The robbery of the Up Special, the mobile post office, on the night of August 8, 1963, is the largest train heist in Britain’s history. It took 15 men to pull it off in just 15 minutes. How much did they steal? 120 sacks of banknotes worth £2.6 million (which was about $7 million at the time and today would equate to more than $60 million).
Source: Ben Cavanna/DWA/BNPS
It was the biggest raid on a train ever, and the story even made one man into a folk hero. With everything from cops and robbers to prison escapes and plastic surgery, it’s basically a Hollywood movie. And how were some of them caught? It involves a bottle of ketchup and a Monopoly board game.
This is the story …