Baker Street robbery
Coordinates: 51°31′20.32″N 0°9′28.08″W / 51.5223111°N 0.1578000°W
The Baker Street robbery was the burglary of the safe deposit boxes at the Baker Street, London branch of Lloyds Bank, on the night of 11 September 1971.
The robbers had rented the leather goods shop Le Sac, two doors north of the bank, and tunnelled a distance of approximately 50 feet (15 m) passing under the intervening Chicken Inn restaurant. To avoid being overheard, they dug only during weekends. They initially used a thermal lance to try to break into the vault but ultimately had to use explosives.
Robert Rowlands was a ham radio operator who lived in a fifth floor flat on Wimpole Street. He overheard conversations between the robbers and their rooftop lookout at 11:15 pm. He contacted local police, who did not take him seriously but suggested that he tape record the conversations while the robbery was in progress. There was however insufficient information to identify which bank was being robbed.
At 1 am, Rowlands contacted Scotland Yard, who immediately sent officers to his flat in Wimpole Street.
At 2 am, a senior police officer alerted radio detector vans to track down the gang's exact location. Police checked the 750 banks within 10 miles of Rowlands' receiver, including the Baker Street bank. At the time, the thieves were still in the vaults but the police failed to realise this because the security door was still locked. The thieves got away with £1.5m cash (2010: £16.5m) and valuables from over 260 safe deposit boxes. The total haul was believed to be near £3m (2010: £33.1m).
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