Four Sentenced In Red Bull Formula 1 Trophy Heist
Last year, thieves boosted more than 60 trophies from Red Bull Racing. Now, judgment day.
It’s a lesson learned in Little League: If you didn’t earn the trophy, it isn’t yours to take. A little over a year ago, a gang of four men drove a silver SUV through the plate-glass front of Red Bull Racing’s headquarters in Milton Keynes, England, and stole over 60 hard-won racing trophies. This month, a British court sentenced each of the thieves to between two and seven years in prison for the theft. Because nothing drives home that first point like jail time.
It’s to Red Bull’s credit that they had so many trophies to steal. In the past decade, the Red Bull Formula 1 team has amassed over fifty trophies, and had a presence on the podium at 119 finishes. In terms of outright championships, Red Bull Racing won both the constructors’ and drivers’ titles from 2010 straight through 2013. Trying to outrun a successful racing team—none too smart, chaps.
The four men, Danny Stevens, Paul Smith, Jason Eastwood and Luke Cole, are charged with stealing $1.5 million in goods from this and other heists. The funny part? Many of the trophies were replicas and, thus, worthless.
