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How a Quiet Bank Clerk Stole the World Cup Trophy and Melted It Into $250,000 in Gold — Transcript

by Lume · 2,858 words · 455 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00A packed stadium, a World Cup final,
0:03tens of thousands on their feet. On a
0:06velvet plinth in the center of the pitch
0:08stands the World Cup trophy. 1.8 kg of
0:12polished [music] gold. Players walk past
0:14it. They kiss it. They lift it for the
0:16photograph. None of them know what they
0:18are touching. The trophy on that plinth
0:21is not the original. The original Jules
0:24Rimet, the most famous object in the
0:26history of [music] football, was stolen.
0:28Walked out of a building one night.
0:30Melted by every official account into
0:33anonymous gold bars. What every champion
0:36lifts today is a replica. Blessed by a
0:39pope. Placed in front of the cameras
0:41before anyone could ask where the
0:43original had gone.
0:44>> [music]
0:44>> The real Jules Rimet has not been seen
0:47since the night two men walked into a
0:49federation [music]
0:49building in a major South American
0:51capital carrying a crowbar, a kitchen
0:54knife, and a roll of black tape. The
0:56display case had 2 cm of bulletproof
0:59glass on the front. The back was a sheet
1:01of plywood nailed to the wall. So, how
1:04does the most famous trophy in sport
1:06disappear in a single night? With one
1:09tied-up guard, zero witnesses, and not a
1:11fragment ever recovered? And how does
1:14every player walking past a World
1:15[music] Cup trophy today not know that
1:18what they are looking at is a copy?
1:20To understand it, go back to the [music]
1:22one wall the bulletproof glass forgot to
1:25cover. And the bank clerk who noticed it
1:27first.
1:29His name was Sergio Pereira Aires.
1:32Inside the Rio underworld, he was known
1:34as Sergio Peralta. By day, he worked as
1:37a junior clerk in a small Banco do
1:39Brasil branch in central Rio. He earned
1:42roughly the equivalent of 200 US dollars
1:45a month. He lived in a rented two-room
1:47apartment with his mother and a stray
1:49cat. By night, twice a week, he worked a
1:52second job, freelance auditor for the
1:55Brazilian Football Confederation.
1:57His task was to reconcile the
1:59federation's expense receipts after
2:01office hours. He held his own key. He
2:04had unsupervised access to every floor
2:06of the building. Peralta was, in 1983, a
2:1042-year-old man with debts, a passion
2:13for football, and an [music] auditor's
2:15eye.
2:16That eye was about to cost the country
2:18of Brazil the only trophy it owned
2:20forever.
2:21A colleague at the Banco do Brasil
2:24quoted in O Estado de São Paulo in 1985,
2:28>> Sergio was the quietest man on the
2:30floor.
2:31He counted every coin three times.
2:35He never raised his voice.
2:37He never made a mistake.
2:39>> For two years, he had walked past the
2:41[music] Jules Rimet trophy on the ninth
2:43floor of the CBF building. He had
2:46stopped [music] looking at the trophy.
2:48He had started looking at the cabinet.
2:50To understand what Peralta had spotted,
2:53you have to understand what was actually
2:55inside that cabinet and why Brazil had
2:57built the wrong wall around it. The
3:00Jules Rimet trophy was designed in 1929
3:03by the French sculptor Abel Lafleur. A
3:06statuette of the goddess of victory,
3:09Nike, holding an octagonal cup above her
3:11head. Height, 35 cm. Body, 1.8 kg of
3:17solid 18-karat gold. Base, a column of
3:21semi-precious lapis lazuli. Total
3:23weight, base included, 3.8 kg. It was
3:27the prize of every FIFA World Cup from
3:301930 to 1970.
3:33In 1938, an Italian football official
3:36named Ottorino Barassi hid the trophy
3:38under his bed in Rome for the entire
3:40Second World War. The Nazis wanted to
3:43melt it. He kept it in a shoe box marked
3:46old socks. In 1966, it was stolen in
3:50London. Recovered 7 days later by a
3:53black and white dog named Pickles,
3:55sniffing under a hedge in South Norwood.
3:58Then came 1970, Mexico, the final.
4:02Brazil 4, Italy 1.
4:05Pele's third World Cup. Under a rule
4:08personally written by Jules Rimet
4:10himself in 1930, any nation that wins
4:13the trophy three times keeps it forever.
4:15Brazil took the cup home permanently.
4:18Jules Rimet in his 1930 charter for
4:21FIFA, the trophy belongs to the world
4:24until a single nation has earned the
4:26right to make it their own. For 13
4:28years, the Jules Rimet stood on the
4:30ninth floor of the CBF headquarters at
4:3370 Rua da Alfândega in the center of Rio
4:36de Janeiro. The display case had been
4:39designed by a carpenter from the
4:40neighborhood of Tijuca. 2 cm of imported
4:44bulletproof glass on the front,
4:46decorative oak panels on the sides. The
4:49back, facing the wall, was a 4-mm sheet
4:52of plywood, the kind sold in any Rio
4:54hardware shop for cabinets and
4:56wardrobes.
4:57>> [music]
4:57>> The country with the most famous
4:59football trophy on Earth had been
5:01guarding the front of a wooden box. And
5:03the one man with the key to that
5:05building was a quiet bank clerk who had
5:08been studying the back of that box for 2
5:10years. Peralta noticed the wood by
5:13accident. One night in February 1982,
5:17during a routine office reshuffle, he
5:19was asked to help two CBF maintenance
5:21workers move the display case 4 in away
5:23from the wall to repaint the corridor.
5:26For 90 seconds, the back of the cabinet
5:28was visible. Three small screws, a
5:31single sheet of plywood, the thickness
5:34of a school folder.
5:36Peralta finished the repainting. He went
5:38home. He told no one. Peralta, from his
5:411984 police interrogation transcript,
5:45"In every newspaper, in every
5:46photograph, the cup was protected by the
5:49strongest glass in Brazil.
5:51But, the strongest glass in Brazil was
5:53glued to 4 mm of furniture wood.
5:57I could not stop thinking about it.
5:59Brazil had built a bank vault. They had
6:02welded a steel door, 2 cm thick, on the
6:05side every visitor saw. They had closed
6:07off the other side with a piece of
6:09cardboard from a moving box. For 11
6:12months, Peralta did not act. He kept
6:14working both jobs. He paid for his
6:16mother's diabetes medication. He
6:19listened to football on the radio. The
6:21Jules Rimet was, structurally, a kitchen
6:24cabinet that the country of Brazil
6:26happened to worship. What Peralta needed
6:29was someone with rougher hands than his.
6:31Peralta knew his limits. He was a bank
6:34clerk. He had never punched a man in his
6:36life. He could not climb a fence. He
6:38could not pick a lock. He could not
6:40threaten a guard. What he had was a key,
6:44a floor plan, and a calendar. What he
6:46needed was muscle.
6:49Through a contact who ran an illegal
6:51Jogo do Bicho lottery booth two blocks
6:54from the bank, Peralta was introduced to
6:56two men in the spring of 1983.
6:59The first, Francisco José Rocha, 36
7:03years old, nicknamed Chico Barbudo,
7:06Bearded Chico, former officer in the Rio
7:09Civil Police, expelled in 1979 for
7:12selling case files to mobsters. He
7:15carried a Browning Hi-Power, three
7:17forged identity cards, and a permanent
7:19grudge against the federation that had
7:21fired him. The second, José Luis Vieira
7:25da Silva, 28 years old, nicknamed Luis
7:29Benguela, Toothless Luis, burglar from
7:32the favela of Madureira, could open a
7:35commercial padlock in 12 seconds,
7:37[music]
7:38had never been caught for a property
7:39crime, only for fighting in bars.
7:42Peralta showed them a hand-drawn floor
7:44plan of the ninth floor of CBF. He drew
7:47the cabinet. He drew the plywood. He
7:50drew the back stairwell. Chico Barbuda,
7:53in a later prison interview with the
7:55Jornal do Brasil,
7:57>> He explained it like he was [music]
7:58explaining a tax form.
8:00No emotion. No, we'll be famous. Just
8:03here is the wall. Here is the wood. Here
8:05is the door.
8:07>> Split agreed. Peralta, 40%. [music]
8:10The two thieves, 45% between them. 15%
8:14reserved [music] for a goldsmith. That
8:16goldsmith was Juan Carlos Hernandez,
8:19Argentine, late 40s. Ran an unregistered
8:22foundry in the basement of a building
8:24near Praca Maua. Specialized in melting
8:27unmarked gold for the Rio black market.
8:30Did not care about football. Did not
8:32care about Brazil. He cared about
8:34weight. The team had three layers:
8:37observer, thieves, furnace. None of them
8:40needed a single window broken, a single
8:43bullet fired, or a single alarm tripped.
8:46All they needed was one quiet Monday
8:48night. December 19th, 1983. Sunday into
8:53Monday. 70 Rua da Alfandega.
8:56The CBF headquarters had a single night
8:59guard, Jorge Bendera, 51 years old, 26
9:03years with the federation, three
9:05children, owned the small fishing tackle
9:08shop two doors down. At 11:35 p.m.,
9:11Peralta unlocked the rear [music]
9:12service entrance with his auditor's key,
9:15let Chico and Luis inside, and walked
9:17away. He took a taxi to his sister's
9:20apartment in Ipanema. He arrived by
9:22midnight. He played dominoes with her
9:25husband until 2:00 a.m. He needed to be
9:27visibly somewhere else. Chico and Luis
9:30climbed the back stairwell in the dark.
9:33Nine floors. Rubber-soled shoes. No
9:36flashlight. On the ground floor, Jorge
9:38Bendera was asleep in his chair behind
9:40the reception desk. He woke up to a
9:43Browning pressed against his right
9:44cheekbone.
9:46Chico Barbuda to Bendera, from the
9:48police statement filed two days later.
9:51>> You have a wife, you have three kids.
9:53You have a tackle shop.
9:55Sit.
9:56Don't move.
9:58Tomorrow you are a hero who survived.
10:01>> They tied his wrist with packing twine,
10:03sealed his mouth with the black tape,
10:05blindfolded him with a kitchen [music]
10:07towel from the staff pantry. Then they
10:09climbed back up to the ninth floor.
10:12The display case stood in the corridor
10:13[music] between the boardroom and the
10:15elevators. Light from the street lamps
10:17came in through the window behind it.
10:20Luis Benguela worked the crowbar between
10:22the cabinet and the wall. The plywood
10:25panel cracked on the second pull. He
10:27widened the gap with the kitchen knife,
10:29>> [music]
10:29>> reached in, lifted the Jules Rimet
10:31trophy out by the lapis lazuli base.
10:35He placed it on the corridor floor. He
10:37reached back in, took the Kodak
10:39gold-plated replica that stood beside
10:41it. Took the Tassa Renato cup, took the
10:44Tassa Eduardo Sayun.
10:46Four trophies, one bin liner. Total time
10:50inside the building, 35 minutes.
10:53The most famous trophy in the history of
10:54football left the ninth floor of CBF
10:57inside a black garbage bag. At 2:15 in
11:00the morning, Jorge Bendera's wife began
11:02calling every police station in Central
11:04Rio.
11:05Tuesday, December 20th, 8:00 a.m.
11:08The cleaning crew arrived. The plywood
11:10panel was on the floor. The display case
11:13was empty.
11:14By 10:00 a.m., the news was on every
11:16Brazilian radio station.
11:18By noon, the front gate of CBF was
11:20surrounded by reporters and weeping
11:22fans.
11:23By 6:00 p.m., the empty cabinet was
11:26being broadcast on every national
11:28television network. The president of the
11:30CBF, Juliete Coutinho, made a public
11:33statement that evening, visibly shaken,
11:36eyes red. Coutinho, on TV Globo's 8:00
11:40news, December 20th, 1983.
11:44>> Whoever has taken this trophy has stolen
11:46from 65 million Brazilians. The Jules
11:49Rimet is not gold. It is the soul of
11:52this country. Bring it back. We will
11:54forgive everything.
11:57>> Brazil had won that trophy three times.
11:59They had buried two generations of
12:01players who had lifted it. Garrincha,
12:04Didi, Vavá. And in a single night,
12:07somebody had walked out of a Rio
12:09building with their inheritance inside a
12:11garbage bag. Coutinho personally went on
12:13radio the next day. He directed his
12:16appeal at the favela bosses, the Jogo do
12:19Bicho captains, the criminal underworld.
12:22Return it.
12:23>> No questions. No witnesses.
12:26No charges.
12:27>> The military police set up a 1 million
12:30cruzeiro reward. Nothing came back.
12:33Within 48 hours, the country with three
12:35stars on its football shirt had become
12:37the country with no trophy in its
12:39cabinet, and no idea where the gold was.
12:43The gold was 20 minutes away by car, in
12:46a basement near the Rio harbor, already
12:48inside a furnace.
12:50Juan Carlos Hernandez's workshop.
12:53Wednesday, December 21st, two days after
12:56the theft. Hernandez did not look at the
12:59goddess Nike.
13:00He did not photograph her.
13:02He did not save the lapis lazuli base
13:04for posterity.
13:06He weighed her. 1.8 kg of body gold,
13:1018-karat, 750 parts per thousand [music]
13:14pure.
13:15He separated the figure from the stone
13:17base. He laid the gold flat on a steel
13:20tray.
13:21He turned the furnace to 1,080°C.
13:24Three hours later, by every official
13:26account, the most photographed football
13:29trophy in history was a row of 16
13:31anonymous gold bars on a wooden
13:33workbench.
13:35He did the same to the Kodak replica and
13:37to the two smaller cups.
13:39When the federal police finally arrested
13:41Hernández in August 1984, after a
13:44tip-off from a black market jeweler in
13:46Buenos Aires, the conversation that
13:49ended his career was a single exchange
13:51with Major Luis Muñiz.
13:53Major Muñiz, transcribed from the case
13:56file, August 14th, 1984.
13:59>> You understand what this object meant to
14:01Brazilians. It was their cross of
14:03Christ.
14:04It was the soul of an entire country.
14:06>> Hernández, in the same transcript.
14:09>> Maybe.
14:11But for me, it is gold.
14:13And gold has only one value, its weight.
14:16>> The trophy that Garrincha had held above
14:18his head in 1958, that Pelé had kissed
14:22in 1970, that an Italian official had
14:25hidden under his bed for 6 years to keep
14:27from the Nazis, was, by every official
14:30record, 16 indistinguishable bars on a
14:33wooden table by Wednesday afternoon.
14:35The most famous object in the history of
14:37sport had, within 72 hours of leaving
14:40its cabinet, become indistinguishable
14:42from any other gold on any market on
14:45Earth. But Brazil could not allow the
14:47empty cabinet to be photographed for
14:49very long. Within 6 weeks of the theft,
14:52the Eastman Kodak Corporation, a major
14:54sponsor of Brazilian football since the
14:561958 World Cup, made a private offer to
14:59CBF.
15:01Kodak would commission a new Jules Rimet
15:03trophy, identical dimensions, identical
15:06mass, 18-karat gold, modeled from Abel
15:09Lafleur's original 1929 blueprints,
15:12still held in a FIFA archive in Zurich.
15:15The replacement was sculpted in São
15:17Paulo by a Brazilian artist named José
15:20Carlos Vitor, working from photographs
15:22and the FIFA drawings. Completion date,
15:25March 1984. Cost, [music] roughly
15:28250,000 US dollars. The replica was
15:31returned to the ninth floor of CBF in
15:34April 1984.
15:36Some years later, on a state visit to
15:38Brazil, Pope John Paul II was asked to
15:41bless the new trophy in private. He laid
15:44his hand on the gold figure inside a
15:45closed reception room. No cameras, no
15:48journalist.
15:50The plywood back of the cabinet was
15:51[music] replaced. This time, with a
15:53half-inch sheet of welded steel.
15:56The country that had lost its most
15:58sacred object in 35 minutes, had, within
16:0110 months, a trophy [music] that looked
16:03exactly like the one it had lost. And
16:05most Brazilians never asked which one
16:08they were touching.
16:09The replica stands in the CBF museum
16:11today. Tourists place [music] their
16:13hands against the new bulletproof glass.
16:16They take selfies. They tell their
16:18children, "This [music] is the trophy
16:20Pele lifted." It is not. The four men
16:23who had taken the original did not enjoy
16:25the gold for long.
16:28The federal police arrested Sergio
16:30Peralta in August 1984. They found him
16:34hiding at a cousin's apartment in Sao
16:35Paulo. He confessed in two days. He was
16:39sentenced to nine years. He served
16:41seven. He was released in 1991 to a
16:44[music] country that no longer
16:46remembered his name. He died in 2003 of
16:49a heart attack in a single-room
16:51apartment in the suburbs of Rio. He had
16:53spent his last savings [music] on a
16:54small television to watch the previous
16:57summer's World Cup. Brazil had won its
16:59fifth title with a replica that, even
17:02then, most of the planet did not realize
17:04was a copy.
17:05Chico Barbuda was shot dead in a Rio
17:08street in 1989.
17:10Settling of accounts in the jogo do
17:12bicho underworld. Luis Benguela was shot
17:15dead in a bar in the Baixada Fluminense
17:18in 2003, the same year Peralta [music]
17:21died. Juan Carlos Hernandez was arrested
17:24in Paris in 1998, not for the trophy,
17:28for trafficking cocaine from Colombia.
17:31Jorge Bandeira, the night guard, was
17:33investigated, cleared, and quietly
17:36fired. He spent the rest of his life as
17:39the man who lost the cup. Four men took
17:41the most famous trophy on Earth. None of
17:44them died rich. None of them died old.
17:47None of them died in peace.
17:50And 43 years later, one question
17:53remains. Some investigators do not
17:55believe Hernandez melted the original.
17:58The forensic anomaly is simple. The gold
18:00bars seized from his foundry in 1984
18:03were almost 24-karat pure. The Jules
18:06Rimet body was 18. No refining furnace
18:09in a Prosper Maua basement was capable
18:12of that purity in 3 days.
18:14The theory. Hernandez sold the real
18:16Jules Rimet intact, [music]
18:18untouched, to a private collector in
18:20Switzerland or Argentina. He melted the
18:23Kodak replica [music]
18:25and the two small cups to cover the
18:26difference. If that is true, the gold
18:29goddess of victory is not anonymous gold
18:32on a market. She is, right now, sitting
18:35in a vault somewhere in Europe, watching
18:37this World Cup with everyone else.

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