The Kangaroo Gang
Over two hundred years ago English thieves were sent to Australia as convicts and were left to make do. One hundred and fifty years later, Australian thieves who had perfected their trade, returned to England with remarkable success. They had Scotland Yard baffled, as they didn't use violence to steal from the high end of retail; they used charm and distraction methods instead. This is the story of the most spectacularly successful shoplifting gang in history, who plundered stores in England and Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. The Media named them The Kangaroo Gang. From the mid 1960s, this brazen band of Australian thieves ran riot in London for more than a decade, pulling off the most daring heists England had ever seen. They targeted the plush emporia of Knightsbridge and the fine jewellers of Mayfair. The Gang didnt stop there, criss-crossing Europe to lay siege to the luxury retailers of Paris, Brussels, Rome and beyond. They elevated shoplifting to an art form, practised without guns or violence. The gang nearly always found a way to simply 'disappear' with the loot. We also closely follow the story of Baby Bruce Stanton who came to London in 1966 after the Football World Cup as a pickpocket, but eventually took over Arthur Delaneys mantle as The King of Thieves. The Style of the documentary is a mixture of high-end reconstructions with a cool sixties vibe, including interviews, personal pictures and archival footage, with narration by Barry Humphries.
