- [Narrator] This is Larry Lawton,
and he's an ex-jewel thief.
- Not thief, I was a robber.
Thief sounds like you went
in a person's house and robbed it,
I just went with a gun
right to their face.
- [Narrator] Larry's a
former career criminal,
once considered the biggest jewel thief
in the United States.
- In seven years,
I robbed between 15 and $18 million
and then served 12
years in federal prison.
And today, I'm gonna break down
what's right and wrong
in some of Hollywood's great movie heists.
[suspense music]
[light buzzes]
[coffee flows]
[fan whirs]
[switch clicks]
[dial cranks]
[typewriter types]
[sirens blare]
We're about to watch a
lot of crimes in movies,
but let me be very clear,
I am in no way endorsing
or encouraging crime in any way.
I'm an ex-criminal,
and now I work with police
agencies to prevent crime,
so I want that to be known
right off the bat [laughs].
Let's look at some clips.
[static hissing]
The bank robbery in "Heat".
- [Robber] Keys, the keys, keys.
[keys rattling]
- [Robert] Stay down.
We want to hurt no one.
We're here for the bank's
money, not your money.
Your money's insured by
the federal government,
you're not gonna lose a dime.
- When Robert De Niro takes control
and tries to calm everybody down
by telling 'em that their
money's insured, he's right.
It's just like with the
robberies that I committed,
the people's jewelry was insured
so they got their money.
It wasn't the people who you're robbing
that we're getting robbed,
the real people are
the insurance companies
who are losing the money.
And again, I'm not gonna say it was right,
it's wrong, but it's not
their stuff they're losing.
Most of the people I
robbed did not hate me,
'cause they actually
sold their whole store
in one shot for insurance.
At one time, the feds couldn't
get the jewelry store people
to say anything bad against me.
They got a couple, but the guy shot me.
Okay, now the things
that stuck out right away
on this clip is, how much do
you think that money weighs?
Cash is king.
You'd like to rob cash, but cash is heavy.
They're flinging around that cash,
like it's feathers, that cash is heavy.
It's a gram per bill.
Each one of those bags is 70 pounds,
and they're running through the streets
like it's a 10 pound bag.
You know, it's totally unrealistic.
That's part of that struck
out at me right away.
Cash is heavy.
That's why people can rob
a lot more in diamonds,
you can get a diamond worth $100,000
that is the size of a penny.
You know why cash is king?
'Cause you don't have
to deal with a fence.
A fence is a middleman.
A fence is the guy you take
whatever stolen object you have,
you get cash from that
person for that stolen item,
and he then gets rid of it.
So you'd have a fence for diamonds,
you'd have a fence for VCRs,
you can have event's fence for clothes,
whatever you steal you need a fence.
Not with cash, cash is king.
[static hissing]
[dramatic music]
[typewriter types]
"Thomas Crown Affair".
[alarm beeping]
What you're seeing here
is a mega millionaire stealing
a million dollar picture.
In the "Thomas Crown Affair",
What does he do, he robs art.
Why does he rob art, because he knows art,
so he knew the value of
what he was stealing.
- This painting is considered to be
the first impressionist work in history.
It's worth 100 million bucks.
[children gasp]
- In my own career, I knew about diamonds.
Why, because I went to the GIA Institute
under the table to know what I was doing.
The GIA Institute is
the Gemological Institute of America.
They actually show you
how to grade diamonds, rate diamonds,
actually give 'em what they
call a birth certificate.
So understanding what you robbing
is more important sometimes
the robbery itself.
Why would I rob something
and not know the value of it?
- [Bobby] Morning Mr. Grant.
- Bobby.
- Back for your haystacks, huh?
- In the "Thomas Crown Affair",
he gets very tight with everybody.
And that's very common, 'cause
when I did my robberies,
I ended up getting tight with
the owner or the sales person
in that jewelry store.
They didn't know who I was,
but they got tight with me.
They started talking about the place,
and I would end up even sometimes asking
to use the bathroom in the
back and they'd say sure.
I'd walk in the back and know
everything about the store,
where the cameras were.
What I don't like about
what I'm seeing in this clip
is he's robbing for fun,
he's getting a thrill.
I've known people who are very
wealthy who want something,
but they don't do it themselves,
they hire other people to do it.
- Are you trying to imply
that I had something to
do with that painting?
- Trying.
- No way, if you were
worth 10 million dollars,
would you go rob something?
If you got 10 million in your house,
what are you gonna rob another
million for and go to prison?
That just doesn't make sense.
- [Man] Maybe it's for the thrill?
- Thrill, [beeps] off more.
- Tommy, that $100,000
on a goddamn golf swing.
- It's a beautiful Saturday morning John.
- I had an opportunity to
rob millions of dollars
in Rembrandt's and Picasso's,
and I couldn't get two
cents on the dollar.
That means if I robbed a
million dollar picture,
I couldn't get $20,000.
People don't understand,
when you rob things, rob
something you can get rid of.
If I robbed right now a
truckload of Apple watches,
I can get rid of 'em tomorrow.
If I robbed the truckload of Picasso's,
how am I gonna get rid of them?
Can't, I'll take the Apple watches
over the Picassos any day.
It's not worth it, you
have to be able to sell it.
The only way you can
do something like that
is find someone who
wants something specific.
You set a price for it, and then steal it.
Other than that, stay away.
You're better off robbing hubcaps.
[woman laughs]
It's the truth.
[static hissing]
[typewriter typing]
[dramatic music]
"The Italian Job".
[bomb explodes]
[safe crashes]
[engine revs]
Stealing a safe is not unrealistic.
In fact, I knew many people
who used to take chains
and pull ATM machines right out of banks.
Take 'em with a big heavy truck
or even take a bulldozer,
rob the bulldozer,
and literally take a safe right out
and throw it in the
back of a four by four,
and they're off and gone.
So here's what I love about this scene,
great timing, great misdirection.
Misdirection's when you send police,
or people, or whoever
it is to another area,
so you have time to do
what you're gonna do in your area.
In fact, I used misdirection
in some of my robberies.
I would actually light Molotov cocktails
on the other end of a mall or a town,
and cops and everybody's
going towards that.
And that's misdirection,
so I know I have more time
than the robbery itself.
So that's done very well
in this movie with the misdirection,
when the safe goes through the floor.
[suspense music]
[engine revs]
[actor speaks in a foreign language]
- But the guards are either
idiots, or they're in on it,
because a 3,000 pound
safe going to two floors
is not gonna end up in a 21 foot boat
flying through a canal.
You know, in this clip
also it's timing it,
so timing is everything.
And knowing when and
where people are gonna be,
and come to the place, is important.
- All right Charlie, someone
just called it in, the police.
- [Charlie] Boat's heading your way.
Seven minutes and counting, let's go.
- So how do you do that?
It's a easy way to do that.
You can light their alarm off,
you can start a little fire
or something right next to it,
throw a brick through
a window with an alarm,
and see how long it takes
the police to come there.
That's called a false alarm,
but you still gonna get response time.
I used to know how many police cars
the police had and how many cops were on.
You can call, and know the
size of the police department,
and just do the numbers.
So now if they have 21 patrol divisions,
you probably have three shifts.
So at the most, you're
gonna have seven cop cars
in any given area.
So how do you know a cop's not patrolling
in that area right then and there,
and you do it and cop shows up
within 10 seconds, 20 seconds,
'cause he's right there?
You better know where the cops are,
there's where you go to misdirection.
You know, in this movie
right in the beginning,
right after the Italian
Job, they get away,
and they're out somewhere celebrating
and one character kills
the rest of the people.
- No, no.
No, no, no, John.
- Steve, what the hell are you doing?
- Made a few plans of my own.
- And in reality, that is more common,
or would happen, with that kind of money.
- Steve, how many times
do I have to tell you?
I trust everyone, I just don't
trust the devil inside them.
- Great movie, but why don't
just go with these guys
in there, knock on the
door, get in there somehow.
They were in the floor below.
They were painting some
dynamite on the walls.
You can't get into that top floor?
Come on, that's a little unrealistic.
Listen, I robbed people.
I used to rob drug dealers.
I used to tie them all up,
we'd walk out with a million
dollars in cash and the dope.
So I mean, I was a bad guy all around,
but I don't do that anymore.
[static hissing]
Let's take a look at the movie "Snatch".
So what we're seeing here,
is for men walking in
dressed as Hasidic Jews
to rob a wholesaler.
I knew a guy who did this.
He dressed up as Hasidic
Jew here in Brooklyn,
and then robbed the people
who take their diamonds
to temple to bless 'em.
- [Movie] Rudy, Rud,
Rud, let them in, please.
[door buzzes]
- Mutti?
[suspense music]
- These four guys go in
through a buzzed door.
The buzzer doors are good for
me, the professional criminal,
not for the smash and grab.
When I went into a buzzed door,
I was never surprised after that,
'cause I would end up
buzzing the person in
and taking them down.
You don't want someone just
walking in and then walking out.
In those buzzers, you
also have to buzz out.
Once you're in there, you're mine.
You can't even run out of the store,
it buzzes, it locks.
- Where is the stone?
[man grunts]
- They're looking for a specific diamond.
And if you notice, it's not in the safe.
A lot of times a specific diamond,
or very high end stuff, might
be in a false floorboard,
or a safe that's hidden in a drawer.
It does not have to be in
the actual safe itself.
A lot of times, that's
the jewelry owners trying
to not put all their eggs in one basket.
So if that safe did get robbed,
maybe that higher end
stuff doesn't get robbed,
'cause a lot of people don't know that.
But when you case a store,
you'll figure that out.
This clip was actually very realistic.
There's not much wrong, except,
they would all carry their own gun.
I didn't see why there were
all four guns on one guy,
that made no sense.
They're walking in as it is,
so if one guy goes off and hits a buzzer,
they're gonna pat him down anyway.
What I don't like about what
I'm seeing in this clip,
is how they used violence.
In all of my robberies,
I've never used violence,
didn't need to.
In robberies you don't
need to use violence,
you need intimidation.
And it's wrong, I wanna emphasize that.
I didn't hurt anybody in a robbery,
but I scared people and that's wrong.
So I scarred them sometimes
for life, which is wrong,
but I never had to
physically hurt somebody,
ever in a robbery.
[static hissing]
"Ocean's 11".
So there's a couple of things
this movie does really well,
casing the joint and
getting inside information.
- [George] First task, reconnaissance.
I wanna know everything that's going on
in all three casinos, from
the rotation of the dealers
to the path of every cash card.
I wanna know everything about every guard,
every watcher, anyone
with a security pass.
- Casing the joint is when you take
the whole entire theft you're gonna do,
and get every detail.
when you know that the sun comes up
and there's glare on the
window at a specific time,
when you know when the mailman comes by,
when the most people are
gonna be in the place,
what time they open, where
they park their cars.
When I was casing jewelry stores,
I wouldn't know what time the sun come up,
so I'd get the maximum
glare so nobody can look in.
Casing a joint encompasses
total control of the robbery,
and you can see in this clip,
they're doing exactly that.
You can see they have inside information,
they have a dealer who knows
the ins and outs of that casino
and is watching at all times,
When you get inside information,
you might have to do it a couple of ways.
[seductive music]
In the clip, you're looking
at the girl got money.
- Thanks, Charmaine.
I'll have this back in an hour.
- But in reality, it will be blackmail,
and that's what usually gets people.
When you blackmail somebody,
it's not just about
getting the dirt on him,
it's getting dirt that's
gonna hurt somebody.
And that's what's important,
'cause money will get somebody
motivated only so much,
but blackmail will keep
them quiet forever.
In reality, the reward came out.
A person who just did something
for X amount of dollars can get more money
by telling everybody what really happened.
But if the person was blackmailed,
you got them forever.
And it could be really
something as small as gambling
or it could be something sexual,
but once you have 'em with blackmail,
it's more powerful than money.
In the "Ocean's 11" movies,
all of 'em, the ocean movies,
there's just too many people involved.
- You need at least a dozen guys
doing a combination of cons.
- When you have 12 people
who directly know about what's going on,
there's gonna be a snitch somewhere,
and they're gonna get the reward also.
So even on a mega money, if
you have 40, $50 million,
and you split it up 12 ways,
and they come up with a $5 million reward,
you can get more money by snitching.
And the snitches,
somebody's gonna snitch
somewhere along the line,
or somebody was in bed with their wife
and they told 'em what's going on
and the wife doesn't like him anymore.
When I was robbing, nobody
knew who my fence was.
And that's important,
I did that on purpose.
So if anything happened,
nobody can get to the next person.
Even my own crew didn't
know what I was doing,
as far as where the money was coming from,
or how we were getting
rid of the diamonds,
and that's important.
In this clip here,
everybody knows everything,
and that wouldn't happen
in real life, never.
The less people that know, the better,
and that's how a robbery should go.
You know, have I ever thought
about robbing casinos?
I think I thought about
robbing everything.
If you did anything in this movie,
you'd cut down the amount of people,
and you might get into the cages.
But if you ever notice any casino,
where the cages are,
they're in the center of the casino
away from any exits.
So there's no way you can get into them,
believe me, I looked.
[static hissing]
Let's take a look at a robbery gone wrong
in "Hell or High Water".
- [yells] There's no
money in the drawers yet.
It's in the safe, and
I ain't got the code.
- [Robber] Prove it.
- What you're looking at in this clip
is two brothers who rob a bank
in a rural town early in the morning.
- All you're guilty of
right now is being stupid.
Just leave and that's all it'll be.
[suspense music]
- [Robber] Tell me I'm stupid again.
- The woman is actually
giving him some gruff back
and you would see that.
People react to robberies
in different ways.
Some people cry, some people laugh,
some people curse you out,
some people stay silent,
you have all different reactions.
You see these guys use
gloves, I used gloves.
Or you can also use crazy glue
and literally cover your
fingertips in crazy glue,
and then you don't have any gloves
and you won't get prints out either.
Also, they didn't cover their eyes.
If you ever noticed somebody
who really robbed something,
if they put pantyhose over their head,
it disfigures their whole entire face,
and you could still see,
but you couldn't describe
the person's eyes.
If you left your eyes open,
a person will look right at your eyes,
and they'll recognize those eyes again
and it's a quick this guy.
Wham, put it right over your head,
and you're gone and nobody can
recognize you, you're done.
That's one way to do it.
I'll bet we'll get people to do that.
[man laughs]
Yeah, you guys are gonna go home
and find a pair of
pantyhose from your mother.
Hey Mom, I need a pair of pantyhose.
- [Robber] Where do
you think you're going?
Sit on the floor.
[gun clicks]
- You had one guy who was
a little out of control,
but that's actually what
made the robbery work.
Because unpredictability,
if a person doesn't know
what you're gonna do,
they're gonna give you whatever
you need to get out of there
and that's the smart way to do it anyway
if you're getting robbed.
Don't get hurt.
- There's no money in the drawers yet.
It's in the safe, and
I ain't got the code.
- They shoulda cased it.
They shoulda known about the safe,
and who can get into the safe,
and at what time you
can get into the safe.
Also, most safes have time locks.
It can only be open at a certain time,
and that's very common.
- [Robber] Damn it.
- Y'all are new at this, I'm guessing.
- Obviously, there's a
couple of things banks do
from dye packs to GPS's in the money.
And they'll give a certain pack of money
that has a dye pack, and once
it leaves the store it blows,
and all that money is done.
People in banks are trained to
do exactly what they're told
and give away the money,
because it's all insured.
Also in banks, if you ever notice,
when you go into your next
bank, look at the door.
There's actually a height marker
in every bank right at the door.
So when you walk out, you'll see it,
and they can tell you how tall you were.
Most people who rob
banks, don't rob one bank,
they do a lot more.
Obviously, with the bank it's the FBI,
so you will eventually get caught.
We say the best of the best, the FBI.
And the FBI, they got all
the money in the world,
and all the time in the world.
You will get caught.
[static hissing]
The convenience store robbery
in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".
A great movie, you guys watch that movie?
Yeah, it's a great movie.
We've been following a lot of clips
with professional criminals.
People who plan it out, people
who know what they're doing,
casing a joint, so to speak.
In this clip, you see the exact
opposite of a professional.
- What are you doing?
The safe behind the donuts!
I'm watching this place.
I know what I'm doing.
- The manager or that store clerk
would never have access to a safe,
and the safe wouldn't
be there right behind
the hostess on the counter as well.
It would be a drop safe.
All convenience stores, 711s, Wawas,
they all have what they call a drop safe,
which has a opening on the top
that can handle an envelope in cash.
And every $100 usually in a cash register,
after they have $100, they drop that
and you can't get into that drop safe.
They'll have a lock that's only opened,
usually by the owner or a
manager, who comes in later
to empty that.
Check the receipts, that's what they do.
He walks in.
He sprays paint over the camera,
like the camera didn't see him already.
In today's world, we have cameras
that have off side monitoring
and their straight live
feeds to another area.
Back in the '80s when this movie was made,
they didn't have that,
and they would've had a tape
machine in the back office.
And in the back office,
you can actually go in there as a criminal
and take the tape out,
and they wouldn't have
any kind of feed of you.
You see the manager grab coffee,
throw it in the face of the criminal.
Obviously he's defending himself,
and he's allowed to do that of course,
and he is encouraged
not to do that though.
Most police don't want
you to get involved.
They want you to give the
money away as quick as you can
and get rid of it, and
observe as much as you can,
because you don't wanna get killed.
Nobody wants to get hurt.
The first action of everybody
involved should be safety,
and that goes to safety of your customers.
If this guy's armed,
and you did something,
and he shot you, and Mrs.
Mcolley walked outta the bathroom
and then got shot as well,
you're talking about a
very dangerous situation
that could have been.
- There goes your ride home.
- You also saw the
getaway driver take off.
Believe it or not with drug addicts,
that probably be pretty common.
And the one who got
caught would be telling
on the one who didn't get caught.
That would be pretty common too,
especially with drug
dealers, drug addicts.
- All right, Howsen.
- The clips you just saw,
I don't ever want people to believe
that I'm endorsing crime in any way.
People don't think,
criminals should be smarter,
but most of them aren't,
and that's where they go to prison.
And in my case, the FBI was very good.
