More oddness
The more news we get about the Hatton Garden jewel theft, the ODDER it gets.

Biggest oddness: These dudes are OLD.

Nine men have been arrested so far. Ages 42, 48, 50, 58, 58, 59, 67, 74, 76. Old for any physical occupation except maybe orchestra conductor, and FANTASTICALLY old for thieves.

Pro criminals are finished by 35. Shot dead, shot and disabled, permanently jailed, or just all out of adolescent idiocy.

The YOUNGEST of these fellows is 42, which is already way beyond the pull date of pro criminals.

As far as I can tell from the articles, none of them have previous records. All are middle-class with good jobs or pensions. None are broke or desperate.

The operation was highly skilled but the most basic question of SCALE was completely missed. When you steal a hundred bucks and a carton of smokes from the corner store, you can safely spend the money on drugs and enjoy the cigs. You won't automatically attract the cops by using your loot. Jewelry is entirely different. Jewelry that's valuable enough to store in a place like Hatton Garden is ALSO valuable enough to be carefully recorded, registered and photographed. You can't sell it casually. This was already well-known 50 years ago, long before the age of universal CCTV and iPhones. It should have been part of the General Knowledge of all these fellows.

That's a mistake you'd expect from your default 17-year-old robber, because he doesn't know much about how the world works. It's not a point you'd expect ALL NINE of these mature established men to miss.

Bucket list? Last fling? Might make sense for the oldest dudes. I've had a fleeting impulse in that direction, but I've had enough experience with real criminals to realize that it wouldn't work. Thief is an innate vocation, and Big Spender is also innate. If you've been a plumber or an accountant for 40 years, you won't know how to fence a million or waste a million.

The whole mess is so improbable that I wonder if it's simply a distraction, a Look Over Here! Maybe these guys were disposable pawns for a major syndicate that DOES know how to fence and spend such items, or pawns for one of the jewelers who needed an insurance claim.
  ¶ 11:01 AM