thief, the tunneling bank robbers, the Italian playboy who is more than he appears and the 'Queen of Jewels' whose exploits baffled her pursuers; these are just a few of the rogues you'll meet in this amazing, amusing and entertaining collection of world-class criminals!
Disc 1
Art Attack
In 1990, two thieves dressed as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, tying up the security guards and stealing a Vermeer, Rembrandt's only known seascape, and eleven other art treasures valued at over $200 million.
The Silver Touch
Modeling himself on the gentlemen thief played by Cary Grant in "To Catch A Thief," cat burglar Blane David Nordahl's criminal career spanned more than a decade. In that time he robbed only from the rich and famous, including the homes of Ivana Trump and Bruce Springsteen, taking only the finest sterling silver.
Armored Robbery
The largest heist in U.S. history took place in March 1997, when $7.00 an hour security courier Philip Johnson stole $18.8 million from his employer Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Jacksonville, Florida. It was the ultimate inside-job, but Johnson's freedom was short-lived.
Kennedy Airport Caper
Just before dawn on December 11, 1978, seven men entered a cargo terminal and escaped with $8 million in cash, foreign currency, gems and gold. Despite strong efforts by the NYPD and FBI, not one piece of loot was ever recovered.
Plunder Under Nice
Successful bank robber Albert Spaggiari and a hand-picked group of international thieves spent two months digging a tunnel under the streets and into the impregnable vault of the Societe Generale bank of Nice, France, relieving the bank of over $10 million!
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Disc 2
A Great Escape
German fighter ace Franz Von Werra was "The One Who Got Away," the subject of a best-seller and two movies. Shot down over England in 1940, his escape exploits included multiple breakouts from POW camps in England and Canada. He eventually made his way back to Nazi Germany to fly again!
Great Train Robbery
On August 8, 1963, fifteen of England's greatest thieves stopped the Royal Mail train and made off with a shipment of $7.3 million in old, unmarked bills. Eventually, all but one of the thieves was caught... Ronald Biggs escaped to Brazil where he's become a minor celebrity, and for a price you can dine with him!
The Pierre Hotel Heist
In the early morning hours of January 2, 1972, a gang of five men wearing masks and tuxedos entered the lobby of Manhattan's lavish Pierre Hotel, hand-cuffed nineteen guests and employees, and in less than 2 1/2 hours emptied its safe deposit boxes of an estimated $10 million in precious gems and cash. Only $750,000 of the loot was ever recovered.
Reach For The Stars
The "Star of India," a sapphire the size of a golf ball, was on display in a dusty gallery at the museum of Natural History in New York for more than 60 years. Then, in a flash, it vanished, stolen by Jack 'Murph the Surf' Murphy, a flamboyant and elusive smuggler and ex-surfing champ.
Miami Heights
When you live in a high-rise, do you lock your balcony doors? over the course of 18 months in 1996-1998, the notorious Miami, Florida 'Spiderman' burglar, Derrick James, scaled high-rise condominiums, climbing as many as 30 stories without ropes or hooks. His escapades netted him over $8 million before he was nabbed!
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Disc 3
The Brinks Heist
An unlikely gang of thieves cracked an impenetrable fortress to pull off the crime of the century, the brinks Armored Car robbery in Boston. Disappearing with their millions, they confound police and capture the imagination of the entire country.
Ninety Second Bandits
Canada's most famous gang of bank robbers, also known as the Stopwatch Gang for their precision timing, set their sights south of the Border. They took millions from U.S. banks and led police on a chase that lasted ten long years.
Cops And Robbers
Police officers and criminals inhabit the same dark world of scams and schemes. But what happens when the line blurs between the cops... and the robbers?
The Knightsbridge Heist
An Italian playboy committed the world's largest armed robbery, making off with over $65 million from a safe deposit center London, and triggering a world-class game of cat-and-mouse. The only clue to the thief's identity was a single fingerprint!
Berlin Tunnel Gangsters
In Germany, a bank heist ended with robbers taking hostages and a standoff with police. When the police arrived to deliver the ransom, they discovered the robbers had vanished with their loot, tunneling out of, not into, a bank!
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Disc 4
Hesse Jewels
When the American Third Army captured Kronberg Castle in April 1945, a hidden cache of jewelry proved too tempting to a pair of Americans. They had discovered the Crown jewels of Hesse, a dazzling collection of diamond-studded tiaras, bracelets, rings and watches.
Earl Spencer's Best Man
Two British businessmen with ties to the British Crown were victimized by gem thieves in New York City. But as Scotland Yard and the NYPD learned, nothing about this crime was what it seemed...
Queen of Jewels
The story of Louise Davis, a con woman and jewel thief. For 25 years, she captivated jewelers with her knowledge of gems as she artfully stole them. Her luck ran out in 1998, but few of the items stolen by Davis have been recovered.
The Pilfering Professor
A criminal conspiracy threatened to wipe out England's cultural heritage, one robbery at a time. Over a period of six years, two art thieves looted 27 museums, getting away with at least $3 million in stolen antiquities!
Tunnel 57
In the early 1960s, the Berlin wall separated families, friends and lovers. For a young student from west and his fiancée in the east, cold war politics became intensely personal, and the desire to re-unite too powerful to resist!
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