A Burglar's Guide to the City (30 page)

“Crumbly Berlin sand” refers to Berlin’s having seen more than its share of bank tunnel jobs over the decades; a local criminal is even dubbed the Tunnelgangster by German media. See “Berlin Bank Robbers Dug 30-Metre Tunnel into Safe” (Associated Press, January 2013) and “Mystery Bank Heist Is Flashback to Berlin’s Murky Underworld” (Joseph de Weck,
Bloomberg Business
, January 2013). Although I refer to this story in the getaway chapter, it is relevant to mention it here: “Berlin Bank Robbers Escape … Right Under Cops’ Noses” (Rick Atkinson,
Washington Post
, June 1995).

The anecdote about New Songdo City came from an interview with a New York City–based IT consultant who requested anonymity due to the nature of his remarks.

Richard Stark’s novel
The Score
(reissued in 2009 by the University of Chicago Press) remains a great read, with a brilliant premise, and should be adapted for the screen.
Breakout
(New York: Mysterious Press, 2002) is another worthwhile Stark novel, featuring the elaborate heist of a converted armory. Note that “Richard Stark” was a pen name for novelist Donald E. Westlake, whose books
The Hot Rock
(New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1970) and
Thieves’ Dozen
(New York: Mysterious Press, 2004) are particularly enjoyable.

Bill Mason’s memoir,
Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief
(New York: Villard, 2003), written with Lee Gruenfeld, is a thoroughly enjoyable introduction to the life of a cat burglar. Mason’s appearance on CNN was in September 2003; a transcript of the show is available online.

My conversation with Jack Dakswin—a pseudonym—took place over Skype, with some preliminary details shared over e-mail. The book I refer to here,
Local Code: The Constitution of a City at 42 Degrees North Latitude
by architect Michael Sorkin, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 1996 and appears to be out of print. “Where Have All the Burglars Gone?” was published by
The Economist
in July 2013.

The long section in the middle of this chapter about burglary law, history, and theory relies upon a handful of texts. “‘Breaking the Plane’ in Burglary Cases” by Nate Nieman appeared on the
Northern Law Blog
in March 2011; there, Nieman specifically discusses an Illinois Supreme Court case called
State v. Beauchamp
. The Illinois State Bar Association also discusses this case in a weekly roundup on their blog; see “Quick Takes from Thursday, Feb. 3, Illinois Supreme Court Opinions” (Chris Bonjean,
Illinois State Bar Association
, February 2011). “Statutory Burglary—the Magic of Four Walls and a Roof” by Minturn T. Wright III was published in the
University of Pennsylvania Law Review
100, no. 3 (December 1951). The state burglary laws of Nebraska, New York, and California, referenced in this chapter, can all be found online. The Brooklyn Bridge white-flag stunt was well documented by
The New York Times
: see “A Brooklyn Bridge Mystery: Who Raised the White Flags?” (Vivian Yee,
New York Times
, July 2014), “German Artists Say They Put White Flags on Brooklyn Bridge” (Michael Kimmelman,
New York Times
, August 2014), and “Charges Weighed in Flag Swap After 2 Say They Did It” (Joseph Goldstein,
New York Times
, August 2014). The quotation “there is a possibility you could charge burglary” was found in this latter article.

“The Burglar in the Suitcase” by Kristyn K. Wilson and Chris Achong appeared in
Mathematics Teacher
106, no. 4 (November 2012).

The section of this chapter exploring what burglars look for in the houses they target relies on a core group of books and interviews.
Burglary
by R. I. Mawby (Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2001),
Breaking and Entering: Burglars on Burglary
by Paul Cromwell and James N. Olson (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2004), and
Burglars on the Job: Streetlife and Residential Breakins
by Richard T. Wright and Scott Decker (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1994) were especially useful. A research paper called “Defensible Space: Deterring Crime and Building Community” by Henry G. Cisneros (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 1995), as well as
Defensible Space: Crime Prevention Through Urban Design
by Oscar Newman (New York: Collier Books, 1972), were also good reference points. Mark Saunders, crime prevention design adviser with the Surrey Police (U.K.), helped walk me through many of these concepts (author interview, July 2013). Multiple conversations with LAPD detective third grade Chris Casey, recorded from 2013 to 2015, were both fascinating and helpful; I only wish I’d had more space for his stories in this book.

In the U.K., Detective Chief Inspector Dave Stopford of the South Yorkshire Police spoke with me at length about Yorkshire’s capture-house program. For media coverage of capture houses, see “‘Capture Houses’ Trap Burglars” (
Yorkshire Evening Post
, December 2007), “Police ‘Capture Houses’ Setting CCTV Traps for Leeds Burglars” (
Yorkshire Evening Post
, April 2008), “Capture Houses” (BBC, March 2008), “Police Set Up High-Tech ‘Capture House’ Filled with Valuables to Catch Teenage Burglars” (Harriet Arkell,
Daily Mail
, March 2013), and “Police Set Up Burglar Traps Disguised as Houses in Dudley” (
Birmingham Mail
, June 2012), to name but a few.

The Chinese burglary study mentioned in this chapter is called “Assessing Temporal and Weather Influences on Property Crime in Beijing, China” by Chen Peng, Shu Xueming, Yuan Hongyong, and Li Dengsheng, published in
Crime, Law and Social Change
55, no. 1 (February 2011).

Harry Houdini’s book
The Right Way to Do Wrong
, originally published in 1906, was reissued by Brooklyn’s Melville House in 2012.

For more on PleaseRobMe, see “Please Rob Me: A Foursquare/Twitter Crime-Spree in the Making” (Martin Bryant,
Next Web
, February 2010). PleaseRobMe is still online at
pleaserobme.com
.

The use of social media by burglars for choosing their targets will only increase. For now, see “Sheriff: Alleged Burglar Admits to Using Facebook to Pick Her Targets” (Kara Mattingly, 14News, September 2013), “Hunterdon County ‘Facebook Burglar’ Who Paddled Kayak to Canada Found Guilty of Jumping Bail” (Mike Deak,
Daily Record
, March 2014), “Overland Park Burglary Victim Thinks Thieves Used GPS” (Tony Rizzo and Robert A. Cronkleton,
Kansas City Star
, April 2013), and “Dating App Used to Snare Heist Victims” (Kara Coleman,
Daily Herald
, August 2014). To the best of my knowledge, the case described by Kara Coleman was still pending as this book went to press.

Other stories in this chapter include “Bold Burglar Takes a Shower, Steals a Quad” (Z107.7 News, February 2014), “Police: Easton Intruder Helps Self to Fried Chicken and Beer” (Pamela Lehman,
Morning Call
, January 2010), “Wireless Meters Tell Snoopers When You Are Not Home” (Jim Giles,
New Scientist
, October 2012), my own article for
New Scientist
, “The Ghosts That Keep Your House Safe” (February 2015), “The Emptons: Estates Forsaken as Hamptonites Flee for European Shores” (Richard Kirshenbaum,
Observer
, July 2013), and “Bradbury—a Quiet, Private Haven for the Horsey Set” (Sue Avery,
Los Angeles Times
, March 1988).

I spoke with Jerry Toner in August 2013 on the advice of a mutual colleague, Professor Mary Beard at the University of Cambridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge “love picking” event took place on Saturday, September 7, 2013. TOOOL’s list of state lock-picking laws can be found on their website, toool.us. New York City Administrative Code 20-301 is available online; it is part of New York City Administrative Code, Title 20: Consumer Affairs, Chapter 2: Licenses, Subchapter 15: Locksmiths.

The John M. Mossman Lock Collection can be found online at
generalsociety.org
and, in the real world, at 20 West Forty-Fourth Street in Manhattan.
The Lure of the Lock
by Albert A. Hopkins was first published in 1928 and is available for purchase at the General Society. Schuyler Towne maintains a website at
schuylertowne.com
, where he describes himself as a “security anthropologist.” On June 4, 2015, @DavidJBianco tweeted that Towne “is a machine for turning locks into anthropology.” Towne and I visited the Mossman Lock Collection in September 2013.

Pumping Station: One (PS:One) is located at 3519 N. Elston Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The scene described here took place on June 5, 2013. John “Jack” Benigno is a sergeant with the Chicago Police Department, but spoke to me in an unofficial capacity, as a civilian locksport enthusiast. We spoke in person at the event at PS:One, but much more extensively over Skype and e-mail. Michel Foucault’s
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
(New York: Vintage Books, 1995, translated by Alan Sheridan) has become a classic in the field of security studies.

The story of the Antwerp diamond heist is told in the book
Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History
by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell (New York: Sterling, 2010). A version of the Antwerp diamond heist was more famously published in
Wired
under the title “The Untold Story of the World’s Biggest Diamond Heist” (Joshua Davis, April 2009). It’s worth noting, however, that Selby and Campbell convincingly explain that the narrative presented by the
Wired
story is incorrect at best—or worse, that
Wired
was duped by Antwerp diamond thief Leonardo Notarbartolo.

Phil Christopher’s story is told in
Superthief: A Master Burglar, the Mafia, and the Biggest Bank Heist in U.S. History
by Rick Porrello (Novelty, OH: Next Hat Press, 2006). Although I do not refer to it in this book,
The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Thief
by Myles J. Connor Jr. with Jenny Siler (New York: Harper, 2009) is also an interesting and relevant read.

The “keys to the city” described in this chapter are documented in “Key Set Available for $150 on eBay Provides an All-Access Pass to NYC” (Brad Hamilton,
New York Post
, September 2012) and “Lock Away These NYC Keys!” (Susan Edelman,
New York Post
, October 2012). Schuyler Towne discussed how to duplicate keys using high-resolution photographs in a Quora post in November 2013 called “If You Took a Picture of a Car or House Key, Could You Use That Picture to Get a Copy Made?” Since that time, companies such as KeyMe (“a secure and convenient way to copy, share and personalize keys”) and Keys Duplicated (“Copy keys online using your phone”) have been launched, turning a similar method into a business model.

For more on Marc Weber Tobias, see “The Ultimate Lock Picker Hacks Pentagon, Beats Corporate Security for Fun and Profit” (Charles Graeber,
Wired
, May 2009), as well as Tobias’s own two-volume set,
Locks, Safes, and Security: An International Police Reference
, 2nd ed. (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publisher, 2000).

I met ATF special agent Kenneth Crotty as part of a workshop organized by the Writers Guild of America East in May 2014. Tactical Energetic Entry Systems can be found online (
energeticentry.com
), as well as breaching-tool firms such as Broco-Rankin (
broco-rankin.com/tactical
) and Gerber Tactical (
gerbergear.com/tactical
). Many retail stores sell these products, as well, including Atlantic Tactical (
atlantictactical.com
).

As this book goes to press, Karl Alizade is considering a move to Nevada with his firm, CitySafe; for now, CitySafe can be visited online (
citysafe.com
and
modulxstrongroom.com
), where many videos and diagrams are available for view. U.S. Patent No. 6,848,372 B2 (Modular Security Safe with Offset Security Bolt Box Having Expandable Characteristics and Method of Manufacturing Same), filed by Alizade, is also worth viewing. Alizade was interviewed in
The New York Times
for an article called “Secret Hideouts for the Rich and Scared; in Homes and Apartments, Safe Rooms Can Withstand Small Rockets” (Hope Reeves, April 2002). See also “New Ways to Fight Crime” (Miles Z. Epstein,
JCK
, June 1999) and “Barbarians at the Gate” (Patricia Leigh Brown,
Chicago Tribune
, October 1997). I also covered Alizade’s work in the September 2015 issue of
Dwell
magazine (
dwell.com
). All quotations from Alizade come from various conversations from 2012 to 2015.

For more on artist Gordon Matta-Clark, see
Gordon Matta-Clark
by Corinne Diserens (London: Phaidon, 2006).

My telling of the story of Jeffery Manchester, aka Roofman, is based on an interview in December 2014 with his arresting officer, Sergeant Katherine Scheimreif of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Additional references came from the following articles: “‘Roofman’ Gets the Blame for 38 Robberies in 9 States” (John M. Glionna,
Los Angeles Times
, April 2000), “Escaped Convict Lived Inside a Wall” (Shawn Flynn, News 14 Carolina, January 2005), “Escapee Attended Church, Gave Toys” (Associated Press, January 2005), and “Escaped Robber Returns to Annals of Weird Crime / Cops Say ‘Roofman’ Lived Large in Store” (Demian Bulwa and Charles Burress,
San Francisco Chronicle
, January 2005). Thanks to Anthony Carfello for first introducing me to Roofman’s story.

Bernard Tschumi and I spoke in August 2013.
The Manhattan Transcripts
and many other important early texts can be found in Tschumi’s monograph
Architecture Concepts: Red Is Not a Color
(New York: Rizzoli, 2012).

The story of the Kunsthal heist was widely covered in the global media at the time. For more on the alleged vulnerabilities presented by the museum’s architectural design, see “OMA’s Gallery Design Blamed for Rotterdam Art Heist” (
Dezeen
, October 2012) and “The Art of Stealing: The Tragic Fate of the Masterpieces Stolen from Rotterdam” (Lex Boon, NRC.nl). The Museum Security Network can be found online at
museum-security.org
.