The Thieves: The true story of the heist of the century arrives on Netflix

In 2006, a group of men broke into a Buenos Aires bank, took 23 hostages, stole millions of dollars and jewelry from safes, then vanished. After the escape, the ex-wife of one of the thieves betrayed the perpetrators, who were tried and sentenced to prison terms. Finally the sentences were reduced and today they are free. How did the protagonists of this fact get away with it? In this revealing documentary, those responsible for the act tell all the details of how the perfect hit was produced.

Details and curiosities of Los Ladrones: The true story of the robbery of the century

First time talking on camera

It is the first time that Fernando Araujo, considered to be the person who devised the bank robbery plan, gives his testimony on camera. As revealed by the director of the documentary, the only audiovisual piece that existed of him was a very brief fragment on the internet of the moment he was arrested in San Juan, in 2006, where his face is not seen and he is only heard saying “art , art, art”.

Real and reconstructed bank

For the filming, it was possible to film in some of the real locations where the robbery took place in 2006, such as the exterior of the bank branch in Acassuso, as well as the tunnels through which the thieves entered and then escaped in a rubber boat with the loot. However, for the scenes inside the bank, sets had to be rebuilt and a vault from an old bank in Buenos Aires, which is now out of service, was used.

Thieves “in miniature” inside the bank

Shooting how the bank robbery was planned step by step was a true work of art. On the one hand, the thieves were filmed, in a chroma key, recreating the actions they were in charge of on the day of the robbery. On the other hand, a scale model of the bench was designed that took 4 months to make, and of large dimensions: 8 meters long by 2 meters wide and one and a half meters high. Thanks to the special effects it was possible to assemble both parts and insert the thieves inside the model.

Some friends, some not so much

Sebastian Garcia Bolster Y Fernando Araujo They are the only members of the gang who, after everything that happened after the robbery, maintain a close bond. Although the objective of the documentary film was to film the testimonies of each one separately and without points of contact, Sebastián joined as an extra in a scene where Fernando is giving martial arts classes. With Luis Vitette Sellanes Y Ruben de la Torrethey are not related.

Filming in Uruguay

The testimony of Luis Mario Vitette Sellanes, known as “the man in the gray suit”, was filmed entirely in Uruguay due to the fact that he cannot return to Argentina, in the cities of San José and Colonia, and at the height of the pandemic in mid-2020. In Colonia, they recreated the scenes of the tunnel to enter the bank and the boat navigation. While in San José, where Vitette lives, the jewelry store where she currently works and the hall of the emblematic Bartolomé Macció Theater were used as locations for the transformation into “The Man in the Gray Suit” and thus reconstruct the scene of the negotiation for telephone.

Filming in San Juan

The Bauchazeta ravine was the place chosen by Fernando Araujo as a hiding place in 2006 after the robbery. Part of his testimony in the documentary was filmed in that same place, for three days, where Araujo set up camp again at an altitude of more than 3,200 meters, surrounded by nothing but mountains and crystal clear waters.

Reconstruction of the “power cannon”

For the documentary film, Sebastian Garcia Bolster For two months, he built a replica of the “power cannon”, the special tool that opened the bank’s safe deposit boxes in seconds, just like the one he used in 2006.