Ridiculous Crime. It is a production of iHeartRadio.
There she is, Miss Elizabeth. Hi, Saren, how you doing.
I'm great. First, congratulations, I know I got here super early, four buses to get here.
I'm impressed. I got a question for you. Do you know what's ridiculous?
I do. It's a mashup between me and some email.
Oh this sounds promising. It is.
We got this ridiculously cool email from a guy. I'm going to read it to you. Hello, Zed and furry four legged intern and occasional two legged intern furries. I've done it. I have been listening to true crime podcasts forever. In a random search for Winnipeg crime, my hometown, unfortunately, I came across your episode The Great Jewel Thief. I actually remember the CIBC bank robbery as I was a
young lad in my early twenties when it occurred. I thoroughly enjoyed the chemistry you both have and decided quote I think I'll give this podcast a shot. So on March twenty first, twenty twenty six, I started listening from the beginning from six am when I left for work, all day at work ups delivery driver until ten pm, when I arrived home sixteen hours a day, six days a week. I even re listened to the throwback episodes
because you guys are hilarious. I gotta say I was absolutely destroyed by quote I want to lick that Adams Apple. I'm happy to say today April twenty ninth, twenty twenty six, I have caught up and now well now I'm lost. I don't know what to do with my days, looking forward to many, many more episodes.
Ham Dad, Ham Dad.
Well, we had the assistant right back, can say like, can we read this okay?
Nice?
And you know, you know, can we use your name? And he said, well, you can call me ham Dad and then gave the sweetest, coolest reason explanation of the nickname. He said, it's my favorite life story. When I got married, my wife had a young child. When he was eight, he said he thought it was disrespectful to call me by his verse name because I raised him and it would be rude to his dad to call me dad.
So we squished everything together and I became ham Dad, and for almost fifteen years that has been my gamer tag, theater company name, in pretty much my whole identity. Hope you have a great day, keep being ridiculous.
Oh my god, I love that. Thank you.
That made me so happy. Ham Dad's kind of the coolest we've encountered in a long time. Yeah really, And I just am shocked that you could listen to our voices.
That much time.
My family is like, you need to stop talking. And I don't talk to him all about often, so hats all.
Sometimes I'll be on the phone to say and I can hear my own voice and I'm like, I need to get off this call. I'm getting tired of hearing my son.
I can't stand listening to myself. I have dad, you're a trooper.
Well, that is definitely ridiculous. I mean, sixteen hours a day, bro, I'm impressed.
Yeah, and let's talk about working sixteen hours a day.
Six days a week. Shout out to the working man, shout out to our ups driver.
Yes, oh my god, so yeah, that's ridiculous.
I'll certify that one, Elizabeth, I got one for you. Yes, Okay, this is definitely ridiculous. Okay, Like sometimes a person will do one crime in order to do a different crime, like until they realize they should have just stuck to the first crime. But by then it's way too late. Yeah, this is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,
heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous, reridiculous, Elizabeth Z. We don't cover a lot of crime stories that take place in Asia. I've noticed that we did cover the Tibet and India with the Jimmy Stewart and the stolen yetty hand.
Very true.
And of course we did cover the North Korean Godzilla movie and the kidnapping and daring escape by the director and star actress. But I don't think we've ever covered a story that takes place in China.
No, I don't think we have.
Today. We're going to change that.
Yes, I love it.
As the Taipei Times reported in two thousand and seven, quote, two ordinary bank workers have committed one of the most bizarre bank heist in recent Chinese history. Not only was it bizarre, it was also the biggest most lucrative bank robbery in Chinese history.
Oh you're kidding, Yes, and bizarre and bizarre.
Now, most of this story comes from a really excellent write up by David Gouve Herbert or Harbear called Jackpot. You can find it on the platform medium. It's fantastic. And Elizabeth, you may be wondering, what's the story, then, Zaren, Zaren, what's the story? Great question, Elizabeth, way to come out of the gates at a full gal. I'm so first, let's identify our players. And I need to say throughout this, I looked up and listened to all of the pronunciations
in Chinese. I'm going to be trying my level best. I'm not a native Mandarin speaker, so please give me a little latitude if I don't get my tonality exactly correct. I'm really trying.
You're trying, and I think that you know we do that. We do our best. Yes, it's never malicious, No, it's always with great respect.
Now, this story features two bank Vault co managers who had a truly wild style and approach to crime. There is shun Xiao Fung is age thirty four at the time of the crime, and he was the mastermind. And then there is Ma shin jiong He aged thirty seven at the time of the crime. They both worked at the Agricultural Bank of China in Handan City in the Hubei province in northern China. Now Shun Xiao Fung was the youngest of four in a family from the Hubei Province.
Local boy right now. Shun was also reportedly a cute kid, think like Rosie cheeks, bright curious eyes. Some even called him handsome. He was the lucky member of his generation because growing up in the nineteen eighties, his family had moved from the rural north and relocated in the more
prosperous south relative to where he'd started now. The time Shun was born, the family was living in a city called Deming, and that's where Jun enjoyed a childhood filled with games and play and free from the rural farm work times. And he gets doted upon. He's like, you know, the joy of the family.
He's a little cherub that everybody loves totally.
And he went to a preferential school located in the old walled section of the city. That it's important to know his family was not wealthy, but rather his father was a member of the Communist Party, and as a member in good standing in the party, his father had some juice so he could guarantee his son went to good schools and later got a good job, which is what happened, and Shun eventually finds employment at the most profitable branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, which is one of
the big four banks in China. So it's to be like if I don't know Bank of America, sure, all right. So, as it turns out, Shun had a natural gift for counting money. Now, while a standard every day bank teller could count, say like eight hundred bills and then double check it, banned it, stamped the amount on the stack, and they say that they could do that in like five minutes time, Jhun could do the same operation for two thousand bills.
Wow.
Yeah, he had some light fingers just right.
Did they ever make him race that counting machine?
No, But they do a competition in China where bank tellers compete to see who can count the most money the fastest. They have a intern branch competitions like mar Bank versus your bank. We're sending Jun right, and he went out. He won his local contest, and then he went on to compete in the provincial regional tournament against all the other Yes, and he placed second in regionals.
I don't know about that. Now, all this to say, June was good with cash, and his bosses at the bank they notice, right, so soon enough they promote him, and Juhn works his way up the ladder at the bank. Eventually he joins the ranks of like the junior executives or whatever. Now with his newfound prestige, he then is able to find the nerve to ask out a woman he worked with. She agreed, and then the two hit it off and.
He eventually proposed showed off by counting money.
Let me see how much for that bill? So again, she agrees to go out with him. Right, they hit it off. They eventually get married. Things are looking good for young Jun right now. Some time passes and next thing you know, the young married couple they welcome their first child, but not just one kid, Elizabeth. The couple had twins, boy and a girl, fraternal twins.
Very happy.
So I had to point out to myself, oh my god, because the whole identical thing. Yes, I thought you could have identical twins that are a boy and a girl. That would not be how that works out. So anyway, the married couple, they have their twins boy and girl, and as I learned in China, they celebrate the birth of fraternal twins. When it's a boy and a girl, they call it a dragon phoenix twins if you're wondering, the boy is the dragon, the girl is the phoenix.
So now, at the time, China was still operating under its one child policy, so by having twins it was like skirting the rule without any penalty. When when right, So at this point, the married couple and their dragon phoenix babies are living in a modest apartment. He's getting by on his bank salary.
Around what time is this?
This would be like the around the year two thousand. Yeah, So things are rolling smoothly like a you know, like a magic like a ball of mercury rolling down like silk.
Right, I can see that smooth, I can see that.
So then Juhn has run of good luck all of a sudden comes to an abrupt end. Yes, at the bank, the leadership decides to cut back on some executives. Juhn, who was thirty three at the time, gets demoted. At this point, this is two thousand and six, We're in two okay, right, so no longer a junior executive. Now Shun is now taxed with processing cash withdrawals from the vault. Right, he's a step down he used to be on like the management.
Lists set behind the test.
Fingers count money right, oh man. So the demotion also comes with a reduction in salary. So his take home pay is cut in not by a third, not by a quarter, by half. Big time. Two young babies at home along with his wife himself a lot to take care of. So Jehn is faced with an economic crisis. But get this, one of his colleagues at the bank thinks he has a solution to his new money troubles. Okay, Elizabeth. The advice was not maybe you should get a second job.
The advice was not maybe start your own business. Advice was not maybe your wife can get a well paying job and work outside the home. No, his colleague was like, have you ever considered gambling?
Hey? Listen.
So the trouble with this plan is that after the Communist Revolution, the Kaimum and the Communist took power in forty nine, the outlawed gambling. Oh really, yeah, So Shun was told to start gambling by his colleague at the only legal casino which was in Macau. Or there were the racetracks at all, right, but both McAll and Hong konger and southern China, and June lives in northern China. Okay, so I don't know if you know this, but China is not small.
No, right at all.
So basically it's like if you told me you're having money troubles in Oakland and I said, maybe you should start gambling in Atlantic City. There is like a whole continent.
Between a lot. There's a lot there.
Yeah, it was not the strongest proposed solution. Now, but there was a third option for legal gambling somehow. Despite the Communists ban on gambling, there were still state run lotteries. Oh so Shuan wanted to he could always play the scratch off lottery tickets. The reason why the Chinese had state run lotteries was simple. The PRC needed to raise funds a big projects. They would ask the people to pay for it through lotteries like you can win a.
Little too, like here for education lot exactly.
And they had a really big project coming up called the two thousand and eight Beijing Olympics.
Oh yeah, right, So in two thousand.
And six, when June's considering the idea of getting deep into gambling, the Chinese Sports Lottery and the Chinese welfare lottery. There are like two of the biggest. They are hugely profitable. They're just raking it in. There's advertisements everywhere, right, they're pulling in like ten point four billion dollars in a year in profits. No, yes, So Jun tries his luck at the lottery. He buys a two wan ticket, which
is equivalent to about twenty five cents. Then he plops down in front of the TV that night to watch the nightly lottery results and so on state run TV they would broadcast the lottery poll. So it's the same thing, lottery balls jostling around inside like a giant bubble or whatever. Yeah, the balls get pulled one at a time. Winning numbers are announced, and June sees that he lost, but he's been super lucky up till now. So he's like, well, maybe I just need to play a little more lottery.
So same thing.
He buys a cheap tick slippery slope.
He comes home and he watches the live drawing of the numbers, and he loses again, and then the next and again and then again. Apparently it's good fortune did not extend to lotteries. Well, buddy, So however, you can't win if you don't play, Elizabeth. We say this all time.
That is so true, because I'm like desperate to win, but I don't play.
Yeah, it's really impossible, it would.
Honestly, I feel like winning the lottery would solve a lot of problems for me.
Really you think so?
Yeah, I'm total Seeing.
The record for lottery winners. It's not pretty, no.
I know, but I'm different, native, different stuff, And I have a plan.
Okay, I like this, Yeah, Okay, I do.
I trust fully, a fully developed plan.
Yeah.
The only thing missing is me buying a lottery ticket.
Okay, well that's probably step one on your plan, it should be.
Yeah.
See, I don't play the lottery because I know I would just ruin my life.
Yeah you would, you totally.
So anyways, June, he keeps at it right, He's got a new daily routine. He stops buy some crappy little shop that sells lottery tickets, He buys some home, and he waits for the broadcast to see if he's won. You know, it's like my lookie numbers come up today.
Yeah, but it's like I only make half the money I used to make. Let me just bleed some out every day.
Twenty five cents at a time. Yeah.
Still, well he final he counts.
He wins one night, Elizabeth. But when he takes his winning ticket back to the store where you know we bought it to like cash out the ticket, he learns that he just want some paltry little sum like twenty five cents, like make two dollars or whatever, So so much for that. Anyway, one day, Hun has a big idea. Maybe he's not playing the lottery hard enough. Maybe he bought more and more tickets. Yes, he would, you know,
up his odds of winning. He gets that big payday, so enough for his and his wife and his dragon in Phoenix twins future to be squared away. So in order to buy more and more tickets without taking food out of his family's mouths, he would need like a credit line, oh my god, kind of something, maybe a new source of money to gamble. Right, there's a bit. This is where his big idea comes into play.
This is what we call gambling addiction.
Well it gets here. It's a serious thing, think about it, definitely is. You know, like I've seen the little writing on the bottom of all those ads for big draft kings or whatever. Now because remember he's like, he's a smart guy. You know, he's got a lot of luck as he thinks. So he's like, you know what, I work at a bank. What a banks have, That's right,
plenty of cash. So what if I, you know, borrow some of the bank's money, use that to play the lottery, and then whenever I win a big payout, I'll just put that back whatever I borrowed. I mean, you know, boom boom boom.
Well it beats taken out a line of credit.
Yeah, stealing money from you the bank for you. Yeah.
If I if I had to choose between the two, steal the money, well.
I respect it, right, I mean it's one of those things. It's like, Okay, that's a choice.
He is a choice. But debt, man, you want to avoid carrying debt?
Yes, you should. Your advice crime over debt, Yeah, definitely. Well I was thinking about it another way, which is it's basically a solid business plan. If you think about like using someone else's money to pay for your gambling, and then when it all works out, you promise to pay them back. I mean, that's basically the business plan of the whole AI industry. So the trouble for John was if you asked the bank about his plan to borrow their money too so he can play the lottery.
The bank would call that a bank robbery. Yeah, they're a real particular She.
Didn't want to bother them. They have a lot going on.
I know, right, But it just goes to show one man's business investment strategy is another person's felony. Anyway, Joan loves his new idea. He's like this, this is a winner. So he decides it's time to borrow or rob whatever the bank's money so he can win a big, big prize in the state run lottery. It's what you and I would call a fool proof plan. I'm sorry, I misread that a fool hearty plan. Sorry. Either way, that Juhn's play, which leaves the question how can he rob his bank?
Oh, I'm sure he'll come up with something right.
Old fast fingers, you know it.
Oh yeah, I forgot.
Let's take a little break now, we got this heated up, and when we get back, Juhn robs a bank un and we're back. Elizabeth. You're ready to get to a crime in with Jean Shelf?
Oh yeah, I'm there. I'm totally there.
So Sean is a bank vault employee. I've told you that, right. So he knows the routine for the money counting system, he knows where the money is kept, he knows all the ins and outs of the bank vault operation, so it wouldn't be super difficult for him to pull off a bank heist. He knows all the loopholes and like you know, a weak points.
That's what we would call an inside job, right.
Except he's not the only one working the bank fault. That's the one problem for him, which means if he wants to pull off his investment strategy slash bank robbery, he'll need to recruit at least one, no, make that two, of his colleagues in order to pull out.
Oh that's rough. Oh that's rough.
So Jean gets to work recruiting a fetter to help them rob the bank where they both work. And the truly tricky part, as I said, is that he doesn't need just one bank employee, he needs two, not just employees, vault managers. Yes, the co managers they called them, because the vault requires two bank vault managers to use their two keys at the same time to slide open the vault door right right. It's like like a nuclear sub where they got to turn the two keys at the
same time to launch a nuclear missile. All right, So in this year we're in at this point, it's two thousand and six. Still okay, Jun approaches a bank vault manager, this cat name Choo Shunn, all right, and when that's successful, he approaches a second bank vault manager, a cat name Jiang Cheng. Now both agree to help them rob the bank. Huzza, yay. No one saw that coming. There was no problem is he just asked the me, hedn't want to rob the bank.
I hate this job town.
You want to rub the bank? Totally?
What have they just been like constantly buying lotto tickets and bringing their family closer and closer to bankruptcy. And they'd been thinking about it at home and.
Then we got potty brought us.
He's like, Jinks, buy me a coke. I was about to tell you I have the same plan. And then they just like skipped around did a montage.
You know.
That's great.
And also in the backdrop of all this, China is going through this economic expansion. They've been doing it for a while. In two thousand and six, with all this money floating around getting ready for the Olympics. Everybody's watching their friends suddenly get rich off of private property, and
they're like, how do I get involved? So that I shouldn't mention that as part of the MOTI mention that in October of two thousand and six, on the thirteenth of that month, the three men strike for the first time. They stole roughly one hundred thousand one Now that would be about a twelve five hundred dollars US. Okay, no, it's not a big haul, right, it's it's but it's enough to buy a shipload of lottery tickets.
The way they go back to the lotter ticket.
Yes, that's the whole plan, Elizabeth. Steal money from the bank to buy lottery tickets to win big and like a big, big prize, so.
You get the big money. If you go to like Macau, yeah, well the people will steal the big money.
Yeah, there's got to travel there. There's lots of cameras and security, and it's like, if you go to the lottery, you can just win like a ton if you just have enough tickets. People have proven that if you buy enough tickets. You reduce the odds anyway, Shun. He uses his kind of the proceeds to buy twenty thousand wand in lottery tickets for roughly twenty five hundred dollars. Then
he went back to his previous routine. He went home, he watched on TV for the live drawing of the lottery balls from that big plastic ball that's tumble on them, and the lottery music's playing. The sunny faced host is alcohol excited, reading off the numbers one by one. Jun checks his many mini mini tickets in front of him. Yeah, and wouldn't you know it, Elizabeth, he had the winning numbers on one of his mini mini tickets. His plan had worked perfectly. He won, but he didn't win the
Mega prize. Instead, he won like one hundred thousand wand which is almost exactly the same amount he and his co conspirators had borrowed and stolen from the back.
No stolen at this point is not bar stolen.
So it's also about five times more than the twenty thousand he'd used to buy all the lottery tickets. So he's thinking he's a genius, his lifelong good fortunes. Yeah, so what does he do now.
Elizabeth, does he tell them that he won? Who his buddies?
Oh, I know they're in on it.
Everyone knows that he won that money, and they're not gonna I'm gonna guess they're not gonna go put it back in the vault like he promised.
No, you're right. He plowed all of his winnings back into the lottery. Yeah, hoping like hell that he'd win the Mega Prize. He's just right there. But he did not win the Mega Prize. It was further than he could reach. So he proceeds to get back all of his winnings and he went on a seemingly endless streak of losing. He got that first caste. He's like, see my plans work in business.
Heartbreaking.
So at this point, what does he do now, Elizabeth, Well, he and his two co conspirators decide they're going to need to rob the bank where they work again.
They's no, not these two for three.
They just need to get a little more cash for the lottery. Boom boom boom. They're bound to win again. Right. Trouble for this plan is one of his co conspirators chickens out.
Yeah.
Yeah, so Jang Chang. He's like, no, son, we're gonna get caught. We can't be out here rob the bank where we work, like it's a kiddy's piggy bank, and where daddy gonna go put the money back once we win the power ball. Yeah, they're like, you know, Jeong's making sense right, So at this point, Jeong he's out
plus to clear them of all suspicion. He also informs Shun and the other cat chow that he'd used his personal savings to replace the original one hundred thousand wands if they had robbed for the bank before anyone could figure out what they had done.
He's such a goody two shoes.
Totally, and Shun's like it okay, cool, cool man. So that means no one's looking for any missing money. So that's fantastic news. That means we can hit it again so I can buy more lottery.
Tickets, Oh my god, which is.
Exactly what he does. And when you know what, Elizabeth, the gambling gods once again smiled down on Jun. He was able to win again a big prize this time. In fact, this time it's it's a really big score, like two hundred and ten thousand, one like double what he's won before, basically twenty six thousand, five hundred dollars. Sure that would have been enough money to return earn what he'd stolen the second time. Yeah, and to pay back Jong for what he'd replaced from the first robbery.
So do you think that Jun did the smart and honorable thing or do you think he did the stupid and selfish thing.
I think, because we're talking about him, stupid and selfish.
Yeah, you don't need to answer that because you already know the answer since he's on this show. So what Jun did was to lie to Jang and he who had paid back that first money, right, Yeah, and then he and the third catch how they they they lied to Jang, They tell them that they lost, They don't tell them they But I saw coming.
I thought that they'd start splintering off like that totally.
Now they don't have to split the proceeds with him. So and at this time they were smart about one thing. They did replace the money they'd stolen from the bank that second time.
That's good.
So at this time both robberies have been successfully covered up. Okay, and they've won twice, and they've managed and said to hide the hole and no one's found out. So as long as these three guys and they are all guilty, so none of them can turn on each other by Yeah, but then Old Jung's luck helps him out. After they returned the stolen cash from the second robbery, Jeun has made a bank vault co manager. Oh no, Now he doesn't need the other two guys because he has one
of the bank vault keys. Now he just needs one other co manager. So he drops both Chao and Jiang and he finds a new bank vault co manager, fresh freshy.
He doesn't stick with them.
I think they can transferred out because he takes their position. Yeah, so you know, he just needs to do with a little more grit, maybe a criminal backbone like him, because he plans to go big Bong bong.
Right.
Enter Ma shen Jong in early two thousand and seven. In March, he's named to be the vault co manager with Jun so the same rank as Jun. Right, So Ma shen Zong was slightly older, as I said, thirty seven up top right, Shun is thirty four. Now. Ma was also a local boy, but he was from the country and he'd worked his way out of his rural village, he'd come to the city, he'd made good. Now he
gets promoted to be a co manager at a bank. Basically, my man Ma was ambitious, hard work, and he had known hardship and he had no plans to taste that life again.
Yeah.
Also, he's exceedingly honest in all his business dealings. Like for one time, a bank customer left the bank and they dropped two hundred thousand and one, which is about twenty five thousand dollars, and Ma finds it. He doesn't pocket it, he doesn't, like you know, do anything hinky with it. Instead, he locates the customer makes sure they get back their lost money, knowing what a big hit it would be for.
The sure, what a good person.
Right, So, on paper, he does not seem like the ideal candidate to approach about helping you rob the bank where both of you works. But as we've established, Jun's a gambler. So he sidles up to Ma and he gives him his pitch for have the two of them to co managers with the bank vault keys. They could score some easy loot if they rob the bank. It's a hugely risky move on Sham's part, right, Yeah, he could all collapse right.
Here because he hasn't worked with him.
No, he's brand new at the bank. Nobody knows much about this guy. He just started.
He could just be like, let me show you how we do it at this branch.
Hmm.
I'm the co manager who has to take the money out and go and clean it, like physically scrub it at night at my house, and then.
Bring it back, get the ironing board out. I got a crisp these.
Bills, yes, and then I bring it back. They didn't tell you about that other trainings.
Right with the banks you've worked at brand Wow, slackers. So what do you think happens when Juhn approaches Mad Does MA go for the pitch to become co conspirators? I don't know?
Does he there?
Shockingly he does well. The former military veteran and ambitious country boy. Here's the plan about using their two bank vault keys to rob the bank, and he's like, bet, let's get that paper son.
Yeah, He's like, I'm not paid enough, let's do this.
Two days later, they got the power to the camera and the bank vault and they get to work as banks. Yeah, Like I said, he was like, bet, let's get this paper.
Now did he know Did Mad know that Jin had done this before?
I don't know. I don't know if he like, no, he'd probably just pretend.
You know, I just had this crazy idea and I have a binder that I put together about it and don't ignore the other guy's names. And there that was just me, like, you know, spitballing it this morning.
But of course, you know, like before, they don't go big. They just steal fifty thousand and one, which is roughly sixty five hundred dollars. Yeah, he goes off without a hitch perfect. They're like boom, boom boom. And then John takes the money, hits up the lottery shops, buys a boatload of lottery tickets. Yeah, that's still once again primary plan.
He's just bankrolling his lottery play. And then together Jun and Mas sit down before the TV and together they watched the live drawing of the winning lottery numbers, and together they see that they lost none of their many many mini tickets had the winning numbers. Oh well, so I guess they can always rob the bank again replenish their investment capital, which is exactly what they do.
Oh man, they use.
Their two bank ball keys to open up the vault. They pill for some more cash, they buy more lottery tickets and they watched the live drawing again, and this time they also lose. They still they.
Were getting so good at us, they were so close.
They still had enough money though, from that this robbery to buy more lottery tickets, which they did, and yet again they sat down before the TV the live drawing of the winning numbers, and this time, Elizabeth, they won. You're kidding, yes, however, was no mega prize it was. It wasn't even a big prize. They won like twenty thousand and one, roughly twenty six hundred dollars. That was less than they'd spent to buy all the lottery tickets, left far less than they stole, so it cannot cover
the whole they've created. So now they're they're in deep right now. They're like, we got to keep doing this, We got to replace the hole. So you if you were wondering, like what do they do now, Zarin, well, I'm happy to tell you, en pre questioned Elizabeth. I know they keep criming, brother, of course, and because you know, they go back to work, they rob the bank again and again and again, and still some more. They robbed
the bank nearly every day for two weeks. What they just keep taking money out like it's their own at every time, every day. They're just getting the backup, and they keep buying lottery tickets and they keep losing, and they're now the holes is getting bigger and bigger. They're creating a black hole in this bank vault. They'll be They don't squad for two weeks while robbing the bank
nearly every day, unbelievable. Finally, on March twenty nine, two weeks after they started robbing the plays blind, some employees at the bank have to conduct the monthly audit of the vault.
Wait, these two are why the opening ceremonies at the two thousand and eight games were so great. Yes, they funded it, personally funded it.
So now the employees at the bank are supposed to do an audit of the vault, which they do now. Normally, the audit would require the employees to count the cash, review a security cam footage. But these employees, Elizabeth, were apparently extra lazy because what do they do. They just walk into the vault, they decide everything looks right, they close the door. They call it good. They don't do anything.
They don't notice there's two weeks missing the cameras well.
No, they don't look at any of the footage. They just open the vault door, look inside. Yep, they're like, that looks.
Clean, Clerk Griswold at the rim of the Grand Canon.
Yes, exactly. So Jean and Ma they get super lucky they don't get caught. Meanwhile, John has been keeping his own records of how much they've been borrowing slash stealing from the vault, and he knows it's a lot. He just doesn't know exactly how much.
He is.
He still is lost track of how much they've taken.
Yeah, well he has a pretty good tabulation, you know. But he's mostly focused on the hope of replacing the money they've stolen when they hit it big. So he's like, tomorrow, man, it's going to be tomorrow. Right to this point, though, he knows that they've stolen probably around two million one right, about two hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
It's a lot of money.
But Jean, he really needs his good luck to come back. So in April two thousand seven, lottery officials notice that the handan sports lottery is raking big profits. Right, It's basically what you said. They're like, man, suddenly there's a lot of players buying a lot of tickets, so.
We're gonna have so many extra ribbons, get like ten more drums. This is great.
So lottery officials started capitalizing their good fortune. They put out ads to further popularize the lottery. So now when Jon's on his way to work, he's like, I gotta play that lottery because he sees the ads everywhere unavoidable. So John and Ma they learned that the bank regulators are gonna swing by and do an official audit.
Like a real one.
Yeah, unlike the lazy employees who just opened the bank vault, peeked inside and called it good, the bank regulators are going to do a professional level audit. Right. So keep in mind they were about two million wand in the red. But since then it has grown and grown because they kept robbing the place. So by April, Jean had, as I said, lost exact count, but he had a pretty
good idea. You know, he may have been off by a couple of wand here there, but he knows it's about thirty three million wand, which would be about four point three million dollars that they've now stolen from the vault and spent on the lottery. What, yes, it's a you and how much lotter?
I mean they got what like, they got like twenty eight dollars to show for it.
Well if they win little bits, but.
Not that they fold it back in.
Yeah, totally. So any bank regulator worth their calculator is going to find this hole. And so it's also, by the way, more than any major lottery win could wipe away. They now need to win like multiple big mega prizes. Yes, so Juan and ma are good and properly screwed. So Joan has to come clean to his wife, well partially clean. He tells her half truth. He's like, look, I bought ten thousand and one worth of lottery chickerts. I didn't win. Now,
I'm a little worried. That's why I've been acting funny at home. Yeah, And she's like, okay, Well she laughs in his face. He's like, oh, that's so cute, you know, you know, it's all one big joke, but just with no punchline. So she reasons that at worst, you know, like what is it like a few months of your salary. We can take care of that. So I've saved money. So she's like, you take the money I've saved, you buy more lottery tickets and that should make up the
money you load. Right, She's like, we can get by.
I think I'm familiar with the statistics.
No, not at all, And I don't think she realized how much money she would have had to have saved.
Yea like a month of your salary.
So at this point, Jen has another one of his big ideas. He knew it was likely that the bank regulators would discover the thirty three million wand that was missing from the bank and he'd be facing a lifetime behind bars, that is, if he wasn't like executed by the state. So remember play about corruption.
They don't.
So Juhne's big idea now is the classic move. We need to pull off one last big job. Always always to make matters worse. They'll need to pull off their one last big job by robbing the bank while it is open.
Right Wait, okay, so their plan is the.
One last big job that they buy a ton of lottery tickets because they were sure but they had enough talking like millions of wand then they could win the Mega Grand prize, replace the thirty three million wand that they've already stolen. And then he was about four point three million, and so hopefully, you know, maybe they even have a little extra so they can get a taste.
Are they are? They just going to get up from their desks and then walk outside and then walk back in and rob the place.
Practically, they're playing simple.
Guys, we know who you are. Yeah, well, it's not disguising their voices.
They decide to steal eighteen million wand now one wrinkle is that the lottery shops can only sell fifty thousand wand in tickets to any one buyer, So they'll need to have hundreds of thousands of tickets printed up from shops all across the area, or they need to find some like hinky corrupt lottery dealers will just keep printing out stuff and then not admit who they're four. Yeah, so, but they're focused on that Mega Grand prize. These are
all details, right, figure it out. Everything will be fine. However, first they would need to rob the bank. Now, rather than me tell you about.
It, Elizabeth, close your eyes as a clue.
I want you to picture it. It's April fourteenth, two thousand and seven, Saturday, and you, Elizabeth, are waiting to be pressed against the cheek of junshiel Fung because you are a goodbye kiss from his wife. It's your big moment. As Jun grabs his keys and waits by the door, his wife approaches him, all smiles, and then she leans forward and boom, she kisses him goodbye. You pass from
her lips to his cheek. Naturally, you stay with him as he opens the apartment door, closes it, and walks outside, and so you're still with him. When Jun gets in the family minivan and starts it up. You also hear him honk his horn to his neighbor and wave goodbye as the neighbor opens the gate to let the minivan out of the courtyard. You also stay with him when
he arrives at work at the bank. He walks purposefully across the tile floor to the bank vault, opens it, and when he does, he accidentally trips a burglary alarm. The alarm goes off. The surveillance cameras record his presence, but he seems cool with it. Rather than panic, he just waves at the camera. A bank security guard sees Jun on his screen. Recognizing the bank's co manager of
the vault, he shuts off the alarm. The vault falls silent, but in there, still pressed to his cheek, you can hear Jun's nervous breathing, and you also hear the approach of his co manager, Moth. The two men share a quick greeting expressed in grunts, and then, working together, they move eighteen million one which would be about two point three million dollars in the US, and they pack the money into safety deposit boxes. They then load the boxes onto a hand cart and they push the boxes into
a cash counting room. The wheels of the hand cart make a rhythmic sound as they roll over the tile floor. The two bank managers leave the money in the cash counting room, and unexpectedly, they leave the bank altogether. Outside, they climb into Ren's minivan and they drive to a local restaurant. On the patio outside the restaurant, you see the two co managers meet with a group of three lottery vendors. The men exchange pleasantries and then get down
to business. You hear Jun tell the three lottery vendors that a local iron tycoon wants to purchase a very large bundle of life tickets to give away to his employees. His money is ready for them at the bank. The two bank co managers climb back into Jun's minivan. The three lottery vendors take a car of their own and they follow Jun and Ma back to the bank. It's a short drive. The three lottery vendors wait inside the
bank as Jun and Ma a tend to business. Inside the cash counting room, they empty the safe deposit boxes that they'd previously loaded with cash. This catches the attention of a curious bank security guard who's overseeing this strange behavior from the bank vault co managers. He asked them what they're doing. Jun is quick to explain that a local iron magnet is making a substantial withdrawal. This satisfies the security guard, who watches Jun and Ma empty the
safety deposit boxes, read banknotes, fill several bags. The security guard grows bored and writers off. Once he's gone, Jun and Ma stashed some of the bags of money in a hallway outside the vault. Then Jun and Ma walk back into the customer service area of the bank and call over the three lottery vendors. They escort the three men over to a bank terminal where they wire funds into their account for the mass of lottery tickets they
wish to buy. Once business is done, the three lottery vendors leave and they drive off, headed back to their shops to start printing up the zillions of lottery tickets just purchased. Meanwhile, Jun and Ma walk across the bank back to the vault area, where they grab the bags of cash and a few safety deposit boxes that have not been moved, which they then secret away and carry out the back door of the bank, where they load
the stolen cash and the Jun's minivan. They close the van door step back inside the bank to finish out their day. No one suspects a robbery just happened. But as the kiss goodbye preshed against his cheek, you saw it all. Good thing you can't speak, So there you go, Elizabeth. One part of their plan down now it's left is the lottery tickets. But before we get to that, let's take a little break and after these messages we will hear how the lottery bought fall for Jun and Ma.
And we're back, Elizabeth, Yes we are, okay, So what's your call? Do you think Jun's latest masterplan pays off? Do he and Ma make good on their lottery dreams? But now they're really large credit line.
So they're waiting for these guys to print the tickets, right.
They got to get the tickets from the dudes.
And so if the dudes don't print the tickets.
By like eight thirty when the drawing is that night, but if.
They just walk off and they don't even start printing.
They're not going to do that. This is too much local, local iron magnet who they do not know. They're afraid of this really rich guy. They just lottery shop owners.
Yeah, that's true.
They don't want to get involved with somebody who's probably a criminal like this is. It's probably a gangster.
Yeah, yeah, Okay, I'm gonna say.
They're happy to have the business. This is a ton of business. They're already winning. They have nothing else.
I feel like, maybe not all of the tickets get printed in time.
No, I'll tell you this much. They do. Oh, they get all the chick.
And they're all duds. They're all losers.
No, because they're picking the mid to a bunch of random numbers. They've got to fill out all the numbers, but like they got, they come in a big spread, right, Okay, So do you think that you had eighteen million wand when you're getting you know, like that's a billions of tickets?
Yes?
No, Well, at eight thirty pm the lottery balls began. They're familiar, tumble and bounce. Juhn and Ma are hoping like hell to win the Mega Grand Prize. The odds feel like they're in their favor. I mean, they've spent eighteen million wand practice on all. Right, So the two bank robbers watch the drawing, each at their own respective homes. The balls of the winning numbers are selected one by one. They've got all these tickets. Now, what do you think happens to Elizabeth last time? I'll ask, I.
Think they all were loser tickets. No, turns out they win, Oh the big one.
They did not win them Bega Grand.
They won like twenty six hundred dollars.
They won like ninety eight thousand and one. That was out of all the tickets, which is far from the thirty three million one.
Very far. That's on the other side of the map.
That means, in crime parlance, the jig is now up. It's time to run for their lives.
Yeah.
So that night, the two men meet outside of a local hospital to discuss their options.
I like that they went the hospital.
In a parking lot outside the hospital.
Just in case it goes south.
You're already there. So they decided to split their winnings and what they stole from the bank earlier that day, so about three point nine million one or roughly a half million dollars in the US. It's not an even split though. Jun He gives his partner Moss six hundred thousand one or about seventy eight thousand dollars, and he says, never contact me a gun. Good luck, lose my number. Right. It's like, yeah, you better run for the hill sun. So remember you when you had a life that's all gone.
Yeah.
So two days later, sixteenth two thousand and seven, on a Monday, detectives arrive at the Agricultural Bank of China and Hondan City. It seems that someone has robbed the bank over the weekend, but the bank employees do not have the two keys needed to open the vault door because the two co managers do and neither came into work that day, so the police are forced to bust through the sixty centimeter or roughly two foot thick bank vault door, which they do like a real ice team.
They break in that vault and inside the vault, the police find no signs of a robbery. There are no guards bound and gagged, there's no rifled through security deposits are all wrenched open, none of that. What they do find is a ton of money missing, and the only clue left behind is a bag of lottery tickets, which is just odd. I don't know if I was like, look, I'm spending the money on the lottery, how bad is this? I'm giving it back to the state. Anyway, word soon
spreads about the bank robbery. In a short time. The city's cab drivers notice all this heavy police presence outside the bank, and they spread the word to a avoid the area, to each other right. Meanwhile, they also tell their passengers, which also really helped spread the word about this robbery. Suddenly, almost everybody in Hondan City knows that the bank got interesting. Meanwhile, Juhn and Ma have split up. Both men are on the run for their lives.
And on the runs for their families right by themselves. Yeah, so from their families they left their families behind.
They are just like men on the lamb right now. So the two former co managers failed to show up to work on Monday morning and fail to answer multiple phone calls. Image when the bank employees grow suspicious, I think they might have been part of the ice. So the news of the bank robbery and the two suspected co managers hits state run media, newspapers, TV radio, they
all carry the story. The two co managers are named Juhn and Ma are accused of stealing in total fifty one million one or roughly six point six million dollars. It's officially the biggest bank robbery in Chinese history. So now the question is where did they go?
Zaren? Where did they go?
Fantastic question, Elizabeth. I know. So Ma he decided I'm getting on a train, and he hit out on a sleeper train. It's like dark. Shut Ma off by himself, and he heads to Beijing.
He's like, that's the capitols in the crowd.
Yeah, hopefully no one notices me, you know, because it's in northern China, so it's not like terribly far away. So once there, he buys a ticket on a local bus and he heads for the country. Smart move, except it's actually a slum just outside of Beijing where he's headed because there are many unfortunate folks who've been pushed out of the city as it rapidly builds an anticipation of two thousand and eight Olympics.
Right, that happens every time there's an Olympics anywhere.
Totally so ma he goes and he links up with an old army buddy. He's like on hard times living in the slums outside of Beijing. Yeah, He's like, hey, can I lay low in your apartment? And the buddy's like, of course, man lets him like hang out, So he's good. He's laying low. Yeah, got a guy he trusts. And now where Jun? Great question, Elizabeth right now on top of this, I love it. So after they split up,
Jun fleece. He uses his mini van, the family minivan, to a Cape Hondan city, which is smart since the police put out a tip line for info that might lead to his arrest. That first day that Monday, the police received over ten thousand tip calls.
It's a lot to process.
Can't all be no, No, the MANI were not good, So they were inundated with like that's my neighbor, you know. Yeah, yeah, so at this point show it is smart. He ditches his minivan. He rents a Volkswagen Jetta to make his escape further. He has three point three million one on him, a fake ID, a burner phone. He stays away from major highways and roads because Chinese got all those surveillance cameras, so he sticks to back roads. He's using like the going the slow route, right.
Sure.
He finally reaches the city of Dujo, and he ditches the Jetta. He hires a taxi driver to take him to another town, a place called Rijao. It's close to the port city of ching Dao, right, So he spends the night there, lays low. In the morning, he hires a second taxi driver to take him to this small coastal city where you can like really like yeah. Meanwhile, he's so nervous about getting recognized or popped. He can't eat, he can't sleep. He looks haired. Yeah he's got he's
got that flop sweat that smells like fear. So he's just operating off of instinct and like the dictates of like the survival mechanism at this play, right, But he does though, is have this driver stop a couple times? Why does he need water? Does he need food?
No?
He wants to buy lottery tickets. No, he just can't can't stop. Should later explained my hand was itching to buy more. He did not win a big payoff, wondering, No I had.
I had no expectation he would.
On April sixteenth, that same Monday, the detectives, as I said, they discovered the banksman robbed. The news has gone out now it's spreading across China. So now Jun Chiao fun walks into a Honda dealership looking to buy a car. Ok. But he's there with his taxi driver and the dealership is about to open, so it's like five to eight in the morning. The news has not made it to this small coastal city. So Jun Hell's a sales manager. He wants to buy a car about two hundred thousand
and one. He's interested in, like a black Honda, that one with the sun roof. He wants to drive it off the lot today. The sales managers like okay, So she tries to take the measure of the man by asking are you in town for business or pleasure? And she gives an answer slim on details, right, he asks how much for the black Honda? All right? Batically, Instead of him being hard sold or them heart selling him,
he's hard buying from the sales manager. What's it going to take for me to walk out of here in his car today? So the salesmanager dress cash or credit, so Jen's quick to say good cash. So this taxi driver steps over like he's now his henchman, and he holds up a duffel bag of cash, never suspicious in a car lot.
And like, what was the conversation in the taxi? Like so close?
Well, he's just basically paying him. So the guy's like, now he's like henchman. He doesn't know for what did he know? This guy's really rich and he's down to work for this really rich game.
I would imagine syncratic, like he's hiring a random cab driver.
I had a friend who was a cab driver and he once got picked up by a guy and the guy paid him to drive from northern California down to LA and then paid him enough to be able to get back. So and it was it was not weird at all. He had people do that to him to take him to reno, which is like, you know, a two hour drive, like some people will do that and cab drivers. It happened, so it is probably not the first time he had somebody be like, look, I want you to hold my bag of money. Well, I go
buy a card exactly, So they go and up. Keep in mind, in the double bag of cash, it's bound stamped stacks of red cash like the official Yeah, clearly fresh from a bank. Yeah right, so, which makes him look rich, you know, because who else is taking money out of a bank if you're a decent minded So the salesmanager tells him he'll need to deposit that money in a bank and have the bank draft up a
cashiers check for the car. And John is not excited about the prospect of stepping foot inside him a bank. The salesmanders happily tells him, you know what, we have a branch of the Agricultural Bank of China. It's not far from the dealership, but just a small, little delicious irony. So Jehn pays off his taxi driver with a few stacks of cash because he pays them well. Then he hands over the duffel bag to the sales managers. He's like, can I put this in your office for safe keeping?
And then they take the money for the car and they go to the bank. So Jehan and the sales manager drive over to the bank. They get the cashiers check. Along the way, jun asked the sales manager, how's the police presence in the city.
No, that's not suspicious.
So the sales manager bragged it, it's very good. And she suspects it. He must be asking since he's clearly a big time property investor. There's so many of them these days, just buying up property as fast as they can.
He looks like, you know, it's basically the sales manager doesn't have enough negative imagination.
No, not at all. So at the bank, Juhn keeps his head down while the sales manager fills out all the paperwork for the cashiers check and then the final car sale, and then he starts rushing her. He's like, come on, come on, come on, and he says like, I'm hungry. I haven't had breakfast yet. She tells him, no,
chill out, chill out. I will buy you my honored customer breakfasts as soon as we're done here at the bank, right, And then this odd little moment occurs because Jun is asked to count and confirm the money he's depositing in the bank for his cashiers check so out to habit, he does what he does best. His fingers start flying across the money. Those old, competition worthy fingers are counting money faster than most eyes can keep up.
Yeah.
Right, So the sales manager, the bank teller, and almost anyone else who can see the performance is impressed with the speed of Jun's fingers. A crowd gathers around to watch him count out the two hundred and ten thousand one in record speed. Yes, and there's a little small
irony floating atop this whole scene. There's a reward for any information leading to his arrest, and the amount is two hundred thousand wan so exactly how much almost exactly how much he's counting is yeah, how much they would make if they just called a cop.
Yeah.
Anyway, we're still on Monday morning, early, you know, so the news has not made it to this coastal city. It's mostly just in Hondana and permeating out.
But he said a branch of the bank that he robbed.
No, yes, a branch of the bank, right, Yes, exactly perfect. So then they head back to the car showroom. The sales manager hands the keys over to John, proud of the quick and easy sale. She watches him drive off. You're like, oh, enjoy your car. And she even says to this fellow salesperson like, you know, imagine like a big smile. She's like, that guy has enough money on him for a Mercedes Been. He's got to be a fugitive. She has no idea how right she is? Right? Oh
my no, Jun drives out of town. He stops in a suburb where he rents a garage for his new car. Yeah, that also gives him a place to lay low for at least a few hours, right, sure, maybe get a little sleep, drink a little water.
He needs it at this point.
Oh my god, does he. Now by this point word has spread about the robberies. I said, he keeps getting further and further at this point. Now it's on the media. It's Monday, like ten eleven am. It's really getting out there. Now. The news is doing it. And so the police in this little town which is called lee enn Wingong, they're
on the lookout for a man matching his description. They've been everybody now knows, beyond the word the biggest robbery in Chinese history, it's these two guys, right and then, So at this point, it's going to be difficult for him to drive his new car out of town without catching some police attention or at least maybe some like you know, paint in the neck bystander pointing at him from a bus stop. Right, So he comes up with a new plan. He decides, you know what, I need
to get rid of this car. So he drives it back to the same haunted dealership and he asks to return the car. He's like, I don't need this thing anymore.
His plans are always so good. I mean they've worked every single time he.
Has for his two hundred thousand and one back. I think, sneakily, he just wants to see the sales manager again, probably because he has three point three million wand he does not need the two hundred thousand.
Yeah.
Now, since the news is now, as they said, beginning to spread, if that same sales manager had happened to catch the TV news while he was gone, she would have seen pictures of him on the news. And then, you know, being a gambler at heart, shunned, he just chances it. Drives back to the car dealership. He speaks with the same sales manager. Lucky for him, she had not seen the TV news, nor had any one else in the showroom, So the sales manager does still have
some bad news for him. Yeah, they don't accept returns of a car once it's been sold. Yeah, it's not permitted by sales regulations or whatever. So Jehen tries to bribe her.
Oh hey, sure, battle works.
That's great, right, just constant better plan on top of the better plan. So he offers her five thousand and one to take the car back. She politely turns him down. Yeah, he ups it, he doubles it. He offers her ten thousand and one, and she's like nah, She's polite about it and refuses again. And this is why I think he had a little crush on her, because he's like, well, do you want to go to dinner?
How about that bribe? Let me sweetly forget the cat again.
She politely declines, So Juen goes and he eats dinner alone that night on the side of the road in his new Honda, just him and a bowl of takeout noodles with the sunroof open. I hope yeah, since the sales manager told him about the police presence in leanne win Gong, being top notched, decides maybe it's a good idea to lay low in the city and not move around too much. So once things cool down, he can send for his wife and they're Dragon and Phoenix, twin
boy and girl. They can, you know, play house down there, so maybe he can grow a beard and who knows, So he rents a place fit for a family, a three bedroom apartment in leanne win Gong. Again, this is why I think he had a crush on that sales manager at the Fonda, because he goes back a third time.
No, this time he.
Tries to return the car. Only this time he's like, yo, okay, I understand you can't take it back, but can you sell the car for me? And I don't know if she's like, I just want to get rid of this guy. She's like, yeah, sure, just just leave the car, so she agrees she'll sell the car and consignment. He leaves the car at the showroom and he heads out to
like the beach because remember it's the coastal city. He plans to relax, kick his feet up in the sand hill out what bank robber would be at the beach right exactly. So after his day at the beach, Shun goes back to his rented apartment and then he's like feeling lonely, I guess about his life and his choice. He stares at a photograph of his two kids and
is like, oh, what if I done. Meanwhile, the news, as they said, the bank robbery is fully broken, So now it's they've don a whole day of people watching the news and hearing about it all across China, and the police and Leanne Wing Gong. They start to receive tips from folks who were certain that they saw somebody who looks like Jun Chiao fung ye in their city. Reward posters go up. The police receive a tip that seems super credible. It's from a sales manager at a
Honda dealership. She calls the cops, now fairly certain she's had sold that bank robber a new car earlier in the time. Her story commences the local police she's the credible witness. Roadblocks go up, they shut the city down, dragnets put in place. Officers check the local hotels, motels, internet cafes, Meanwhile, Jun stays inside land low watching TV, not going out. He's watching the latest news, of course, and that's how he learns that his co manager Mashin
Jong has been arrested busted in Beijing. No, so Jun watches his accomplice get purp walked by the police, and he prays like hell that his good fortune can hold out because he seems a little while longer something to work, because it's not like Ma knows where he is, he can give his name, they already know his name. There's nothing he can really do to help him out. His
accomplice can only tell the police so much. So, Elizabeth, his good luck did hold out for a little while longer, like about thirty hours longer, because roughly thirty hours after he watches Ma get purp walked, the police and Leanne Win Gong are at his door. But they don't thirty hours yeah, thirty hours later, right, it's like a day in a couple of hours.
Right.
It turns out both the sales manager and his taxi driver called in tips to the police, and unfortunately, so did his new landlord.
He didn't engender a lot of loyalty.
No, not at all. You can't buy that. No, she told police that her new tenant looked a lot like the bank robber she's seen on the news. So after these three tips, the police set up a sting operation. The wait through the night outside his rental three bedroom apartment, and then the next morning at around eight twenty am. Because unlike the FBI, they don't just kick in the door wave in the four four right, they just wait outside and when so.
A decent hour, two totally, not a five am, No, not at all.
But eight twenty am. Joan steps outside, stretches his arm and as soon as he does, a cop grabs him, lifts him off his feet by his neck, throws him to the ground. What and the cop barks at him, are you shun fung? And then the showing stammers yes, yes, I'm cooperating.
Right.
I feel like it's only going to get worse from there for him.
Oh, he's promptly arrested, thrown in the back of a police car. The manhunt is over. Everyone's excited. He's taken to the station for an eight hour investigation interrogation. Yeah. I don't know if brutality was involved, but I imagine he got a little roughed up. Yeah. Apparently, when he's asked about his family, he's very little to say. But when the police bring up the lottery, suddenly Jon's eyes
light up. Oh no, He regales the cops with all sorts of info about the bank robbery and the lottery tickets. You played is big plan to win the Mega prize Like he's just all of a sudden.
Geeks, tell us about your favorite thing, exactly your thirt the lottery.
Later on, he's allowed to speak with the press. Finally, Jean tells our reporter, I really regret that I've been so stupid in doing such a dumb thing. We were going to pay the bank back. We never intended to rob the bank. Bro You robbed it so many times that it's pond rob So that Elizabeth is where we will pick up the needle on this record, because, as I said earlier, in China, they don't play about corruption. And old Jehan and his partner Ma received sentences that
were harsher than a life in prison. They receive sentences that are more like no life in or outside of prison. Oh yeah, it seems the state wanted to make an example of them that way, in case anyone else got anse similar big ideas. They quashed that down real quick. So Elizabeth, what's a ridiculous takeaway?
Yeah, wow, don't gamble, you know. And it's like we keep upping the ante with this. You have casinos and lotteries and then you reference DraftKings like every every sport is just solid gambling stuff now, and then you put polymarket and Calci in there, and you can bet on absolutely anything. And it's so destructive, oh terribly, so destructive.
So I mean, I know there are people out there who have fun with it and they like to gamble and have a good time, but you know, goodness gracious, it destroys people eating things.
There's reasons why we have so many stories of don't do this.
It hits that part in your brain. It's like, oh maybe just a little bit, maybe just.
Oh yeah, you know, it works your pleasure center into a froth and then it obliterates your ability to have a good like chain of thoughts. Yeah, you're like, see, I just if I get this one. You see the kid there's a college football quarterback who just got basically put into rehab for gambling because he was making like thousands of bets, sometimes like hundreds in a day, but probably more than that crazy and he was like a star. I mean he's like going to be like who's NFL
like on the track? Yeah, so what's ridiculous? Thank you for asking.
Very welcome, is uh?
I love this is what as I said, one of our first stories, our first story to take place in China. I love how relatable this is, Like you just could have been anywhere. Just shows that like cultures, yes, are very different around the world, people are not very different.
Around the world exactly.
So you're in the move for a talkback.
I love talkbacks.
Produce a d could you favor us of one? I got just a thing. Oh my god, did I like?
Hey guys due Chris from Bristol, Virginia here. Just listened to John macka episode. Wanted to say, how great to hear another redemption story. I was high for thirty years and locked up for eight. I'm in recovery now and working towards recovery and prison reform. I just wanted to say to all my rood dudes in similar places to stay strong and never give up. People like us and John will change the world one day. Love you all. Love the shows. Aaron and Elizabeth, love you too. Thanks
for an episode about redemption. Hope it impacts others the way it did me.
You're not gonna change it one day, You're changing it right now. This is incredible. I am so so supportive and so proud of you, so proud.
Yes, my goodness, good work. And wait did they grab the like the whole conundrum by the horns and say, you know what, I'm gonna work on prison reform and I'm gonna work on getting people a sense of recovery, redemption and also reclaiming the sense of who they are as people and their ability.
To change exactly. I have nothing but applause and love for you.
Yeah, thank you for that. That was really well as all ways. You can find us online at The Diculous Crime on email. That's the if you want to send us an email.
The slot Bucket of the Internet.
Also, we're on blue Ski and Instagram. I don't know. We may get a thread's account one day. Who knows.
I got us kicked off threads.
Oh did you Okay?
They don't let me do any of any of the social media stuff anymore.
Oh, they take away the keys. It's like, give me the keys back and give them back to our assistant Terry. Terry, Poor Terry.
Yeah, Terry does not like me. Well.
We do have also the account Ridiculous Crime pod po d on YouTube. You can catch all the same shows there. They got like a fun little animation for you to watch. And we have our website Ridiculous Crime dot com and uh you can get merched there and you can check out a bunch of gifts and it's just a fun little quick hang for you. And obviously we love your talkbacks. We love hearing for y'all. We loved to connect with the rude dudes and we'd love to hear your voices.
So please go to the iHeart app downloaded, leave us a talk back and uh, you know, we maybe you get to hear your voice here. As I said, we'd love to hear it. So please do it. Do it, do it, do it, and as always, thank you for listening and we will catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zion Burnette, produced and edited by the Beijing Bandit Dave Coustin, and starring Annale Rucker as Judith. Research is by the Marauders of Macau,
Marissa Brown and Jabbari Davis. Our theme song is by our house band, Hong Kong Fuey aka Thomas Lee and Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Bondy five hundred producer, Dave's wardrobe provided by Mister Guy of Beverly Hills. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andre Executive producer are the World's Most Dangerous Car Shoppers Ben Bolin and Noel Brown.
Why Say It one More Time? Equeous Crime.
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.