How a Dog Solved a Famous Heist (S2) - The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd

It's London 1966, just four months before the World Cup is set to be held in England. People are flocking to get a glimpse of the World Cup trophy that's on display at Westminster Exhibition Hall. On March 20th, just the second day of the exhibition, the Cup suddenly goes missing. The Cup was stolen from this case between 11 and 12 o'clock this morning. The thieves broke in by forcing the padlock on the back of a building without attracting the attention of two security guards who were on duty in the building. Naturally, the World Cup organization, aka FIFA, is livid. How are you going to let the World Cup get stolen only two days after you put it on display? With no solid leads, police are running out of options until a break in the case comes from a surprising source. Dave Corbett is about to take his dog out for a walk in South London. His dog is a very excited border collie named Pickles. Dave opens the front door and Pickles just takes off. So Dave's running after him with his leash, wondering where this dog is off to. Pickles is going crazy. Something by his neighbor's car has really caught Pickles' attention. Dave approaches the car to see what Pickles is on about and he sees something rather peculiar. Lying there right next to his neighbor's tire is a package that is tightly wrapped in newspaper with string around it. Dave tears off a piece of the newspaper wrapping and when he sees what's inside, he can't believe his eyes. It is the World Cup found in the most unlikely way, courtesy of a determined border collie. Dave grabs a statue, runs to the nearest police station, slams a World Cup trophy on the sergeant's desk and goes, I think I found the World Cup. Clearly, the police are very curious as to how he got it. They question him extensively and eventually rule him out as a suspect. When Dave arrives back to his home, there is a massive media frenzy outside of his door. But the press is not there for Dave. They're interested in Pickles. Everyone wants a picture of the hero pooch who saved the day. Pickles turned out to be a source of good luck too because somehow England goes on to win the World Cup that year. As for the thief, that stayed a mystery for decades until a long buried family secret comes to light. Finally, in 2017, the nephew of a London gangster named Sidney Cougalier confirms to newspapers his uncle took the World Cup on a lark. Dave may have claimed the $5,000 reward, but it's Pickles who steals the spotlight, earning a year's supply of dog food and a starring role in the film Spy with the Cold Nose. For her daughter's 40th birthday, Joanne Altsman gifts her daughter this adorable Vietnamese pot belly piglet named Lulu. The mom thinks this is going to be a great gift, but the daughter, not so much. One weekend she asks her mom to babysit the pig while she goes out of town and then she never comes back to claim the pig. So Joanne and her husband gladly take Lulu in because, I mean, she's family. Life with Lulu settles into a comfortable rhythm until a quiet getaway in August 1998 takes an unexpected turn. The family is on vacation at a lakefront trailer park. Joanne rises early to see her husband go off to go fishing for the day, so she starts making breakfast for herself when all of a sudden she starts not feeling all that well. Joanne gets really dizzy and ends up collapsing to the floor. She has this terrible pain in her chest and it's obvious she's having a heart attack. She can't move and the closest phone that she has available to her is in the trailer park office, which is a few hundred yards away. As Joanne's thinking, I'm going to die alone, Lulu the pig springs into action. Lulu waddles up to Joanne, sniffs her and realizes something is wrong. Her human needs help. She needs human help. So Lulu is trying to figure out, well, where can I go to find humans? And she figures out I got to get outside. So Lulu looks at the door and assesses the doggy door flap. Knowing Joanne's life is at stake, Lulu squeezes herself through the doggy door. And even though it's tight, she struggles and gets out. Gathering her courage, she then walks out to the middle of the road. And when she's out there, Lulu employs the one trick that she's got up her sleeve. Lulu lays down and plays dead. Lulu's in this dead piggy position, but the cars, they don't stop. They just slow down a little bit, look at it, wonder what's going on. And keep going. After no one stops, for what feels like forever in pig minutes, she ends up going back to Joanne to check on her in the trailer. For 45 minutes, Lulu pushes herself through the tiny dog door, back and forth from the trailer to the road, desperate to find someone who will stop and help. Lulu is just frantic, doesn't know what to do. She knows that Joanne is getting worse. And she's like, I got to go out one last time and find somebody. But this time, she scrapes her pot belly so bad on the doggy door that it opens a wound and she starts to bleed. When Lulu sees a pickup approaching, she lays on the ground and plays dead right in front of that moving vehicle. She's bleeding from her belly all over the asphalt. Amazingly, the bleeding is enough to finally get this driver to stop. She springs up and she leads the guy over back to the trailer. All the while, the man is screaming, I think there's something wrong with your pig. I think your pig is in distress. Still conscious, Joanne calls back that she's in huge trouble and they need to get to the trailer park phone and call for help. Paramedics are able to arrive and get Joanne to a nearby hospital. Joanne has open heart surgery and thankfully, she pulls through with flying colors. Lulu is awarded the Tiffany and Company Angel Medal by the ASPCA and gets awarded with all sorts of sweet treats and jelly donuts. From unwanted piggy to neighborhood hero, her name should be spoken along with all the greats. Babe, Wilbur, Miss Piggy and Lulu. It's 2004 in Phuket, Thailand and a little girl named Amber Owen is there on holiday for Christmas from England with her family and the resort they're in has a really cool extra attraction. For the kids amusement, there's a four-year-old elephant named Ning Nong and her young handler allows folks to take pictures with Ning Nong. The kids can take rides on her back and of course, everyone loves it. Amber's never seen a real elephant in real life before, but when she sees Ning Nong, it's like they connect instantly. The two become inseparable and Amber's thinking this is like the best Christmas ever. However, what begins as a dream vacation for Amber's family is about to spiral into a nightmare. At 7.58 a.m., 249 miles southwest of Phuket, an earthquake registering 9.1 on the Richter scale begins about 30,000 meters under the ocean. At 9.15 a.m., while Amber's sitting atop Ning Nong, she notices that the sea has pulled out really far back from the shore. When water pulls back from the beach like that, that's a sign that a really bad tsunami is about to come your way. In just a matter of minutes, Phuket is completely engulfed in water. They get hit with a hundred foot rolling wall of water that collapses buildings, destroys the city and kills around 100,000 people instantly. As the water recedes, the destruction is catastrophic and Amber's mom fears the worst. She goes running through the hotel screaming her name. As she is yelling, getting no answer, her fear heightens, but then suddenly she hears the sound any mother in that situation would yearn for. It's Amber and she's okay. Amber tells her mom that as that water was being pulled out to sea, Ning Nong started acting really weird. She suddenly turned and ran with Amber on her back as far away from the beach as she possibly could. She got Amber to safety and saved her life.