Criminalia

Shondaland Audio
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  • TRUE CRIME
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Humans have always committed crimes. What can we learn from the criminals and crimes of the past, and have humans gotten better or worse over time?

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  1. EPISODE 1

    Big Syrup': The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist

    "You can't prove what tree the syrup came from," stated one of the accomplices in The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist during his trial. Over the span of several months, thieves staged a multi-million dollar heist from Québec's Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve, making off with about 3,000 tonnes of the stuff. Totaling about $18 million worth of maple syrup, this heist is one of the largest agricultural thefts ever. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    29 min

  2. EPISODE 2

    Opening the Lid on Manhole Cover Capers

    In the spring of 2008, 12-year-old Shamira Fingers was walking down a street near her home in South Philadelphia when she suddenly and surprisingly fell into an open sewer hole -- the manhole cover, missing. Once a rare crime, disappearing manhole covers has become an expensive and dangerous problem for cities around the world, with thieves swiping dozens to hundreds – sometimes thousands – of them at a time. Let's pry open the lid on manhole cover capers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    27 min

  3. EPISODE 3

    California Nut Crimes: Nuts Cases Can Be Difficult to Crack

    Tree nuts have become are a hot commodity on the black market, and thieves have been making off with shipments of California-grown nuts to cash in. Of the phenomenon, Mike Boudreaux, the sheriff of Tulare County in California’s Central Valley, stated, “It’s not your guy on the corner in the long jacket, selling knock-off Rolex watches.” Why steal nuts? Let's talk about why – and how – these California nut crimes have been happening. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    26 min

  4. EPISODE 4

    Piano 'Movers' Play a Felonious Tune

    Just after lunch on July 14, 2013, a white van drove away from Toronto General Hospital. Its cargo? A stolen Boston Steinway baby grand piano, taken from the hospital's Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. Of the bold heist, Todd Milne, director of security operations for the hospital, told the media, quote, “I’ve been managing security since 1999, and have not experienced a theft as ballsy and as crazy as this one." He continued, quote, “The reason they were probably successful in removing the piano is that nobody would have thought a crime like this would ever take place.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    22 min

  5. EPISODE 5

    Mayhem, Madness, and Marshmallow the Bunny: When the World Lost Its Mind Over Beanie Babies

    When Beanie Babies hit the scene in 1993, the original line of stuffed toys featured nine characters -- but that number would grow to hundreds. The brainchild of Ty Warner, and made by his company, Ty Inc., they were one of the hottest toys of the 1990s -- but they also inspired an underground economy that dealt in fraud and many, many thefts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    35 min

  6. EPISODE 6

    'America': The Stolen Golden Toilet

    The plan was to keep the 18-karat-gold toilet called 'America' on display indefinitely at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. But it did go out on loan, once, to Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the birthplace of Winston Churchill, in 2019, as part of an exhibition of Maurizio Cattelan's works, titled 'Victory is Not an Option'. 'America', a participatory piece, was fully plumbed and installed in a restroom cubicle at the palace -- and on September 14, 2019, the one-of-a-kind toilet was stolen from the venue. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    25 min

  7. EPISODE 7

    Farewell, From Criminalia, and Thanks for All the Crime

    Thank you for joining us for the final episode of our season of stray heists AND the finale of Criminalia. This is goodbye, but it's also thank you – thank you for supporting us as we walked in and out of historical crime scenes, nefarious cocktails, and we are grateful you took this adventure with us. And always remember: There’s no such thing as cocktail jail.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    43 min
See All Season 17 (7)

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Humans have always committed crimes. What can we learn from the criminals and crimes of the past, and have humans gotten better or worse over time?

Information

  • Channel
    Shondaland Audio
  • Creator
    Shondaland Audio and iHeartPodcasts
  • Episodes
    279
  • Seasons
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    2026 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia
  • Show Website
    Criminalia

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