The Crime Book

37

See also: Thomas Blood 18 ■ The Theft of the Cellini Salt Cellar 56

F

or England’s football fans,

1966 lives in the memory as

the only year in which their

team ever won the World Cup. The

theft of the famous Jules Rimet

Trophy four months before the

tournament started, however,

meant that England captain Bobby

Moore nearly had to hold an

imitation trophy in celebration.

On display in Westminster’s

Central Hall, London, the cup was

guarded, but thieves sneaked in

between patrols and forced open its

glass case. Despite a full-scale

investigation, the Metropolitan

Police were no nearer a solution

when a note arrived demanding

£15,000 (£196,000 today) for the

trophy’s safe return.

An attempt to entrap the sender

did catch a petty criminal named

Edward Betchley but failed to

produce the trophy. Not until

Pickles, a collie dog being taken for

a walk by his owner David Corbett,

unearthed a parcel beneath the

hedge outside his owner’s home in

Upper Norwood, south London, did

the missing cup come to light.

The story is still striking in terms of

calculating “value” when it comes

to crime – and whether some items

are too well-known to be worth

stealing. The original trophy,

melted down – the only way a gang

could have disposed of it – would

have been worth little in monetary

terms. Its symbolic significance,

however, was priceless. A replica

was produced in the original’s

place and fetched £254,000 at

auction in 1997. ■

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Central Hall, Westminster,

London, UK

THEME

Priceless trophy theft

BEFORE

9 October 1964 Jack Roland

Murphy, a surfing champion,

breaks into the Gems and

Minerals Hall at the American

Museum of Natural History

and steals the J.P. Morgan

jewel collection.

AFTER

19 December 1983 The Jules

Rimet Trophy is stolen again,

this time from the Brazilian

Football Confederation in Rio

de Janeiro. It has never been

recovered.

4 December 2014

Sixty Formula 1 trophies are

stolen by a group of seven men

who drive a van through the

doors of the Red Bull Racing

headquarters in England.

Pickles the dog netted his owner a

£5,000 reward, which he used to buy a

house in Surrey. Pickles was later

awarded a silver medal by the National

Canine Defence League.

TO ME IT IS

ONLY SO MUCH

SCRAP GOLD

THE THEFT OF THE WORLD CUP, MARCH 1966

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