Chapter 4: Trophy thieves

Chapter 4 is about trophies and thieves. On 20 March 1966, four months before England hosted the World Cup, the Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen from an exhibition at Central Hall in Westminster. Seven days later a collie called Pickles, out on a walk in Upper Norwood in south London, found it wrapped in newspaper. His owner collected nearly £5,000 in rewards, and Pickles was invited to England’s World Cup victory banquet. Brazil kept the trophy for good after winning their third World Cup in 1970, but on 19 December 1983 thieves forced the wooden back of its cabinet at the Brazilian football confederation in Rio de Janeiro. It has never been found and is widely believed to have been melted down. Long before that, in 1895, the original FA Cup, the little tin idol, was stolen from a Birmingham shoe shop window while Aston Villa held it, and it was never recovered; a man confessed in 1958, but detectives found his account did not match the record. You find the parcel under the hedge and try the cabinet lock yourself.