Hatton Garden Heist's Hole

The hole that robbers drilled through the concrete vault during the Hatton Garden heist in London, Britain. is seen in this undated handout photo released to Reuters by the Metropolitan Police on January 14, 2016. Three men were found guilty on Thursday for the largest burglary in English legal history, a daring multi-million pound raid on a safe-deposit business in London's jewelry district led by pensioners who had spent a life in crime. A part of the picture was masked at source.

Collins, Perkins and Reader in the Castle Public House, Pentonville Road

“If we get nicked at least we can hold our heads up that we had a last go,”

Hatton Garden heist: The target, the plan, the job, the gear and the investigation behind the biggest burglary in English legal history

They chose the Easter Bank Holiday weekend to strike, just as Perkins had done with the Security Express job 32 years earlier, because their targets would be lightly staffed.

The gang was already on the move when Kelvin Stockwell, one of the two main security guards, set the alarm on Thursday, April 2, and left at around 6pm, not expecting to return until the following Tuesday morning.

They began their attempt to get into the building even as Mr Wiffen, the jeweller, was dealing with clients and clearing up before the long holiday weekend.

There were two locked routes into the building before the gang could even think about tackling the vault and each route was subject to its own unique challenges.

Posted by gerardvanderleun at January 15, 2016 2:39 PM