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Heist ( Netflix)

A TRUE-CRIME SPREE

‘I just wanted to steal enough money to adopt a child,’ says Karls Monzon, and it sounds like the starting point for an entire Netflix drama. In fact, Monzon was the mastermind of a real-life heist that netted $7.4 million and is the subject of one of three truecrime stories in this six-part series.

Each story is told in two parts; the first detailing the planning and execution of a robbery, the second showing how things went wrong in the aftermath. The series uses elaborate reconstructions as well as interviews with some of the key players.

The first is about Heather Tallchief (Emree Franklin, above) who, with her boyfriend, stole $3 million from an armoured van. The second is about Monzon who, with family members and deeply unpleasant criminals, seized a shipment of money from Miami airport. The third is about a ‘notorious liquor heist’ in which 18 barrels and 300 bottles, some containing very rare bourbon, were stolen.

The films are pacy and entertaining, although some viewers might feel uneasy about the crooks being romanticised as charismatic outlaws. There is eventually a message that crime doesn’t pay, but it seems to be a conclusion reached only reluctantly.