During a meeting in the basement, Warren convinced the other two that they were going to need a fourth, principally to help haul the nearly 250 pounds in Audubon folios out of the library. In early February 2005, the F.B.I. He topped off his new living quarters with the last of his worldly belongings: a large-screen television, a DVD player, and a Sony PlayStation. opens the door for me and I'm just like, Holy shit. I quickly came up with some fake name and started walking in and I'm like, Oh, shit, this is gonna happen at any moment. So while I'm shutting the doors I look back and Warren took her to the ground. Eric would stay on the main floor while Warren subdued Gooch in the Rare Book Room. for a second vehicle at a secret location, which, according to Warrens plan, is used to transport team and loot to temporary resting place. After the heist, since it is certain that the stolen books will be entered into art-theft databases within a week, they have to get the books appraised at Christies in New York immediately. Afterward, Warren and Spencer briefed the others, and the four went to lunch, where, the boys say, Chas insisted they spend another night in New York and attempt to see Mr. Leckey the next day. Spencer Reinhard, Warren Lipka, Eric Borsuk and Charles Allen II were all between the ages of 19 and 20 at the time of the robbery. I took my zip ties and I put them around her feet and put them around her arms. It was about at that point that Gooch remembers Warren saying, Quit struggling, B.J., or do you want to feel more pain?. This ultimately led to the life changing events chronicled in the 2018 film American Animals. Waiting for the law to snatch them was nerve-racking, but they went on with their lives as if nothing had been amiss. His clumsy attempt to clear his name, in a no-holds-barred interview with BBC, Gabby Petitos Life WithAnd Death ByBrian Laundrie. onto nearby Fourth Street and careened through traffic before stopping a mile farther on, in front of a predominantly black housing project. The investigation of the Transy Book Heist came to an explosive end on the morning of February 11, 2005, as a SWAT unit broke down the front door of the yellow bungalow with a battering ram, blasting stun grenades throughout the building. What they would tell me, then, is their version of eventsand the only complete account of the planning, execution, and aftermath of the heist. The truth is, but for one obvious, big mistakethe trip to Christie'sthey probably would have gotten away with it, a Lexington police detective told me. See, we have no choice now but to create something new, someplace else. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Phase 1 begins at the bungalow when all four get into what Warren designated the G.T.A.V., or the Go-to-and-Away-Vehicle, all disguised as old men. Wedged in among the other houses on Beaumont Avenue, a quiet residential street near the U.K. campus, is a beaten-down yellow cinder-block bungalow, with two bedrooms on the second floor and two on the first. Warren and Eric got out of the G.T.A.V. If you were referring only to my paintings featuring birds, I would say its my ability to render the birds accurately, but in a way that gives them personality.. At first, we wanted to move to the States as quickly as possible, but we began to see the benefits of living in South America. When Eric let him in on the plan, Chas mocked the three as deluded potheads, he recalls. At 11 the next morning, Chas slipped the G.T.A.V. a plan to fail painting reinhard. Because the boys made the highly unusual decision not to accept the prosecutors offer to testify against one another during sentencing in exchange for leniency, they were each sentenced to identical seven-year terms. Because of the expense, only Warren made the trip, touching down at Amsterdams Schiphol Airport on a Saturday morning in early March 2004. As they scooted down the stairs their arms gave out and they stopped to catch their breath. American painter Spencer Reinhard is loving the new art he is diligently producing. They checked into the Hilton Hotel in Midtown, Warren signing in under the nom de guerre Harry Ballsania name backed up with one of their fake Kentucky drivers licensesand paying in cash. The other was short and quiet, wearing a yellow jacket two sizes too large and a matching scarf. Cops entered the basement, a dank pit reeking of marijuana, and found Warren sprawled out on a mattress. Like many aspiring art students Spencer believed that the academic community he was joining would inspire and enlighten him, exposing him to new experiences and methods. We need to just get over this stuff, Eric tells me, explaining how Warren re-entered his life after their falling-out the previous semester. Starting with a 1970s Pierre Cardin canary-yellow blazer that had belonged to his grandfather, he wore a dress shirt with an ostentatiously large collar and a gold silk scarf. (Big Warren declined to comment on the gambling accusations at the time.) The two men followed the librarian into the Rare Book Room, and John closed the door behind them. After four years in New Jersey I was released back to Lexington where I lived with my parents and continued to paint. . For Spencer it all started with a series of mild disappointments. Jamaica has been great so far. The three then take the staff-only elevator down to the bottom floor and escape out the west fire exit. We had a few pitchers, feeling each other out. This story was recently documented in the feature film American Animals. Eric couldn't get hold of his friend's car, leaving Chas to borrow a Dodge Caravan his mother was fortuitously selling the next day, the boys say. In fact, wedged in their backpacks was nearly three-quarters of a million dollars' worth of books and manuscripts: an 1859 first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection ($25,000), an illuminated manuscript from 1425 ($200,000), a set of the two-volume 15th-century horticultural masterpiece entitled Hortus Sanitatis ($450,000), 20 original Audubon pencil drawings ($50,000), and Audubon's A Synopsis of the Birds of North America ($10,000). One evening it occurred to Spencer that they had used the Walter Beckman Yahoo account to contact both Christies and Gooch. Eric would stay on the main floor while Warren subdued Gooch in the Rare Book Room. Warren made an appraisal appointment at Christie's in New York for Walter Beckman, a pseudonym inspired by the soccer star David Beckham. After a brief discussion they chose Chas Allen, a handsome, clean-cut U.K. business major who had started the lawn-care company with Eric the previous summer. None the less, still super stoked Lex Art League accepted 3 of my artworks. The banality of assessments, passing courses for the sake of progression and limited intellectual stimulation meant that Spencers time at university was far removed from his hoped for experience. Buried in the files was a series of e-mails to Christie's in New York. In his talk, Spencer speaks to how he found a unique, unexpected sense of freedom and honesty in his art, not constrained by societal influences or monetary pressures. A few minutes later, a short, dark-haired young man, also dressed in a winter coat, cap, and gloves, entered the library. Lifting a technique straight from the film Reservoir Dogs, Warren assigned code names based on color. They said that this set, Birds of America, sold for $12 million. I said, Twelve million dollars, just sitting there? My son was born in January, so its been a busy time and I plan to take full advantage of the freedom I will have in Jamaica, Reinhard stated. Warren and Chas go up to the Rare Book Room, on the third floor, and Warren brings Gooch down hard and fast with a stun gun, making her a non-factor throughout the operation. Warren and Chas then let Eric in and they begin wrapping the Audubons in bedsheets and put any smaller books in backpacks. With a long, thin face and bleached-blond hair and sideburns, he appeared younger than Gooch had expected. Aside from harming B. J. Gooch, Spencer, Warren, and Eric maintain that they have no regrets. The F.B.I. The Lexington Police Department's commercial-burglary squad was assigned to the case. opens the door for me and Im just like, Holy shit. I quickly came up with some fake name and started walking in and Im like, Oh, shit, this is gonna happen at any moment. So while Im shutting the doors I look back and Warren took her to the ground. I was in interaction with people from nearly every country in the Americas, he reflected on the time spent between prisons in Kentucky and Texas. Artistically, it offered me the freedom to make the work I wanted to make without concern for my audience. The whole operation would have to be completed by 12:30 P.M., as the boys say Chas needed to return the Dodge Caravan to his mother in time for her to sell it, and Spencer and Eric had to get to their final exams in sociology and tennis, respectively. He focused above all on painting, gaining admission into a prestigious Lexington arts program. . Spencer was born in 1984 in Lexington Kentucky. When an agent called, he got a voice-mail recording, This is Spence. Bam. Theyre one of Hollywoods brightest starsand most troubled actors. Phase 2 ends when the loot is loaded into the G.T.A.V. (Through his attorney, Allen declined to be interviewed.) The painting is a kaleidoscope of images, including what appears to be a computer, a cell phone, a bong, the Transylvania library, and loose sheets of notepaper, floating above a desiccated one-eyed young man in a watch cap, kicking back on a beat-up couch with a blue dog on his lap. Twelve million dollars, just sitting there? In exchange, Barry slipped him an e-mail address with instructions to sign off any communication with the name Terry. So we ate at Pazzos pizza pub. Inside were the books, wrapped in sheets and pillowcases. The thieves left no fingerprints behind, and there were almost no witnesses. The stun guns Warren had ordered never arrived, so he drove around town and returned with a Black Cobra Stun Pen, and had Spencer zap him and Eric to test its knockdown power. We live in 10 months of the year in Colombia and spend two in the States. He was told to look for a bearded, heavyset man in a solid-blue sweater. Because no one would go to Christie's with stolen books to get them appraisedthat's how we did a lot of stuff, like, we would smoke weed directly under the [security] camera on the Transy campus, park a car right underneath it and then smoke for like an hour. Because of the expense, only Warren made the trip, touching down at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on a Saturday morning in early March 2004. Eric and Chas dropped Warren and Spencer off around the corner from Christies. He feared being restricted in any way. It was just funny because weve been in a lot of places that theyve been, Eric says. He focused above all on painting, gaining admission into a prestigious Lexington arts program. Chas backs up [the van] and almost hits the woman as Eric comes around to the door. A member of the RJRGLEANER Communications Group. Behind the main building and through three blastproof security doors is the prison visitors' room, where I meet separately with Likpa, Reinhard, and Borsuk for a series of interviews almost a year into their sentence. is parked in front of the library and the four are in 1st Position at bottom of stairs of library.. When they arrived on campus in the replacement G.T.A.V., they couldnt find a parking space anywhere near the library. and Lexington police put the pair under surveillance. Frightened and alone in an unfriendly neighborhood and weighed down with priceless books, Warren and Eric barreled down the street, frantically trying to hail a police cruiser to rescue them. That was the point all along. The take could be more than $5 million. Warren had run up the side of the hill and frantically ran off. It was during his studies at Transylvania University that Spencer became aware of John James Audubons work, The Birds of America. All four, now 22, children of privilege, products of elite Lexington high schools, are serving seven-year sentences for their parts in the crime. They tried to come up with some link the cops could make between them and the theft, but they couldn't. He took a cab to Dam Square, an old hippie hangout in the center of the city he had read about on the Internet. With a long, thin face and bleached-blond hair and sideburns, he appeared younger than Gooch had expected. Realizing that the only way out was through the main floor, they took the elevator up once again and carried the books into a back stairwell that led to another exit. Thanks for the on my post. They had reserved a room in the same Midtown Hilton that Spencer and Warren had stayed in nearly a year earlier. Spencer elected not to consider his consequent incarceration as the loss of his best years, but rather sought to salvage his fledgling artist career by utilising his time to develop his practice and to consider new methods and media. So we would see parts like that and we would be Oh, this is just like us. Little did the three know that F.B.I. I was kind of skeptical, continues Spencer, but the way I rationalized it was: it's the biggest auction house. agents poured in over the wreckage. She agreed. Because this is so much bigger than anything we've done before.. 's computers. It was the sense of redemption that I hadnt anticipated. Spencer would communicate with Warren from a cell phone, which Warren would steal from a student in the morning. For added anonymity, Warren bleached his hair blond that night. The books were much heavier than the boys had projected, and the pair could handle only three at a time. A witness had written down a license-plate number, but it was way off. Now we can't ever go back there. I was born in Lexington, Kentucky and was raised by my wonderful parents in what was a largely carefree and happy childhood. Warren called me one night and hes like, We need to get together. His malaise was likely exacerbated by his parents impending divorce amid his mothers allegations that his father, Big Warren, the celebrated coach of the universitys womens soccer team, had gambled the family into bankruptcy. It immediately had kind of sparked my imagination, like a fantasy., O.K., so we're sitting in the car, smoking weed, Warren recalls, and then Spencer said, I just took a tour in that library, and there's shit sitting there you wouldn't believe. In the fall of 2003, Warren left for the University of Kentucky on a full athletic scholarship, eager to take his game to the next level, and with vague plans of getting into politics. 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