The Lufthansa heist at JFK Airport
New York, United States, 1978
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
In the early hours of December 11, 1978, around 3 a.m., six masked men arrived in a black van at the Lufthansa cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. They cut the padlock on a gate, took the employees hostage, locked everyone in the cafeteria and forced a manager to open the vault's double doors. They left with about 5 million dollars in cash and 875 thousand in jewelry, the biggest cash robbery in the United States up to that time.
The tip came from the inside: a cargo employee of the company, who owed about 20 thousand dollars in bets, passed his bookie information about the money stored at the terminal, in exchange for a percentage. The information reached a gang tied to the New York mob. The van, which should have been destroyed, was abandoned and found by police days later, and in the following months several of those involved were murdered. The inside employee was arrested in 1979 and was the only person convicted of the robbery; the money and jewelry were never recovered.
Sources
In the game
Cargo Terminal
New York International Airport, December 1978, Monday, 2 p.m. At 3:05 a.m., six men in wool caps walked into the Valkyr Air cargo terminal, Building 14, took the staff hostage and left an hour later with an empty vault.
The game borrows the cargo terminal in the small hours, the cut padlock, the double-door vault and the employee in debt to a bookie who sold the tip. Characters, company, details of the investigation and outcome are fiction.
