Headline, June01, 2013

'''A SCREEN SAVER FOR 

-THE- F.B.I COMPUTERS'​''

It had been agreed that Warren, with his smooth talk, and Spencer, with his artistic knowledge, would go to the meeting with Christie's. the other two would be around the block in the S.U.V.

In early February 2005, the F.B.I and Lexington police put the Masterminds under surveillance. A female detective went undercover as a Transy student, tailing Spencer a team staked out their residence. It didn't take long to tie-in Eric and Chas.

By that Point Warren, Eric and Spencer knew for certain they were going down, And then one evening it occurred to Spencer that they used the Walter Beckman Yahoo account to contact both Christie's and Gooch. So waiting for the law to snatch them was nerve-racking but they went on with their lives as if nothing had been amiss. They even took in a movie: Ocean's 12.

''It was just funny because we've been in a lot places that they've been,'' Eric says. ''Like they are doing something serious, talking about the heist, going over the plan, and somebody would make a joke. 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 Agents were sitting behind them, listening to their every word.

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.

The four formally pleaded guilty all six charges, including theft of cultural artifacts from a public Museum. During their sentencing hearing, in December 2005, the federal prosecutor asked for 11 to 14 years each for Eric, Chas, and Spencer, and 14 to 17 years for Warren, deeming him the leader.

With fullness of time the Masterminds turned reflective: ''We did the robbery as a way to escape.'' Eric says. ''I think we all knew that we wanted something different, and we had to breakaway from where we were living. If we got away with it, we'd be in Europe, living this crazy life thinking we were Ocean's 11 types. If not, we were going to get caught and it was going to be a crazy story.''

''And now that we have diverted from that path, we feel liberated,'' disclosed Warren. ''We can never go back if we wanted to   -I would rather have not been busted, but all I can say is it feels right in here, and before, in college, it just never did.''

They all laugh about their painting : A Plan To Fail. They all love the fact that it had been made the ''screen saver'' on F.B.I computers.

''In a few years we'll be released. We will all  be.......still young.'' Warren says. ''We will be stronger, better, wiser for going through this together, the three of us. Before, in College, growing up, we were being funneled into this mundane, nickel-and-dime existence. 

Now we can't even go back there. Even if we wanted to, they won't let us.

That was the point all along. See, we have no choice now but to create something new, someplace else.

Believe me, you haven't heard the last of us yet!''

With respectful dedication : Art Of The Deal.

That's where the cookie crumbles!...   Always!!

THREE CHEERS FOR ALL MAJORS IN CRIME!

Hahaha!

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless