The Italian carmaker Ferrari is known worldwide for the the elegant look, the unique sound, and insane speed and eye-catching design of its sports cars. Some Ferraris are prized as much as works of art by renowned masters. Tom Baker was an American man, with a very curious hobby. Some people collect stamps, others trade collectibles. Tom Baker liked to steal Ferraris from luxury automobile dealerships. And he was surprisingly good at it –– until Det. Joe Hess was put on the trail of elusive Ferrari thief.
Zaren Brunette, my old sew and so I got a question for you, Yes, sir, okay, do you have a second I do you comfortable? I'm good? You look you look nice?
Thank you?
Well okay, my question was this, it's I just need help with this. Do you know what's ridiculous?
Yes?
I knew you would.
I do golden toilet? What a golden toilet?
Didn't you cover this?
Yeah?
Yeah, you talked about a golden guy steals a golden toilet.
Marizio catalan Uh an artist, he made that solid gold toilet that was in a former in the castle. Yeah, that's ridiculous.
Yourself.
I ran out of ridiculous. No no, no, no, no, no, no no no, I shall never run out. Okay, So golden toilet, right, and when I told you about it. Originally they had seven people that were suspects, but they had to let them go because they didn't have anything. Well, two rude dudes, Patrick Kovich, who is a home brewer nice and Jimmy Dunnman who is an FX modeler. So two fascinating fellows. They tipped us off that there's an article in art net headline great website. UK authorities are ready to charge seven suspects over the twenty nineteen theft of Mauricio Catalan's gold toilet sculpture.
Oh wow, all seven.
All seven. So there were the seven suspects. Now they're about to charge them.
Unlucky number seven.
Unlucky number seven. So they do believe that it was melted down and people are wearing toilet gold. But we may be able to like pin it on somebody. That was a cool update from Patrick and Jimmy.
Thanks to you, Patrick and Jimmy. Yeah, good looking.
Out, hooray. And that's ridiculous.
That is thank you. Well you you got another second? Sure, because I got one for you. It doesn't evolve any gold toilets, damn it, bumbs nothing, Okay. But you know how I like going fast? Right? I do know that I love to go fast. Yes, speed is my thing in every milliu yeah completely Now, unsurprisingly I also love stories of high speed vehicular theft. No, I know, all right, shock shock shock, But oh boy, do I have one for you today, Elizabeth. Get ready for the doctor Who of Carthieves. Oh god, this is ridiculous crime. A podcast about I'm surd and outrageous Kper's heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent moder free and one hundred percent ridiculous.
Yes, Elizabeth, Yeah, what's up?
Do you like movies about gladiators? Hmmm?
You know Gladiator was a good movie.
You ever see a grown man naked? Yeah? I'm sorry, I'm just gonna the dinamic airplane?
Yeah, I know, I was playing along.
Thank you. I do have a legit question for you, though, sir? Do you like movies about Carthive's.
It depends, not just like as a blanket statement. I've seen some stupid ones, but I've seen some good.
Ones, some stupid ones. Okay, well like well, movies like Nick Cage and Angelina Jolie's Gym Gone in sixty Seconds. You've seen that?
I did. I saw that once in San Francisco because it was hot as blazes out and there was it was like one hundred and two. Oh wow, and there was no in San Francisco and no one has air conditioning. And I went in the movie theater and I watched it just to get out of the heat.
I like it. What do you think of the movie?
I don't remember.
You remember the cool cool air conditioning?
Yes?
Okay, what about the Marky Mark Wahlberg remake of the Michael Caine classic The Italian Job.
I've not seen the remake. I've seen the original.
He what to think? Original?
Awesome?
Yeah? So like do you remember like the Little Mini Coopers? Okay, now, obviously, if you are a team of professional car thieves and you have a list of sports cards you have to steal in order to satisfy the will of some shadowy underworld figure. Me, I'm seeing that movie. Yeah, like just one hundred percent right. But sometimes sometimes Elizabeth, I get lucky and we get a real life, fast and furious style crime spreed. It seems like it's a movie, but it's in real life, real life. That's what we're doing today.
Oh, I'm excited so for as.
You like to say, and I love to quote from you for an amuse boosh. Back in twenty nineteen, we had a Nick Cage wannabe from Germany who won my heart over with some crime we did. Yes, he's just a sweet guy. Yeah. The car this cat was after was a nineteen eighty five Ferrari too eighty eight gto Oh yeah, a sports car, it was right. This highly prized car was one of only two hundred and seventy two built by the Italian car maker.
Oh my gosh, okay, car was.
Valued three million dollars US two point sixty three million to be exact. If you're looking to purchase it.
Elizabeth, Yeah, I gotta check my accounts.
Yeah, I mean you probably need to get your checkbook.
Well, you know, I got to move some funds around. I'm not exactly liquid right now.
I know it's it's it's you know, right before tax season you got your fiscal year ending. I get it.
Yeah.
So if you were in the market, set aside two point six three, okay, we'll do right. But this Ferrari it had other reasons you'd want to own it. Besides the slightly reduced price.
Tag magical power.
It was once owned by a legit Formula One race car driver.
Oh yeah, it was like Mario Andretti.
No, not your favorite.
No, No, I don't know any other one. I know Jimmy zoom Zoms.
Eddie Irvine Eddie. He was a North irishman who owned it from nineteen ninety six to nineteen ninety nine, and he had good luck with Ferrari because he'd won four races driving a Ferrari for the team race Team Scuderia Ferrari. Oh okay, yeah, real race card.
I would hope he was driving Ferraris. If he was on Scuderia Ferrari.
Yeah, you would help, right, it'd be really bad.
Pulls up in a VW. He's like, don't worry about it.
Out he told me this is faster. Uh, the sports car with the distinctive red paint job. Do you know what that red.
Paint job is called Ferrari red?
No? Good? Guess that'd be if he was an American?
Is it called good?
Also guess Italian Corso? Oh? Okay, So this Italian Corso two eighty eight GT was sitting there at a dealership in Dusseldorf, Germany, just duseldorfing around, right. One day a man came in wanting to know more about the car, right, and the guy's like, he's been emailing and phoning the car dealer for weeks, right, Finally cat shows up. They're like, oh, it's the guy, and this fateful Monday afternoon dude steps out of a taxi. He rocks up to the dealer and he's like, I want to do a test drive that car right over there. Dealer's like, all right. The guy's this heavy set, middle aged man. He speaks English and French, but no German. Germans are like, no problem, we got you boo. So they're friendly enough German style, and they decide, okay, we're gonna take this cat for a test drive. They give the keys to the Ferrari. They go, let's go. Where do you want to you know, drive it? And he's like, oh, I'll just take it around the parking lot of the dealerships. So they take it around the parking lot of the dealership and he's like oh yes. But he's like, you know what, this isn't quite enough. I'm wrong. I need to actually see what it feels like on the road. I need to feel the.
Pull of them boning to say so.
So he said, uh, you know, do these ponies run? The salesman's buddy, Let's take it out on the roads. He's like, okay, I'm gonna see how it handles its speed. Do you mind if I just take it up a little bit. He's like yeah, but you know, try not to like, you know, try not to lose control of the car. But neither one of us Okay, I can't afford this. Apparently you can, right, and the salesman's like reluctant, but he obliges the guy. Right. So now the reason why he was reluctant, as I told you, is, you know, it's hyper expensive. They can't afford it. But if he if this driver, like you know, crashes it on a test drive, who's responsible? Is it?
A really good question?
Car dealership, the salesman, the guy who's driving it his car, and sure two covers the test drive of a Ferrari.
Yeah, I don't know, but I am wondering if you want to test drive something that expensive, do they make you, like put some sort of deposit or like secure that you could pay for the car if need be.
Typically, Yes, these are all good questions, Elizabeth, Thank you so much. Yeah, way to think financially. Yeah, that's exactly what you would typically do. Right. However, on average, I looked into this. According to the German luxury car dealerships, only ten percent of their perspective buyers ever ask for a full test drive. This actually doesn't come up that often.
I know, right, but maybe I'm just cheap, Like I just bought a car not too long A couple months back but wow, I guess it's a few months, months, several months back, time flies years ago.
You bought a car once in my life?
No, but I mean it's like I can't imagine being Let me just take it around. I want to drive it on the street.
Yeah, you want to feel the road.
I want to run over some kids.
You always put the kids. So the prospective buyer and the car salesman they eventually agree like, no paper were because it's necessary. Let's just take this bad boy out for a dealership ride. He's like like, okay, you know. The guy buyer. He races around Duseldorf in his Ferrari. Right, he ends up six miles away from the car dealership, and he's like, okay, that was fun. Man, I'm telling you, I'm satisfied, right this guy, the guy, the Perspective buyer. He tells the salesman, I'm good, all right, I'm convinced this is the car for me. Let's get back to the dealership. Let's do this paperwork. Brother V gates. We cool and the guy's like yeah, yeah, all right. The perspective buyers like, hey, you know what, I've been really lucky so far. I didn't lose control of the car. Why don't you drive it back to the dealership. I don't want to press my luck. And the guy's like, oh, very good calls, so I will definitely these ill drive it back to the dealership if you'd like me to. So the buyer's like, cool, all right. He opens his door, the salesman's opens his door. Salesman steps out. All of a sudden, he hears the worst sound imaginable, the rev of a Ferrari engine.
I would think that if that car then it would be grinding of gears.
Where you are carrying it. And when I lived in Venice, I'm going to tell you you heard that all the time, all these like mclarence Lamborghinis, Ferrari's coming from Santa Monica down the coast, pain painful? Did you take a lesson? You got the money?
Not everyone can drive those things?
Oh very few people who have new money, apparently can. So Eventually, this guy, right, he hears the rev of the Ferrari engine. The salesman panics. He turns and he sees exactly what he knew what he was about to see. The guy had floored it. Italian wheels gripped German road and took off right gone in less than thirty seconds. Nicholas Cage, eat your heart up. Police they send up a helicopter to search for this Ferrari because it's Germany. They're like, we're catching this man right now. They have an iconic, distinctive red sports car. It should be pretty easy to find this guy zipping around Dusseldorf, right But doesn't matter. Helicopter gets up there, it's too late. The car, the car thief. They're in the wind car salesman standing on the side of the road. But just his career in his hands now, the car thief. He wasn't particularly good at hiding his identity because remember I said he had emailed and phoned the dealership.
Over his well and again they didn't ask for his driving license, no, but they.
Did photograph him. They photographed him before he got to take the car out. And he also he was wandering around the dealership leaving his fingerprints everywhere. It took the German police how long do you think one day to find Homie.
To find the doozelders, Well, you know they didn't.
Find the dude. They found the stolen Ferrari. Oh, Okay, Yeah, the car was hidden in a garage in a neighboring town eighteen miles away. Car was fine, unharmed. Oh yeah, so as far as he drove right, the thief was nowhere to be found. As far as I can tell, he was never caught. He totally got away with it.
Yeah, and they had Prince, they had He wasn't in the system.
Apparently not, so you know. Yeah, but they found the car. They're like, we got the call. This is what's the rafta.
I guess that's all that matters.
I guess because you can sell the car right anyway, So, Elizabeth, do believe.
It full of like McDonald's McDonald's rappers and stuff that would be amazing, just garbage.
We've just been eating junk for the entire time.
Oh so he picks up forensic So I just move that.
It's cool, Yeah, just kick it over the side. There's like grease stains all over everything. Anyway, Elizabeth, that was our appetizer for the day. You ready to meet our man of the moment, always, our man of la mancha. Yes, our ferrari klepto maniac of the day. Yeah, all right, it's get in spy high speed crime. Okay, this dude's name is Tom Baker.
Tom Baker.
Now before he stole a nineteen eighty nine Ferrari three twenty eight gts, Tom Baker visited a dealership in Summerfield, North Carolina a few times, much like the previous guy, but he did it a little bit better. He didn't walk around putting his fingerprints everywhere getting photographs taken of him. No, he just did it to get the lay of the land. He wanted to see what their security was like, right, So he takes these multiple visits. He also was very friendly. He made himself memorable, personable. He decided he become buddy buddy with the owner of the car dealership, this dude named Steve Barney. Now the car dealership owner reportedly this guy, Steve Barney, he had cancer at the time. It turns out that the car thief, though, Tom Baker, happened to be a radiologist, So he told Steve, the car dealership owner, that he'd read his X rays and he'd give him a free second.
Opinion get a little zap under the table there.
Totally super nice of him, right, I was like, hey, let me hook you up. You hook me up, scratch my back. I'll buy a Ferrari anyway, but I should actually amend that it would have been nice of him had he not been pretending to be a radiologist. Yes, Tom Baker was no doctor.
It's bad, bad Mojo come in his way for.
You. Just wait. So who was he? Yeah?
Who was he?
Well? He was what you and I would call a liar. So this non doctor Tom Baker won over Steve the car Dealer's trust. Now, if you ever watched Doctor Who, Doctor Who was the fourth doctor was a guy named Tom Baker.
Doctor who?
Who? Exactly what? Doctor Who? Who? Doctor? I know?
Stupid away, go ahead, So this okay, so the fourth doctor was named Tom Baker, that the actor or the character was.
Named Tom Baker. The character is always doctor.
Oh, it's always doctor. I didn't know if it was like double.
O seven how like, okay, the number can be it's like, oh.
You're Tom Baker, but guess what now you're doctor Who?
Yeah? No, they have different actors played Doctor Who, always the same doctor Doctor Who exactly? Yeah?
Okay, so yeah, I know it's different dudes.
So this guy is Steve the car Dealer, right, he has his trust one over by the fake doctor who Tom Baker. Yeah, And as he told the Philadelphia Inquirer, this is Steve the car dealer. He said, quote, if my sixteen year old daughter needed a ride, I would have put her in the car with him. Oh that's how much he trusted this guy. I don't know why he's using a sixteen year old daughter his trust the life of my child.
Anyway, So does he often put his daughter in the car?
It begs the question, Elizabeth. He came qu It was like, sir, sir, do you have how many children do you have? Is it always your sixteen year old daughter, Pip, poor girl? Yeah? So anyway, on that fateful day, tom Baker dropped by the dealership. He chatted with his old buddy Steve Barney, and at some point he asked Steve if he could take the Ferrari three twenty eight GTS out for a test drive. Now, this one wasn't as rare as the one I told you about before. This one was only worth about fifty five thousand dollars.
Oh really, yeah, so kick one a song.
And a steal. So tom Baker was interested in buying it. He said he needed to take a test drive to make sure he could make up his mind. He'd take it out for quick spin, maybe hit up the gas station down the road, apiece, and then he doubled back to the dealership. Steve Barney's like of course, buddy, flipped in the keys the Ferrari. Tom Baker slid into that soft, soft leather driver's seat, placed his hands on that steering wheel wrap. He felt the promise of a Ferrari in his own hot little hands. Then he slowly drove the car off the dealership lot, never to be seen again. Oh my, Steve Barney recalled quote. I was conned, I was coln and he did a beautiful job. Try to believe in the genuine goodness of people. I won't let that happen again. He broke his spirit, I know, which is sad kind of I mean, like, what are we living in when a Ferrari dealer has lost his faith in humanity? He lost I know, as a full person. This is normal person. He lost his faith. Yea, it is sad. Okay, So on that note, Let's just take a little break and then I'll come back and I will tell you what it became of Steve Barney's trust in humanity. What it became of Tom Baker's felonious love of Ferraris, and uh, let's just say his luck doesn't stay so good. All right, Elizabeth, OK, we're now. You were worried about my man, Steve Barney, the car dealer, his humanity and faith in it. Yeah, well, I I'd like you to know I talked to this guy, Steve Barney. I personally phoned it. Actually, yes, I once wrote about this fast but not quite furious Ferrari Theorf, and so I phoned the car dealer, Steve Barney, because I was like, I gotta talk to this guy, because he was like to have a car just stolen right up and underneath you. So he wasn't a word loath to discuss this time he got ripped off with me. Imagine I was like, yeah, I tried to be nice. I was friendly about it. But when I phoned Steve, we chatted for a moment. He was nice, amenable, friendly in that kind of SALESMANI way right, that is, right up until I mentioned the words Tom Baker.
Oh, he did he offer you his sixteen year old daughter?
I did not. He left all his children out of our conversation, but he did say, who's Tom Baker? And I was like, oh, well, I reminded him, it's not the fourth doctor who. I mean, the American car thief. And I said, quote, Tom Baker was the fellow who in two thousand and three came into your auto shop and he has to drive a three twenty eight Ferrari GTS with you.
He did not need to be reminded.
Oh yeah. He's like, oh oh yeah, oh it slipped his mind, and the memory came suddenly roaring back into view. It was fully formed, like just fully real and alive. It was like Cameron Dies' career right after she started the mask just boom, suddenly suddenly all there, right.
And then.
I respect that call.
I love that.
I asked, uh, Steve, I said, if he remembered that particular day and that particular test drive. Oh, yes, practically it was. It was. It was tough. Journalism isn't always pretty. Now. He denied the reports that he had cancer at the time and that Tom Baker ever posed as a radiologist. He told me that he was never offered any free second opinion on X rays. So I don't know where that detail came up, but I've read it in the Philadelphia Inquirer and other news lot lets. So either they got that part wrong, or perhaps Steve doesn't want to admit it now. I don't know either way. He told me, I really don't want to go through this memory again, if you don't mind, I hate to hurt your journalistic skills, but I will want to put it behind me. And he just said thank you for your call, and he hung up right. Oh my god. Oh yeah, But honestly, I totally understood. I mean, I can't imagine I would want to talk about the time a guy sweet talked Tori out.
Of my cant What did he think you were calling him about it?
Exact well, Ferrari's I think he thought I was calling in general. He has a phone. I called it. I called his dealership. I was like, let me talk to Steve Barney. I didn't say, like, hey, I want to talk about that Bonehead movie back in two thousand and three. I see, No, he had no idea. So anyway, I would just like to say that Steve the car dealer shouldn't feel too bad about it. All. He was far from alone. Oh Tom Baker would strike again. Oh no, and again. It was three months later to be exact. Tom Baker left North Carolina behind. He was now on Long Island, New York. This time he had his covetous eye on a nineteen eighty five Ferrari Testarosa.
Oh yes, I do. That was a Miami vice car.
Yeah, good call. So he was able to get the keys to the Ferrari. He wasn't supposed to go for a test drive. If anything, the salesman he was talking to, he thought he just wanted to hear the engine turn on. That's what he kind of told the guy. So what happened was the salesman hands on the keys. He slides in to just like turn the car over.
So let me just hear this baby per exactly now.
The salesman's like, of course, sir, sorry, yes. Then he turns around, I don't know, like Papa breath man or something. And then Tom Baker gets comfortable in that buttersoft other seat. He eases his hands onto that wheel wrath, he feels the accelerator under his foot, and baby did the ponies call to him? So the Ferrari did indeed per when he turned it over, and it purred like Italian soul music. And then he was like I got to hear it start to sing, and he floored it and just drove away from that showroom and just dropped it into gear and drive right off the lot, never to be seen again.
Wait, are neither of these Ferraris have ever been recovered?
Nope, he's gone.
Someone's driving around.
Oh no, no, Well, eventually I will tell you what becomes of Tom Baker and we do find a Ferrari here that Okay, they're gone for a long time though, Yeah, because dude had disappeared like doubled eggs at a southern pot. Look, he was gone, right, Yeah, So the felonious Ferrari Fisionado with a taste for test drive theft. What does he get into next? Well, it's two thousand and three, right as we've been hanging out in mm hmm watching these Ferraris get free. Well, that same year, Tom Baker walks into a showroom of Algar Ferrari in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Town's a nice suburb. I don't know if you know it. It's a high end car dealerships to match the type of town it is. It's like a little like bedroom community for the New York Philadelphia area. Yeah, exactly. So the Alger Ferrari dealership in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, they're just, you know, selling Ferraris that day, and all of a sudden, a rather nondescript five foot ten white man walks into the luxury car dealership. Turns out this dude is Tom Baker. Now is the only time we get an actual description of him. The salesman from the showroom would later recall that he had ruddy brown hair, like kind of a reddish color. It was cut short and neat, like a military guy. He wore non memorable clothes. He had a white shirt with a tie, just playing all itIt shirt and a He had a notable gold rolex on his wrist, so that kind of gave him the gravitas for election by a flash. He also wore tortoise shell glasses, which I don't know why, but that just feels like wealth. It codes money, it doesn't. So this nondescript white businessman in tortoiseshell glasses and a rolex, he set an appointment for a test drive of Ferrari. Right, so he comes in, he says, I would like to take out the nineteen ninety six Ferrari F fifty Now, if you know anything about one fifty big old chunky tires, it was.
It was a spec car.
Now, the f fifty, not named for fifty cent, was a limited edition run that Ferrari made and there were only three hundred and forty nine of them built. Yeah, the car was created to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Enzo Ferrari's company and it's continued success.
Yeah.
Car was valued at seven hundred and twenty nine thousand dollars at the time. Yeah, so this in Walks is nondescript. White guy businessman set up an appointment for his test drive, says he's flown in from Itta. He says also he's originally from Oklahoma. But he also says he was a CEO from a California tech firm. His lies are just by coastal and his soul is in flyover country. So he paints his good picture right. He tells the salespeople from the dealer showroom that he left his limousine parked in a nearby supermarket and he hoofed it over out of here. Yeah. Oh yeah, he's got everything right. But you see this phony tech ceo. He also had a little problem. He left his wallet on his charter, playing with his secretary.
Oh my god, all the time.
You know how it is, Elizabeth. You fly to sun Valley for a quick confact with Larry Ellison and you forget your wallet in Jackson Hole, and then you tell Shirley, your executive assistant. You're like, look, Shirley, I need you to fly to my Freedman Memorial Airport. It's in Haley, Idaho. Then rent a car, drive up to Sun Valley, grab my wallet, and then fly back here to bring me my ID. Can you do that, Shirley.
Sounds oddly specific. Have you've gone through?
I'm just saying maybe I had a time as a tech CEO. Anyway, that day, Tom Baker he had a better answer than mine. His answer was to have his secretary just facts over his driver's license to the dealership showroom. So they wait a while. It takes a while. He calls it darn it all, Elizabeth. He couldn't get his secretary on the phone again. He didn't know what was happening. Well, we have to wait.
This is this is too much for him.
The car dealership sales team is like, you know what, don't worry about it. We trust you like, what are you gonna do? Steal a bright red Ferrari and just drive away? So apparently these sales folks weren't up on the latest news in Ferrari world, because that was exactly what was happening up and down the Eastern seaboard.
How did this not spread?
This was two thousand and three, pre social media, so unless you're reading like local news reports, you might have missed it.
Friends, it was apparently there's not a whisper network among the Ferraris.
I talked to a couple of Farrii dealers when I was reporting on the story originally, and they are friendly, but they're also really competitive, so I see they're not like you know, on a network on how is your sales, Bob? They're gonna lie to each other about their sales. They're not like telling each other, oh, we had a Ferrari.
Yeah, But I mean, like if you have, like I don't know, is there like a facts list of apbs where they're like the first dude's still there?
Actually we will get into that. There are registrars and so forth for stolen cars. See okay, but that's a whole other situation than the car dealers.
Yeah. Yeah.
So anyway, so this, like I said, non to descript white guy, CEO business dude, he's got going off for his test drive. They're like, no problem.
You know what, though, take my sixteen year old daughter.
I don't have a sixteen year old daughter on hand right now, so we're gonna have to send one of our sales guys with you. So they did. They send out the sales guy with him. He just caught, you know, he crawled in the car and he's like, all right, let's go for a drive, buddy. Here, how fast do you want to go? Try not to lose control of the car. These things are real fast, right, So the twenty minutes go by, the guy is whipping around. The test drive is going great, he hasn't lost control of the car. Perspective. Buyer is loving it. He decided, you know what, this handles so well, it's so fast, it feels so sexy. I'm buying this beauty car. Did the salesman. It's like stoked, like, oh, I'm getting a bonus. So he's like, okay, let's head back to the dealership. And guy was like yeah, but he's like, you know what, I'm gonna change my mind for a second, you know. He pulls over to the side of the road. He's like, I don't want to drive it back. Do you mind driving the rest of the way back?
A little scammed right, And the.
Guy's like, you know, I've been lucky so far. I don't want to press my luck. This is a seven hundred and twenty nine thousand dollars card. I hate for anything bad dappen you if I crashed on the way back. So I'm gonna buy it. Let's just have you driving. Nick Guy's like, I appreciate that man. You're looking out for me, Like that good looking a guy. You're a real square gofella. Right, So he opens the door. He pops out. The guy in the driver's seat he Tom Baker. He pushes open his door right, and as soon as the salesman closes his door, he hears the other door closed, but he doesn't hear any footsteps, and he turns around and boom, he hears that distinctive per the Ferrari engine as it races away. Oh my god, the bright red sports car tore out of there. I mean, just the way the guy describes it. He said, it's like it flew. The Ferrari raced away. It speeds, approaching one hundred miles an hour. He just slammed the accelerator. I don't know you know about this, but a Ferrari can get up to one hundred miles in about four to five seconds.
So like the whiplash exactly.
Dude's like just throw them back in his seat. And the port salesman on the side of the road just sitting there eating dust.
Well, yeah, and his spirit's broken, and another salesman's spirits broke.
The fate humanity loss. So he watches helplessly as this Ferrari lifts up over a rise in the road and disappears from view, never to be seen again. Oh my god, but this time we now know when this car would be seen again. I will tell you this one is not so much never to be seen again. We'll be seen again in five years time. Oh, in two thousand and eight. We'll resurface. But first we need to catch up with Tom Baker here. Yeah is that even his real name?
I doubt it, But can I.
Ask you a favor? Sure? Okay, all this talk with Ferrari's, I feel like we need an Elizabeth impression of my man Thomas magnum p I aka Tom Selleck. Oh, Mike, you can favor me with a little Tom Selleck as magnum p I.
Yes, just a hint, yeah, let me okay, make it ready, lick of the mustache and the Tanna Shultz.
Right, so good, perfect. I could feel the thigh meat and the mustache wrestling in the Hawaiian wind in the mustache. Okay, that was so awesome. Now, trying to bring our detective into this story, Interdetective Joe Hess of the Lexington, Kentucky Metro Police Department. Today. At this point the year of two thousand and seven, detective has He's just working on normal type cases when he receives this strange calls from the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Never heard of its totally, I'd never heard of them. I'm like, what is the NICB. Well, if you've never heard of the NICB, like me, it's not an actual government agency. They just try to sound like one. NICB is a nonprofit crime fighting bureau. It sounds like you support their crime fighters, you get an NICB tope.
Right exactly.
So. The agency apparently has one hundred and ten year history. It started out as two different nonprofits, National Automobile Theft Bureau and the Insurance Crime Prevention Institute. Together in nineteen ninety two, they reformed as a National Insurance Crime Bureau. Scam totally feels.
Like, probably get someone who listens works for them and it'll be all I am offended.
Yeah, you'll see. No, it seems pretty legit anyway. So Detective Joe Hasse he gets a call from an agent from the NICB. The bureau had received a call from Ferrari, the Italian car maker. The car maker wanted them to look into details of a nineteen eighty five Testa Rosa. The owner of the car had contacted Ferrari in Italy and asked for identification stickers to be sent to him. He claimed needed replacements. Ferrari's like okay, So they checked their vehicle identification number. It's then it didn't match the serial numbers that Ferrari had on record. That was suspicious enough for the car maker to reach out to the agents at NICB and they're like, hey, did you mind that checking on this for us? So then NICB they reach out to Detective Joe Hess. Why Joe has Elizabeth, I wish I knew because the man who contacted Ferrari was named Tom Baker, and the Italian car maker knew where he lived. He told Ferrari that he lived in a suburb of Lexington, a place called Nicholasville. So Detective Joe Hasse of Lexington assembles a task force. He has FBI agents, Kentucky State Police officers, and ICB agents. Together, they pay an unannounced visit to Tom Baker's house. They show up at his door.
Is he Oh my god?
The task force drove out to Nicholasville, Kentucky. They pulled their caravan of like suburbans or whatever, right up in front of a rather run of the mill home. It's a standard red bricks Southern home with a detached garage, you know, and like the breezeway. Yeah yeah, windows were covered, lights off. It doesn't look like anyone's home. The agents from the task worth, they're like, huh, what did we do about this? They walk up to the door anyway, They knock on the front door, surprising no one in the task for They received no answer. So what do they do, Elizabeth? When they do what cops do? They left their business cards like sorry we missed you. We'll try it again later. So if you get a business card from the FBI, that has to be a tense moment. I'm just saying I would think so.
Although you know on Law and Order SBU, I've been told by people who watch it.
I watch it. I might have been the one told you.
It's like Stabler, they have like the business card of death. But like if they give you the card, like you're not making.
It through the episode, that's about accurate. So I mean, not that I watched the show, No, of course not. I would never think. You're presumed you watch TV. Now. For Old Tom Baker, he handles this prodlor calmly. He called the number on the business card. He didn't call Detective Joe has Instead, he called a different member of the task forse the card for Agent ed Stein, who was a supervising special agent for the NICB. So Tom Baker phone Agent Stein, assuming it was about the Ferrari stickers he'd requested, and probably presumably he also wanted to hear what the NICB knew about him. Yeah, so Agent Stein tries to set a trap for Tom Baker. He asked Tom if he had the Ferrari testosa in question. Tom Baker's like, yeah, I got it, and he's like, I mean, not with me. I have in a storage unit in a nearby town. It's about an hour and a half away, middle town called London, London, Kentucky. Guy's like, oh okay, yeah, so Agent ed Stein, he's not some paper pusher from the insurance bureau. I don't want you picture. And a guy with like, you know, pencils in his like shirt pocket. He was a former cop. He was the chief of police of Alexandria, Kentucky for eight and a half years. He was a well trained cop. He had cop ins. He could sense that tom Baker was acting elusive, a void, and so he tries to like tell the suspect, you know, oh hey, we like to come out to you to confirm the then the vehicle's identification number, and we'll issue you a new sticker authorization. And he tells tom Baker he'd happily make the hour and a half trip down to London to see the Ferrari himself.
Yeah, of course.
Tom Beker's like, oh, yeah, yeah, cool, let's do that. Let me check my calendar and I'll call you back. And then he hung up and Agent Stein knew he'd never hear from Tom Baker ever again. And he was right, Elizabeth, because Tom Baker is once again in the wind. Tom Baker never returned to his house in Nicholasville. The trail went cold as a pimp's heart, just like the Ferrari he stole. Tom Baker just up and disappeared.
So that's his real name is Tom yep turns out to his real name.
And Detective Joe Hess and his multi agency task force, they broke up like the Beatles, each going their own separate ways, Detective Joe Hess, but he's still that itch, that one that special investigators like you get, is like, yeah, that feeling you can't shake it, right, and you just have the case haunting you well less than a year past, and Joe Hess, he got to scratch that crime itch. Yeah, this time is the FBI that contacted him. Oh the year was two thousand and eight June. And after this break, I'll tell you all about what happens and how this Ferrari theft gets his just desserts. All right, Elizabeth.
Zarin, We're back.
Yes you ready? Yes, buckled up? Yes, okay, butter Cup, here we go. Two thousand and eight June, Buffalo Division of the FBI get information on a Ferrari Testosa that's up for sale in Lexington, Kentucky. I don't know why the Buffalo Division gets this tip, but they do.
It got shuffled off to Buffalo exactly boom.
So they turns out they have this guy Tom Baker, apparently not involved at all as far as Buffalo people are concerned. They so. At first, Joe has doesn't understand why he's being reached out to. But instead it's this woman named Carol Pulos and the cars for sale on eBay and they list price is forty six thousand dollars, so it's gone now gone down nine thousand dollars.
Huh.
The car was bought and sold, but then the new owner had tried to registrate with Ferrari and he discovered that the VIN didn't match the car paperwork. The number for the recently sold Ferrari was coincidentally just off by one digit from the VIN of a Ferrari that had been stolen from a Long Island dealership. Oh Man, he changed just one number, one number the detective Joe has in the FBI. They reteamed like the Eagles for one last tour. And they went and they paid a visit to the woman Carol Pulos, who sold the Bunko Ferrari. Now the question is does she know Tom Baker and would she flip? Yeah, So turns out the FBI is at her door. What is she gonna do? Not just like leaving a card. They're knock knock, knocking. Yeah, when the FBI shows up at the front door. Carl Pulus, she did the smart thing, Elizabeth. She did not lie to the FBI.
That is the smartest thing anyone can do.
I recommend it to everybody before. Do not lie to the FBI. Just don't just don't say anything. Uh huh, give me a lawyer, but do not lie. Lie. They will get you, yes, and it's a big crime anyway, it's like mail fraud. Just don't do it. In fact, this woman Carol Pulos, she did the smartest thing possible for her in that moment. She told them everything she knew. She told the agent she didn't own the car, she was just handling the sales. She sold the car for a friend. Well it wasn't actually a friend, it was just someone she knew. Was this guy named Tom Baker. She was like, right, she said that he owed her twenty thousand dollars and this is his way of paying her back. She wasn't involved at all and she was just trying to get her money. And they're like, okay, lady, it's right, calm down here, We're not gonna bust you. Right, turned out the stolen Testeros and get seized and pounded. But it had already been paid for by Lloyd's of London that was the insurer for the car dealership. So the car gets returned to Lloyd's of London. Ya, now they own it, right. So now Joe Hess Though has got a lead. He's back on the trail this elusive Ferrari thief and he gets to work. He works the leads he hads, He phones up all this fellow lawmen. He contacts the dedicated detectives with the NYPD. He asked them if they would do him a solid, would they run out to Long Island and ask the salesman there if he could idea a photo of the suspect from a lineup.
Now, I do have a quick question. Sure, do we know why Tom owed that woman twenty grand?
No, we just think he's a con artist type. That's interesting, must have been involved in some scampsship. Does not come out. I assume there's some criminal components, okay, and she did not want to make that clear. So she's like, you know, he just owes me. It's like antiques or something, right. Anyway, So the NYPD detectives are asked by Joe has to go out to Long Island and talk to the salesman from the car dealer and go, hey, can you ID this guy? See if he's Tom Baker. The dedicated detectives of the NYPD were like, bet we got you blue. So the cops showed the salesman, the guy named Faisal Sajad, the photo lineup and he immediately picked out Tom Baker. He's like, that's the guy. We here's this positive ID detected. Joe has phones Fisle and he asked him point blank you sure it's him? Right? He told Faisal, you're positive this is the guy. I mean, it's been a few years since he stole from you, right, And he's like and Fisl was like, and I quote, detective, you never forget the man who stole a ferrari from you. So now that he had a positive ID and a hot lead. Detective Joe has He works the modern equivalent of shoe leather. He works the phone lines, the online databasis. He finds a hit. There was an er doc from the Lexington area who recently purchased a previously owned Ferrari, but not just any Ferrari Elizabeth. This er doc bought a Ferrari F fifty Oh wondering, he paid three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars for the hot red number that was the one that was like almost seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars value, so real, we need to move this hot car kind of deal right now. Remind you, this is car is just one of three hundred and forty nine. So the buyer doctor just beard delon. He contacted Ferrari looking to register his car, because apparently if you buyer Ferrari's is the first thing you do, you contact Ferri? Can I register this thing? And yet again Ferrari had to inform the new buyer that unfortunately his paperwork did not match theirs, and in fact, the car matched a vent Over Ferrari that had been stolen from a Pennsylvania showroom. The VR doc contacts the man he bought the car from and the seller. This guy tom Baker, promises to return his money to him. He didn't know why there'd be in any issue with the vin This is just ridiculous, but he'll happily make it right. Tom Baker actually did send the doctor his money back.
Oh you're kidding.
Yeah, And but the car at this point is evidence. So instead of getting the money and the car back, the FBI sees is the car and the and the money because they're both involved in the crowd. Oh so now he if the car is being held for the insurance company, which already had paid the ard More Pennsylvania dealer showroom, So the insurance company is gonna get the.
Car, the money's being held a garage by.
Now exactly, Actually, though this one is a different insurance.
Firm than everybody's. Lloyd's of Lundon.
I like your spirits, let's go with that. Now, the FBI detective Joe Hess, they're drawing in close to capturing their man. It was just a matter of time until they catch tom Baker. I mean, if he'd slip up at all, they'd be there to catch him. So Joe has he has his arrest warrant. At this point, all he needs to do is find the guy. Yeah, serve it. Of course, though he knows he can't be too cocky because Tom Baker stayed on the lamb for years. At this point, he can always flee the country and Ferraris they so well overseas. I mean he goes over to Japan or Dubai or even like Russia, he could be truly gone. So Detective Joe Hess and his multi agency task for us, they plan their next move, but they catch a break. Before they can make their next move, the biggest break a cop could catch. Tom Baker walks into the Lexington Police Department and turns himself in. Noah. It turns out his most expensive storm Ferrari, the F fifty once it had been impounded by the FBI, and he'd give him back the money he'd lost his big score. He didn't have the money to flee the country. He had no way to run, so he tries to cut a deal. Yeah, he comes in and he's like, look, I got other Ferraris. I'll give them back to you if we can talk about a little leniency in court for the old Tom Baker. Oh no, so the detective Hess and the FBI agreed to this plea deal. They go like, all right, fine, man, to show us this other Ferrari. On the October two thousand and eight, Joe Hes meets Tom Baker at a storch and the elusive car thief. He reveals to the stubborn law man the last of the stolen ferraris the curious thing. Though for Detective Joe Hess was less about this car. It really wasn't about the car at this point. He wanted to know about this car thief and right, so finally he gets to meet the man in person, because he wasn't there when he walked into the police station. Right, this is his moments after a year and a half, he gets to meet him. A detective has just finds it really odd that Tom Baker's dressed exactly like a pilot when he meets him a pilot, it gets no ruse, no costume. He didn't go down to like the Halloween spirit store and said I need a costume for the road, like a sexy pilot cost This is his work uniform. He is a legit pilot. It turns out the car thief worked for the Economical airline Jet Blue. Tom Baker, dashing, daring Ferrari thief was actually a middle aged divorce father of two who flew for Jet Blue and his hobby was stealing high price ferraris what. Yes, So after he was caught, or rather after he cheered himself in, Yeah, this is far from the end of his ridiculous crimes. Because first the FBI had to get into some ridiculousness of their own. Because on May twenty seventh, two thousand and nine, a special agent for the FBI and an assistant attorney for the Department of Justice, they were tasked with the transfer of the stolen Ferrari F fifty, the one from there. You had to move it from one holding place to another.
Yeah.
Rather than get like a truck to hal they decide they just drive it themselves. Only they weren't nearly the driver that Tom Baker was. Yeah. Oh man, you know what, Elizabeth, Rather than me tell you about it, close your eyes. Oh, I'd ask you to picture it. It's a bright spring day in May two thousand and nine, and you, Elizabeth, are enjoying the day as a regal moth aka the royal walnut moth from the moth family Saturnati. Now, much like my man Schwangzoo, you may just be a woman dreaming that she's a moth. Or perhaps you've always been a moth who's been dreaming she was a woman. So true either way, at the moment, you're very recently left behind your prior life as a hickory horned devil caterpillar. First, you spun yourself a chrysalis inside your coccoon, you dissolved all of your body tissues, rendering it down to some protoplasmic goop. And then over time you reformed yourself as a moth. Then you eventually broke up in your chrysalis, you stretched your new wings and took to the sky. And now on your day too, as a moth, you flip, you float, You gently ride the spring breeze. As you glide on currents of breeze and then the soft spring air. You hear this sound approach. It's the purr of a high performance engine, which means very little to you. You flap your wings and try to gain some elevation, but you are one unlucky moth. The noise is faster than you anticipate, and what feels like I'm mere second and a half. You were suddenly whipped down by the speed of wind and flat you get stuck to the windshield of a speeding Ferrari. Nice you were plastered to the glasses. The red sports car races down a quiet Kentucky country road. This is not how you imagine life as a moth would go. But there you are, Ukraine. Your mothhead around is spied through the glass of the windshield. Two men, both are wearing big, dumb grins, the kind they come from driving or Ferrari really fast. Behind the wheel is FBI special agent Frederick Kingston and shotgun assistant US Attorney Jay Hamilton Thompson. You don't know this, but he's the man prosecuting the guy who stole this car, a man named Tom Baker. At the moment, pinned to the windshield, you try, they get used to the fuel of the wind, of speed, and then out of nowhere you hear this strange sound. There's a boom sound, followed by a squeal of wheels. The Ferrans swerves hard to the right, then over crash. It swerves hard to the left.
Boom again.
The super rare Ferrari slams into a tree. It's the low squat bushes. You flap your wings. The wind of speed is gone and has done no damage to you. You lift up into the blue of the sky. You shake your moth head at the FBI agent who just crashed a seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars supercar. The doj attorney starts cussing up a storm. You laugh in moth as you take one look back and see what's left of the car. The driver's side door is split, carbon fiber exposed to the air earth. The dog attorney is turning all sorts of colors as he continues to cuss at the FBI agent who's just shaking his head. You turn and feel the sun on your face as you fly off to find a quieter country road. Oo I just so after that, Yeah, agent, we lot's control of the Ferrari and slammed into a tree. While joy riding slammed into a tree is destroyed. It that left the Department of Justice in a hell of a sticky situation because the insurance company he'd already paid out on the seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars claim, so they were now the owner of the stolen Ferrari, and they wanted the car they had purchased, so they asked about the car, and the DOJ got real quiet, real quick. Eventually Motors Insurance grew up. They had to file a lawsuit against the DOJ. In it, the company claimed that their property was destroyed quote while the Ferrari was being detained by the FBI. Thus the FBI was responsible to make it right. And the dj is on the hook too, so the FBI equally Mum, nobody's saying anything. The lawsuit catches media attention, that becomes a story, and then the story of an FBI agent crashing a stolen super rare Ferrari became a regisensation, got a lot of attention. Someone had to say something, so eventually Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, came forward. He answered questions about where the missing Ferrari was. Miller said he didn't know where it was. He said, I quote, I know it's not in my garage, Are you kidding me? That's where it's left. As for the whereabouts and that mangled f fifty one of only three hundred and forty nine, apparently no one knows where it's being stored. It was finally fully disappeared, lost in the paperwork stolen by the Department of Justice. Yes, the FBI casually stole a sports card. They're like, what what do you look? Don't look at us, that's insane. So as for Tom Baker, what became of the jet Blue pilot with the karthief?
Yea, what became of the Jetsube pilot.
Was sentenced to a mere eight months in prison, but no doubt the wildest part of his sentencing had to be the terms of his imprisonment. He only had to go to prison two days a week, Elizabeth Wait. The rest of the time, he was allowed to go to the airport so he could quote make his scheduled flight from Lexington, Kentucky to our Lando, Florida for purposes of his employment. He was making the Disneyland run or disney World run rather. So they're like, we got to get those tourists down to disney World. We need Tom Baker.
That look on your face, So like, first of all, you're sitting on a plane and it's a felon flying you around.
Oh yeah, you have no idea some jailbird taking you.
From one place to the next the hell of a pilot. I thought that was just like European thing where they let people check out gently.
In Kentucky they led pilots. Yeah, exactly, So dude kept rut on flying. But if you can believe it, Tom Baker story is not quite done because I haven't told you about his boat crimes. Sorry, yacht crimes. It was twenty sixteen, a Tompick was once again a free man. He'd put his criminal pass behind him. Now he was a luxury yacht owner. He was also a heavy drinker. The two hobbies they kind of go together, like chocolate and peanut butter. But they were also at cross purposes. So one day, or rather one night around two fifteen am, drinking one out and he sank his yacht. In fact, he crashed it, and not just into another boat or a ship, as people prefer he did like I would have done. He crashed it into the sand. He hit land. He crashed his seventy two foot yacht into the shores of Palm Peach, Florida.
How does he a four to seventy two foot yacht.
I know I'm in piloting, I don't know right, So it is liquored up on Long Island Iced Teas and he just drives his boat right into the earth right now.
Unbelievable.
Long Island Iced Tea, as you know, is a professional alcoholics drinker.
Everything in it.
Yeah, it's got like four or five different liquors in it. Like if you're an alcoholic, that's like it'll get you there, right, he'll get your sideways quickly. So drunk Tom Baker, he crashes his seventy two foot yacht into the beach. What does he do next to Elizabeth?
From what we know of this guy steals a car.
Does he steal a car and drive away? No? Does he steal another boat and try to flee? Also? No, he has a whole other p He pops off the boat, he leaves it there, just careening on the shore, leaking oil, gas whatever else. He decides to fight the case because, surprise, surprise, this would be tom Baker's second boating under the influence charge in less than a month's time.
You're kidding me.
So, tom Baker argued that it wasn't his fault or the booze's fault to cause the crash into the shore. It was the boat's GPS and more than that, he was adamant about this fact. So he went on the offense. He sued the city of Palm Beach. He sued the police department. He demanded four hundred and fifty thousand dollars in damages. Now, how how could he a party in this? Yeah, the one suing the cops. Well, his legal argument was quote that the cops had a legal obligation to secure and tow his property when he was arrested, but they had failed to do that, so it was there. Now. I don't know how the law works in Florida. In fact, I don't think anyone does. But somehow this bizarre legal strategy worked and tom Baker had no BUI charges dropped and he pleaded down to a reckless operation of him. Yeah, and this is the secret to his criminal success, Elizabeth. Tom Baker is powered by a unique criminal imagination. He could pretend to be super rich, but mostly it's just his confidence. Yeah, it's just gonna work out for tom Baker. I guess he's gonna be fine for tom Baker. It doesn't matter if it's a boat, Long Island, ice Tea, or Ferrari. He knew how to make it work for him and Joke's side quote. Detective Joe has said he had a story, who he was, how he was dressed, He looked the part, He knew the right words, he knew the right questions to ask, And that, Elizabeth, is how you steal a Ferrari. You ask the right questions, you always blame your secretary, and you know, wear a tie because those things make your words sound more believable. If you don't believe me, just look at politicians.
Act like you know exactly.
It's what you always say, act like. So there you go. What's a ridiculous takeaway?
You know, just act like you know. But also, speaking of Ferrari, I saw a trailer for the Ferrari movies.
Oh yes, with your new favorite Italian accent?
Why why why do they have Adam Driver?
Why? You know like Adam and his accent, he's a perfect.
Did you see House of Gucci?
I did not see it at the movie?
Yeah, so bad? Is it good? It's the accent?
Actually I did see you maybe watch a clip of it on YouTube. You see the clips? Exciting?
Terrible?
I did not meet the ball. This is the hell you doing? Italian accent?
Yeah, they all sound like Mario Brothers and so yeah, and father Guidos Serducci. So yeah, my takeaway is like, don't do Enzo Ferrari like that?
Apparently it did really got a six minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. And they are Italians, Elizabeth.
Means Italians in there. It's all a bunch of foreigners coming in there to watch.
The movie, Germans and French people.
Yeah, there's that, you know, if you want to see like little glimpses of it, it's good. There's the documentary about the Fiat guy.
Yes, that's dope. Yeah, and their whole like rivalry with you get a bunch in there. Yeah, that has got some ridiculous time.
So that is a really ridiculous way to give a takeaway.
There you go, Well, thank you for asking what mine is. I don't have one, So there you go.
You told the story. You don't need one.
Oh, okay, there, I'm free. You're free, Look, Genie, I'm free. Well as always. You can find us online Ridiculous Crime, Twitter, Instagram. I think they took threads finally away from us. We have a website though, ridiculous crime dot com. You should check that out. It wins Design Awards. There's merch you can buy. It's also like a dating site apparently. Anyway. You can email us if you want a ridiculous crime at gmail dot com. As always, remember dear Elizabeth and then start your email. Okay, thanks for listening. We'll catch you next Crime. Because Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produce and edited by Dave. Remember Ferrari has the Horse, Lamborghini has the Bull. Houston. Research is by Maria I prefer to steal American cars Brown and Andrea I'd only steal an anime car song, Sharpened Tears. Our theme song is by Thomas Vroom Vroom Lee and Travis. Grandma called me Barney Oldfield Dot. The host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Executive producers are Ben the f n FBI stands for fun, Bolan, and Noel. The B stands for balloons, Brown