[imagesource: Netflix]

In South Africa, the word ‘heist’ usually conjures up images of a cash-in-transit van being targeted.

For every Leo Prinsloo getaway, there are unfortunately many criminals who make off with the loot.

A really skilled heist often doesn’t involve gunfire and violence, though, and the spoils of pulling off a biggie can far outweigh what you might find in the back of a van.

Heist, a true-crime series that hits Netflix tomorrow (July 14), chronicles three of the biggest heists in modern American history, as explained by the people who pulled them off.

Here’s the write-up via Netflix:

A 21-year-old woman steals millions in Vegas casino cash. An aspiring father swipes a fortune from the Miami airport… and uses TV shows to learn how to get away with it. A Kentucky dad is accused of one of the biggest bourbon burglaries in history.

Using dynamic reenactments, original interviews, and a fast-paced style that fits perfectly into the cinematic canon alongside films like Ocean’s Eleven and Catch Me If You Can, directors Derek Doneen (The Price of Free), Martin Desmond Roe (Two Distant Strangers), and Nick Frew (We Are the Champions) each take the helm of a single heist, told over two episodes.

Six episodes, three heists.

The first trailer was released in mid-June:

Yesterday, an official ‘first look’ clip dropped, focusing on the crime labelled ‘Pappygate’:

A little more on Pappygate via Food and Wine:

By 2015, authorities in Kentucky’s Franklin County had finally caught the culprits behind a series of thefts from local distilleries which included large amounts of coveted — and extremely valuable — Pappy Van Winkle bourbon…

Gilbert “Toby” Curtsinger — who worked at the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort for 26 years — pled guilty to the infamous Pappy theft in 2018. Both Curtsinger and Pat Melton, the former Franklin County Sheriff who helped bring him to justice, appear in episodes number five and six of the series called “The Bourbon King.”

Curtsinger is a great last name for an outlaw.

All six episodes will be on Netflix from tomorrow, if you’d like to focus on crimes abroad for a few days.

[sources:netflix&foodandwine]