We figured the more obvious [we were], the less likely [we would be suspected]., As it was already nearing the end of the school year, and there was a lot of planning yet to be done, they agreed to postpone the theft until at least the fall. It had been agreed that Warren, with his smooth talk, and Spencer, with his artistic knowledge, would go to the meeting. Afterward, they returned to the Hilton for an early night. Churchill's statement can be agreed with. American painter Spencer Reinhard is loving the new art he is diligently producing. agents were sitting behind them the whole time, listening to their every word. See also It was just funny because we've been in a lot of places that they've been, Eric says. So we get the passport from the dude, plane tickets. On the second-floor landing, Chas, in high-end flannel pajamas and thinking they were being robbed, pulled out a derringer, only to drop the weapon at the last moment. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Across town at U.K., in a towering cinder-block dorm, Warren's world was spinning apart at a much faster clip. It'll show up on your profile and if approved, on this page. Hes probably thinking I blamed him for [stealing] the money, which I never really did. I love that my kids will grow up seeing both worlds and experiencing both cultures. Because this is so much bigger than anything we've done before.. Nothing like a six year prison sentence to get the creative juices flowing. That night Chas snapped, they say, fearing the Christie's book appraisalthe Jesus bolt holding Warren's entire heist plan togetherwas in danger of falling through. The two men followed the librarian into the Rare Book Room, and John closed the door behind them. I know now that they were my best years, and if I hadnt gone to prison, they would have been lost to temptations of the so-called free world., Shuttling between his familys adopted home in California, Colombia, and Stateside, Reinhard said: The transition for me has been great. Choose your favorite reinhard art prints from 2,323 available designs. He focused above all on painting, gaining admission into a prestigious Lexington arts program. And Eric calls to him. According to the revised plan, they would ditch the old-man disguises and only Warren and Eric would enter the library. I'd heard about them before, but I didn't know anything about them. They stuffed some of the smaller books Gooch had pulled out for them into their backpacks. Its great to be the inspiration for this project., Two weeks into his stay, Reinhard, an ardent ornithologist, whose works draw inspiration from late Dutch-American abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning, feels that his greatest artistic asset is his versatility. Calculated, mathematical, loose, painterly, spontaneous, 2021 Spencer Reinhard all rights reserved, Please send me the price list, I am interested in purchasing an original Reinhard. They surveyed the offices of the campus police. A witness had written down a license-plate number, but it was way off. Spencer gives me 500 bucks, in my pocket. What I found incredibly valuable about prison was the multiculturalism. In the early evening, they say they smoked some celebratory Kentucky Bluegrass weed they had stashed away for the occasion. 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, organizer, and recruiter. The plan for the actual robbery sets out three distinct phases. Warren and Chas go up to the Rare Book Room, on the third floor, and Warren brings Gooch down hard and fast with a stun gun, making her a non-factor throughout the operation. Warren and Chas then let Eric in and they begin wrapping the Audubons in bedsheets and put any smaller books in backpacks. He said, You do that and you are free then to give them to us when you can. O.K., great. With a long, thin face and bleached-blond hair and sideburns, he appeared younger than Gooch had expected. from an unsuspecting friend and got his hands on zip ties, a wool cap, electricians tape, and bedsheets. So I walk off happy, come back to the States, and blow Spencers mind.. All four, now 22, children of privilege, products of elite Lexington high schools, are serving seven-year sentences for their parts in the crime. In his talk, Spencer speaks to how he found a unique, unexpected sense of freedom and honesty in his art, not constrained by societal influences or monetary pressures. The L.P.D. The truth is, but for one big mistake, they probably would have gotten away with it, an L.P.D. At only $200 a month, the price was right, as Warren was broke after having shut down his and Spencers fake-ID business and dropping out of U.K. for the semester to focus full-time on the heist. Spencer Reinhard Please send me the price list, I am interested in purchasing an original Reinhard After Audubon 2014 to Present After prison I took up a casual interest in birds. [Beckman] said, B.J., a nickname her friends and colleagues used for her, she told officers. Im not going to lie. Between studying for his first semester's finals, working out, and painting, Spencer made time to scope out the Special Collections section of the Transy library, reporting back to Warren weeks later that there was zero security other than an old lady librarian named B.J. Gooch agreed to reschedule for 11 the next morning. Spencer continued with his heavy schedule of classes, studying, painting, and working out, while Warren returned full-time to U.K. With the pressure mounting, however, Warren was caught shoplifting a TV dinner from a local supermarket, Eric was arrested and charged with D.U.I.police pulled him over not only for running red lights but also because Warren was on top of the car, hanging on to the roof rackand Spencer crashed his Acura Legend. When Warren arrived, he saw a man fitting that description seated with three other men. That night Chas snapped, they say, fearing the Christies book appraisalthe Jesus bolt holding Warrens entire heist plan togetherwas in danger of falling through. More important, the basement was secluded. I get the call on the cell phone. Among the prisoners are three of the four unlikely masterminds behind the Transy Book Heist: Warren Lipka, Spencer Reinhard, and Eric Borsuk. After the Halloran interview the F.B.I. The meeting lasted no more than 15 minutes, but still, it was a turning point because the men explained to Warren a crucial step of selling rare books, stolen or otherwise: appraisal by a legitimate auction house. If we go in there they're not going to suspect that we stole these. Two months later, amid a local media frenzy, the four formally pleaded guilty to all six federal charges, including theft of cultural artifacts from a public museum and interstate transportation of stolen property. They stopped talking entirely and disbanded. After researching auction houses online, Warren singled out Christies in New York. Were going to need more people, Warren remembers thinking. I see Warren and Eric bust out of the back door, Spencer says, describing what he saw unfold from his lookout position. Darren Matthews. possibly taken care of, Spencer tells me. We will be stronger, better, wiser for going through this together, the three of us. Shortly thereafter he was introduced to a Lexington Catholic alumnus who was making an easy living in identity theft. Chas backs up [the van] and almost hits the woman as Eric comes around to the door. Quit struggling, B.J., or do you want to feel more pain? she remembered the man saying. When she asked for contact information, Spencer gave her his cell-phone number. Oh, yeah, he almost got shot, says Eric, laughing. The take could be more than $5 million. In the morning, Warren says, he left two messages with Leckey's secretary and two more that afternoon. When they arrived on campus in the replacement G.T.A.V., they couldn't find a parking space anywhere near the library. Though they attended different high schools, both were varsity captains, and both made all-state. Honored to share the PRHBTN fest with you - your mural being the main attraction of course. Spencer called himself Mr. Stephens. Spencers life story and his practice are indelibly linked, thus the works he has created are a highly personal meditation on the journey Spencer Reinhard experienced. We can never go back if we wanted toI 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., I remember talking to Eric and Warren one day and I was like, So what, they're going to put us in jail, says Spencer. Back at Warrens later that afternoon, the boys were transfixed by local coverage of the Transy Book Heist. According to the news, it appeared that neither Gooch nor anyone else was able to provide the police with an accurate description of the boys. She agreed. The fourth, Charles Chas Allen II, had been transferred to a federal medical center in Lexington.) He was just so unbearable. The F.B.I. A painting by Reinhard, a gifted artist, may offer some clues. because she wanted a new Range Rover, like, what? In early 2006, they began serving their sentences in federal prison, with no possibility for parole. Both boys were spitting images of Mr. Stephens and Mr. Williams. So I walk off happy, come back to the States, and blow Spencer's mind.. (Having seen their fair share of heist movies, they knew how dangerous it was to leave a paper trail.) Now we can't ever go back there. They climbed onto dorm roofs, where they'd stake out the library for hours at a time, marking down the comings and goings of teachers, students, and security personnel. They checked into the Hilton Hotel in Midtown, Warren signing in under the nom de guerre Harry Ballsania name backed up with one of their fake Kentucky drivers licensesand paying in cash. They take you in the Special Collections and show you these books, Spencer remembers, including Transys prized Birds of America, by John James Audubon, a four-volume set of life-size engravings the pioneer wildlife artist completed in London in 1838. The two boys sought cover from the cops in the sprawling grounds of the housing projects. Warren jumped at the opportunity and recruited another adrift freshman, his old high-school soccer teammate Eric Borsuk, as a partner. Again, Warren thought otherwise. Frightened and alone in an unfriendly neighborhood and weighed down with priceless books, Warren and Eric barreled down the street, frantically trying to hail a police cruiser to rescue them. For added anonymity, Warren bleached his hair blond that night. Limited means forced my creativity into new areas. We did the robbery as a way to escape, Eric says. Now the hard partwe have to steal them. I was nervous. Artistically, it offered me the freedom to make the work I wanted to make without concern for my audience. It had some tennis trivia in there that I wasn't expecting.. Fuck Biden, Dont Tread on Me, and a Wisconsin Death Trip for Our Times. Wedged in among the other houses on Beaumont Avenue, a quiet residential street near the U.K. campus, is a beaten-down yellow cinder-block bungalow, with two bedrooms on the second floor and two on the first. onto nearby Fourth Street and careened through traffic before stopping a mile farther on, in front of a predominantly black housing project. Eric dropped the books, and he and Warren made a run for it. Like if we ever get caught, were talking about international issues, way past interstate commerce or whatever the hell it is.. So we go back to the guy in Lexington and we say, Listen, we want to go somewhere, we want to go out of the country, and we need documentation, Warren explains. So we ate at Pazzos pizza pub. During our interview Eric told me, He was like just a weight on us. When I get up there, B.J. Spencers journey as an aspiring artist may at first appear wholly inimical to achieving that end, though significantly the challenges he faced are far from unique to most aspiring artists. We told B.J. Spencer continued with his heavy schedule of classes, studying, painting, and working out, while Warren returned full-time to U.K. With the pressure mounting, however, Warren was caught shoplifting a TV dinner from a local supermarket, Eric was arrested and charged with D.U.I.police pulled him over not only for running red lights but also because Warren was on top of the car, hanging on to the roof rackand Spencer crashed his Acura Legend. They think we have [the books]. We told B.J. Spencer assembled his outfit with even greater care. They simply ignored him, and the four returned to Lexington. Spencer believed it was an insurmountable problem. Over the phone and by e-mail, Beckman had asked to view, among other items, a first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and four double-size folios of John James Audubon's Birds of America. The other two would wait around the block in the S.U.V. They're all slim and dressed identically in cheap sneakers and a khaki uniform emblazoned with their incarceration numbers, and all have hair down to their shoulders. The three then take the staff-only elevator down to the bottom floor and escape out the west fire exit. Attempting perfection in writing a business plan will only lead to one end result: the business plan will never be written. (Big Warren declined to comment on the gambling accusations at the time.) sent a team to interview Melanie Halloran, who told the agents about her meeting with Mr. Stephens and Mr. Williams. And I pledged a fraternity, but I really didnt get into that too much. It didnt take long to tie in Eric and Chas. Warren also ordered four stun guns over the Internet. I spent two years in FCI Ashland before being transferred to Fort Dix, New Jersey. Back at Warren's later that afternoon, the boys were transfixed by local coverage of the Transy Book Heist. According to the news, it appeared that neither Gooch nor anyone else was able to provide the police with an accurate description of the boys. The painting is a kaleidoscope of images, including what appears to be a computer, a cell phone, a bong, the Transylvania library, and loose sheets of notepaper, floating above a desiccated. Warren called me one night and he's like, We need to get together. To have time to properly apply the disguises, he tried to reschedule his art-history final for later in the day on the 16th, but was unsuccessful. All rights reserved. How the hell would we do this? And he said, I know a guy in New York.. In their senior year the two became local celebrities after a dramatic photo appeared in the Lexington Herald-Leader showing Lexington Catholic star goalkeeper Lipka and Tates Creek forward Reinhard battling midair during a playoff game. Warren also ordered four stun guns over the Internet. In fact, they all tell me that as the planning picked up in the months before the heist, the three of them came to believe that it was their best and perhaps last chance to create a viable life for themselves after college. I was surprised he didnt.. For added anonymity, Warren bleached his hair blond that night. And thats when I came up.. . It Was Catastrophic: Inside Prince Andrews Misguided Bid to Explain Away Epstein, In the wake of Jeffrey Epsteins arrest and apparent suicide, Prince Andrew moved from the fringe of a swirling underage-sex scandal toward its white-hot center. The thieves left no fingerprints behind, and there were almost no witnesses. Eric rented a proper bedroom upstairs, while Spencer moved back into the dorms at Transylvania. Its often considered a mistake in the art world to have multiple styles, but I have to go wherever my inspiration takes me. Abstraction allows me to explore multiple paths of my creative desire. Once I was off of probation, I was able to travel and eventually made a trip to Colombia where I painted my first large-scale mural and met my wife Marcela. Spencer drives me out to Lexington [Blue Grass Airport] on a Friday. Spencer, feeling increasingly disaffected with school life himself, readily accepted the offer. The press invariably described them as good boys from good familiesupper-middle-class kids afforded every opportunity, the ones with the most to lose. He looked like he was dressed from a thrift store, Halloran told the agents. On the second-floor landing, Chas, in high-end flannel pajamas and thinking they were being robbed, pulled out a derringer, only to drop the weapon at the last moment. After high school I chose to attend Transylvania University where I would continue to play soccer and study art. A 20-man task force of Lexington police and F.B.I. As reported by People, poor planning and a fumbling execution including one member, Reinhard, leaving his home phone number at an action house eventually led to their capture. We will be stronger, better, wiser for going through this together, the three of us. Ad Choices, The untold story of the Transy Book Heist is one part, Donald Trump to Evangelicals: You Cant Break Up With Me Because Im Breaking Up With You First, Reality Is Submerged in Fantasy: The Villages Is a Boomers UtopiaAnd Demographic Time Bomb, Maybe instead of being one among many, [this film] will make me the one, a fresh-faced Rob Lowe told us in 1984. If not, we were going to get caught and it was going to be a crazy story., And now that we've diverted from that path, we feel liberated, Warren tells me, waving his arms around the room. Waiting for the law to snatch them was nerve-racking, but they went on with their lives as if nothing had been amiss. Still shaken from her ordeal, Gooch, in her 50s, told police that shortly after entering the Rare Book Room with the two men she had been struck on the arm with a Taserlike weapon, her hands and feet were bound with zip ties, and a wool cap was pulled over her eyes. 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