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History Daily

The Lufthansa Heist

History Daily

Airship | Noiser | Wondery

History

4.42.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2023

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

December 11, 1978. A group of masked men rob a Lufthansa cargo building, making off with millions in cash and jewelry.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:03.7

Listen with Wonder Plus in the Wonder App.

0:06.0

Or you can get all of History Daily, plus other fantastic history podcasts at

0:10.5

Into History.

0:11.6

com. It's December 11th, 1978, a little after 3 a.m. at JFK International Airport.

0:28.0

Uftanza employee Carrie Whelan is on his way back from a late night delivery. He drives his car past warehouses for different airlines until he reaches his destination cargo building 261 where Lufthansa stores its most valuable items.

0:43.0

Cary is one of just a handful of employees that work the night shift here,

0:47.5

making sure that everything runs smoothly.

0:50.0

And it's been a quiet night so far.

0:52.0

But as Cary approaches the back of the building,

0:55.0

he sees something strange.

0:57.0

There's a black van idling there,

0:59.0

with two men sitting in the front seat.

1:01.0

Carrie doesn't recognize the van or the men and sensing something is a miss, he drives

1:06.5

toward the unfamiliar vehicle.

1:09.2

As he approaches the van on foot, two men spot him. They jump out of the car shouting a carry to get into the van.

1:16.3

Cary tries to run and call for help but the strangers are quicker. One of them hits him

1:20.8

across the face with a pistol knocking Carrie to the ground.

1:24.4

Before he can register what's happening, the men grab Carrie and toss him into the back of their van.

1:29.9

A few moments later, the van door shoots open again, and the men throw in another Luftanza employee,

1:35.6

one who had come outside to investigate all the noise.

1:38.3

But neither Carrie nor his coworker kept in the van for long.

...

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