Muse

i know a guy who wanted to build a deck on the back of his house just a deck and to get the homeowner association's approval to get the zoning approval the building permit the environmental review the septic review the department of whatever it is that day it took four years before anyone raised a hammer. Four years for a deck. Well, today, we're going to meet a guy who doesn't have four years to do what he has to do. Today's Snap proudly presents the Belgian Beaver Bandit. My name is from Washington. And here at Snap Headquarters, we never cut corners because we're listening. to Snap Judgment. Today's true crime Snap story crosses not just state jurisdictional lines, but international borders. In some ways, I call this a story about a heist, except the cargo isn't what you'd expect. Snap Judgment.

The year was 1998. Olivier Rubbers was 29 years old, living in Belgium. And one day, he visited a friend.

This friend of mine, Achille, he has a farm, not a farm to breed animals, but he has a farm for educational activities for the children of the city nearby. And the name of his farm is Ferme des Castors, the Farm of the Beavers. I said, why do you call your farm Farm of the Beavers? Why don't you choose the name of an indigenous animal? You know, farm of the beavers sounded to me like farm of the kangaroos. I mean, we don't have kangaroos. They have kangaroos in Australia, but not in Belgium. And he said, what? No, I mean, the beavers is indigenous. And the river, which is flowing along the farm, is called the BML, which etymologically refers to the beaver.

And Olivier wondered, where did the beavers go? Then, after work one day, he was reading one of the many nature magazines he was subscribed to, and his eyes landed on something that reminded him of what his friend Achille had said.

The title of the article was Notre Bievre, our beaver. And then the article described that the beaver is an indigenous animal and has lived in Belgium. The beaver was everywhere in Europe, everywhere. and had disappeared because the beaver fur in the 18th century was of very high value. And that's why the beaver almost disappeared on the Eurasian continent.

Olivier was fixated on what this article was telling him the beaver could do.

So the beaver built dams, so he created wetlands and created nice habitats for all kinds of fish, frogs. Almost all animals take advantage of the beaver activity.

Here, most people would just say, that's interesting, and put down the article. Not Olivier. Olivier saw an opportunity.

So I thought, if we would bring Beavis back, we would reintroduce a kind of an engine that would produce nature.

And Olivier had loved nature his whole life. Every chance he got, he escaped to the Alps, climbing peaks, camping, kayaking. He even built an igloo at the top of Mont Blanc one time. But he didn't have a degree in biology or environmental science. He worked in a cubicle.

Very interesting job. I was a so-called product manager. A quite nice job, actually, but I was not happy with my job. I had a feeling that my life was nothing great, really. and I had not a family, I had not a wife or a child or something. I wanted to achieve something.

So how would Olivier bring the beaver back to Belgium? Well, he started by doing as much research as he could.

But now I have to check a few points. What are the needs of the beaver? What does it need? Is it a very picky animal that can eat only very special plants or something?

Turns out, Belgium's abundance of deciduous plants would be a great fit for the beaver's palate.

Just imagine a beaver is just living in the vegetation a little bit, as if you were living surrounded by pizzas, by French fries.

And where would he get the beavers? Well, he looked into regions that did have them, like Bavaria, a state in southeast Germany. He called around and actually got in touch with a Bavarian beaver supplier who said he was happy to help him out as long as he got the necessary paperwork.

I have spent many days to build up an official project. And so I wrote to the minister at that time of nature conservation and I said, OK, look, the beaver, according to the Belgian law, is indigenous, is protected. Let's bring this animal back. and and my idea in my dreams i was reintroducing beavers with the minister we were shaking hands and we say oh great the beaver is back in belgium and i was shaking his hand in my dreams that that is what would have happened but actually the administration said no i don't give you the authorization to bring beavers back oh we agree with the with the comeback of the beaver it's a good idea. We will study that, but you're not a biologist, you're just a commercial engineer.

You don't have the profile to do that. Olivier was disappointed. Not only did the ministry say he didn't have the right qualifications for this job, but he was so sure that this project,

if left up to them, would never get done. Well, I was afraid to be trapped in a process of, In French, we say an encommissionnement. So it's a kind of a process where you are involved in scientific studies and there are many steps, and then at the end of the day, it leads to nothing. Why should we wait? Why?

Olivier was still feeling the bitter sting of rejection when the Bavarian beaver supplier called him up and said,

Ah, Mr. Rubers, did you receive finally the authorization for the transport because we have beavers for you? And then I had to give an answer, and I said, well, we have all the authorizations we need, which means none.

During his research, Olivier found a little bit of a loophole. See, the Belgian Ministry of Conservation pointed to a European directive saying that he needed authorization. But this ministry only has jurisdiction in Belgium. And Belgium had no official rules about this specific kind of work.

They wanted to fool me. You know, in my studies as commercial engineers, I had a good formation about law. And I learned that a European directive, as long as it is not enforced in the national country, has no value.

And between that and what the Belgian ministry themselves had said, surely there was enough wiggle room to make this work, right? They even said, voila, we agree that it would be good that the beaver would come back. So if he just decided to reintroduce beavers on his own, wouldn't everybody really get what they want?

And they came together. As we say in French, the franc fell. I have to bring the beaver back.

now when snap returns it looks like olivier's about to take matters into his own hands stay tuned

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Welcome back to Snap Judgment. You're listening to the Belgian Beaver Bandit episode. So, the Belgian government said no. But Olivier's got other plans. Snap Dutchman.

Most of animals, they don't have to be smuggled because they can't just come back by themselves. Beavers have legs, but they have flippers, and they don't like to walk. They want to follow the rivers.

And the river Olivier set his sights on...

was the Viroin.

If we reintroduce it in the Viroin, it was good, okay? Because all these rivers are connected anyway. So when you put beavers in River A or River B or River C, on the long term, they'll be everywhere. The Viroin is flowing through Belgium, but for two kilometers, it's flowing through France.

Those two kilometers of French country meant he would be free from Belgian authorities. So Olivier's plan was to do the beaver drop in France, knowing full well the beavers would flow down the river into Belgium. So he called the mayor of Vire-Moulin, a village on the French side, to get the OK.

It was organized officially with this mayor, and it was even planned to have the local press to film the release of the beavers.

Olivier had the drop-off spot secured. Now he needed to go to Bavaria to get the beavers. He had the road trip all planned out, but he decided he couldn't do this alone. So he called the one guy who started his beaver fascination in the first place.

I contacted Achille and I said, Achille, we can get beavers. We can get four beavers, OK? Can we go and pick them together? And I said, OK, yes, go, go, go. He was never afraid of anything.

Olivier and Achille were now skirting Belgian law, which meant the two men had to be careful. If caught, they could be fined, denied access to beaver suppliers, or worse.

Even worse than getting no beavers from beaver suppliers would be that the police or the forest rangers would catch us and take the beavers and possibly kill them. That would be the worst case.

The only other thing Olivier needed was a car big enough to transport the beavers. So he asked his dad if he could borrow his car.

And I said, Daddy, am I buying your car? Because my car was not big enough to transport so many beavers.

He told his dad about the project. And it turns out, following your heart, not the law, it runs in the Rubbers family.

So he said, well, just do for it. And if some people of the administration don't agree, well, that's absolute proof. it's a good project so just do it did i agree with my dad no sometimes the the the authority the government is right make some nice decisions but i mean we don't have to follow rules like german nazis you know and so we went to pick up the beavers and we drove during the the whole night we drove through eastern germany and then we arrived at the address and we we slept in the car And then the following day, the guy opened his door. He saw us in the car sleeping and they invited us for breakfast.

The man they were meeting was a conservationist named Gerhard Schwab. He was raising beavers on his property and giving them to clients like the Bavarian government. So he was the real deal.

It was a kind of a German Indiana Jones. You know, like somebody always in the forest, always in the nature. really a wildlife man, like an Indiana Jones, but without the valance, you know.

The three men had a hearty Bavarian breakfast and then started talking beavers. And then he asked for the paper. Olivier knew he had to show Schwab something, so he came prepared with some official-looking papers.

And then I gave him just a full cardboard of paper. Here has all the documents.

stamped and in French that in no way said he had the approval but Schwab couldn't tell French was not his first language and it was enough Schwab took Olivier and Achille behind his house to an enclosure with a garden and in the garden there were four beavers two parents and two cubs milling about rolling mud with their feet swimming patting down dams

I had never seen a beaver before. Never.

Yep. The man who had tasked himself with bringing the beaver back to Belgium had never seen one.

Wow. It's huge. It's big. A beaver has about the volume of an 11-year-old child. It has a weight of about 26 kilos. The body itself is 1 meter long and with the tail 1 meter 30.

One beaver alone could stand up to about Olivier's shoulders, and he was close enough to them to see their webbed paws, their long fingers, and their sharp teeth. And then?

The German Indiana Jones told us that we had to catch them, actually.

Schwab gave Olivier and Achille two large butterfly nets and said, Go get them.

Catch first the parents. Because if you would catch the cubs, the parents would attack us.

The two men scrambled around Schwab's muddy garden, butterfly nets in hand, trying to catch four critters that are basically human-sized.

I feel sorry that he's stressed. It's ridiculous, but I tried to talk to him, and I said, come on, beaver, we are going to bring you to a nice place. Eventually, Olivier got it down to a science. The beaver goes in the corner of the enclosure, you get him in the corner, and then hop, and you get him in the net. And then he's in the net, and he's very heavy because it's about 26 or 30 kilos or something. And he has his nose against the net.

The four beavers each got their own cage and were put in the back of his dad's car.

We were kind of afraid because Achille didn't build so good cages. And the animals with their hands, they have, you know, hands like human hands. And they were shaking the top of the cage like this, you know. We were really afraid they would escape and bite us. And, you know, when beavers bite, they have such powerful and long teeth. It's like you get stabbed by a knife. But actually, we solved this problem through covering the cage with a blanket. And then when it's dark, they immediately relaxed. And then we could drive relaxed ourselves.

Olivier and Achille were on their way to the French village of Vira-Moulin to drop off the beavers and talk to the press. And then, they got a phone call. It was from the secretary of Achille's farm.

She said, well, we've been called by journalists, we've been called by the administration, they know you're on your way, you've gone to Germany to pick up some beavers. They will be driving around the river and they will catch you if they see you there and they will seize the beavers.

It turns out the Belgian authorities got wind that Olivier was going to drop off beavers just across the border. And they were going to intercept him.

And so we decided to take a totally different direction and to bring the beavers in a totally different place, actually.

Thinking quick, Olivier remembered a secluded part of eastern Belgium that he had previously hiked. The two men pulled a 180 and drove over 100 miles in the opposite direction to eastern Belgium.

We arrived in a region which is mostly covered by forests. No house, no village, nothing. Just forest and a river. And then we took the cages out of my dad's car. And we brought the cages close to the river. And then we released the beaver. First the cubs, then the parents. To kick them out in the river, just I kicked in the ass of beavers. And that's all I did, so nothing great. And then we stayed until the beavers swam away. And I just loved this moment to watch the beaver swim. And Sunday morning at nine o'clock, I had to be in the office.

Olivier and Achille had tried to do the kind of right thing By dropping the beavers in France But they kind of ended up doing the not so right thing And there were now, unofficially, beavers in Belgium Four of them And Olivier and Achille didn't even get caught So mission accomplished, right?

I felt the project wasn't achieved at all because we had released four beavers. And four beavers is a little bit little for a successful reintroduction.

Because, again, the goal here is to have enough beavers in Belgium to propagate, form a population. So Olivier and Achille decided to step up their game and head back to Bavaria.

We hide a van. And then Achille, in his farm, asked one of the persons working there, to build 15 cages. A few months later, we introduced again 15 beavers in other rivers. But why stop there? Sometimes I went to pick up 19 beavers, another time 11, another time 4. One time in Bavaria, they called me, we have one beaver. going to have him? Yes, of course. I didn't want to miss just one beaver. When Olivier wasn't at his day job, beaver smuggling became all he did. And then the beavers were popping up everywhere

in the country. Every time that beaver popped up, we went with the press to make a promotion of the beaver or saying the beaver is back, but it's great because it's doing this, it's doing

Olivier made sure to never admit to his beaver-smuggling activities while on camera. But he was putting a spotlight on himself. And Belgium's Ministry of Nature Conservation was starting to put two and two together.

It's not in my temper to be discreet, unfortunately. My natural temper is to communicate. And unfortunately, that has played against me. Between 1998 and 2000, the authorities were indeed kind of following me.

If Olivier got caught smuggling beavers, the consequences could be pretty serious for him and the people around him.

And I had some people, even from the family, from close friends, that told me, Oliver, stop it, stop it. We have enough beavers now.

But against all the naysayers was Olivier's day one partner in crime, Achille.

achieve something great in sport, you have a feeling that you have to go further. If I have beavers from Bavaria, I mean, who could resist?

For two years now, Olivier's been driving to Bavaria, picking up beavers, and releasing them in Belgium.

Myself, I was living in Brussels at that time with my girlfriend.

And one day, when Olivier was driving to Achilles' farm to initiate another beaver pickup...

I arrived with my car at Achilles' farm, and directly I saw there was a lot of police cars. I thought there was something wrong going on there. So I wanted to drive further. But then a car of the driver rangers blocked me with this car.

Both of the cars stopped. The ranger got out, walked over to Olivier's car, and said...

You have to follow me and to go to the farm. Yeah, we are here to search your house and to search your car because we have a mandate of the judge.

The Ministry of Nature Conservation was closing in on him. They were looking for any evidence proving that he was the one bringing these beavers back to Belgium.

Let us look for these documents and then everything will be fine.

the ranger ushered Olivier back onto the farm there was a swarm of rangers all over the yard some were talking to Achille and others were searching the front offices of the farm

from the time the building search begins you have to stay there, you cannot move and as I was in Achille's farm my mother called me she said, Oliver, Oliver They are searching a house here about the beaver. I wanted to warn you. I said, yes, mother, I know they search us as well here.

Olivier calmed his mom down, told her there was nothing at her house that could get her incriminated. However.

The only documents that could have incriminated me were at Ash's farm.

Standing still, watching park rangers yank out and upturn drawers, spilling papers on the floor, Olivier was nervous.

Actually, there was a room, which I used as an office, where we had a file with letters and mails with beaver suppliers.

The rangers weren't satisfied yet. But they wanted to go deeper into the house, and they told Ashil to guide them.

And then Ashil told the officer, yes, follow me, I will show you all the rooms. And then Ashil went in front of the offices quite quick, said, look there, look there, there. And he drew their attention to other rooms and other offices. They were searching in all documents. They were searching everywhere. Then they got to the office. They asked to Achille, what's this door?

And Achille did some quick thinking.

Ah, that's the cellar. You want to search it? No, no, no, no. All right, follow me. And then Achille brought them somewhere else. And they didn't search the room where I had all the documents. Achille helped me out indeed. Yes, yes.

The police left empty-handed. At least, that's what Olivier thought.

A few weeks later, maybe two, three weeks later, They called me at the police building.

The police sat Olivier down. And then one of the officers pulled out a photo, which he slid across the table.

There was one picture, one picture of me releasing a beaver. You see me kind of wet because it was raining. And I was with the cage and you could see the beaver in the cage. and I was with my hands around the cage. They said, you say you didn't introduce beavers in Belgium? Look at this picture. What do you think of it?

Olivier looked at the officers and immediately said,

That doesn't prove anything. They said, yeah, I released a beaver, yes. But what's the problem? Ah, you admit you released beavers. It was not in Belgium, it was in France. And they said, OK, we're in France. Are you a French officer? I mean, you're not. So I will tell it to a French officer, but not to you. They were kind of angry because they thought, well, he's making fun of us or he's playing with us. I mean, if the French authorities are not happy with it, they can contact me. And he knew, of course, no French officer would ever ask me.

— And the Belgian officers did contact the French authorities.

— The French authorities didn't give a s**t, despite the fact we did introduce quite a few beavers on the French side. They have many beavers in France and in other regions of France. I mean, beaver is no big deal. They didn't care in France. So they couldn't really jail me or they couldn't really ask a big financial penalty.

Olivier bid them adieu and walked out a free man. Which was impressive, considering how many beavers he'd actually gotten away with reintroducing. Exactly 101. Like the Dalmatians, you know, 101. If he could reintroduce that many beavers and still walk free, of course he wouldn't be done yet. But when he went to contact his buddy, the German Indiana Jones, to set up his next beaver pickup, He got some unexpected news.

Gerhard Schwab told me the Belgian administration got in contact with the Bavarian administration and they said stop delivering beavers to these Oliver Rubers.

Olivier's number one beaver supplier was compromised.

We stopped because Bavaria didn't want to, was a lot more cautious. I wish I could have gone further with the beavers and I could have reintroduced in other reopen countries. Then I would have been finished.

And the hits just kept coming. See, Olivier thought that with beavers back in Belgium, everybody would be as happy as he was. But that wasn't exactly how it played out.

So some people are crying, are shouting, the beavers are destroying my land, are destroying my home and so on. I had a guy, all my poplar trees are cut by the beaver. Okay, I came to visit this poplar tree. I saw about 100 poplar trees standing. And then the guy said, look, three poplar trees the beaver had cut them. Okay, so you have 100 poplar trees, and now you're crying like a baby because you've got three that the beaver have cut?

And because Olivier had made himself the face of Belgian beavers, By 2003, civilians had started suing him.

There were civil parties and they demanded a huge amount of money, 300,000 euros or something, of so-called beaver damages.

Olivier was stuck in a legal limbo of appeals and counter appeals for 10 years. He didn't end up paying all 300,000 euros, but he did end up owing the government a small fine.

I had to pay a fine of 500 euros, which is about 5 euros per beaver, and they forgot to claim it.

this money. So at the end of the day, I didn't pay a single penny. To this day, Olivier is a

controversial figure in the field of nature rewilding. There was a scientist and he got

mad that we, according to him, we were introduced to beaver without scientific study. The long-term

environmental impact of these 101 beavers is still being explored. But one thing is clear. Olivier brought the beaver back. All beavers in Belgium, they come from my reintroductions, for sure. Olivier isn't as much of a beaver spokesperson these days. He's married, with kids. But it doesn't seem like he's learned his lesson. He still can't resist the call of the beaver.

recently for three years i get regularly beavers legally that come from wildlife rehabilitation centers and these centers call me the last month i've been reintroducing a few beavers on the branch side and i was surprised how scared i was i was alone it was night i had the feeling that Everybody will look at me. I was almost disappointed. I say, how a coward you are. I mean, I was really scared. But if I can contribute to the comeback of the beaver in a big watershed, the risk is worth it, you know.

Olivier Rubbers. Thank you for sharing your story. Olivier now lives with his wife and kids out in Belgium and is still engaging in nature advocacy work. Special thanks to Isabel Cockrell. The original score for that piece was by Renzo Gorio. It was produced by David Exabay. Now then, you think you know the story of Home Alone, the movie? Well, guess what? You don't know nothing yet. When Snap Touching returns, stay tuned.

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Ah, snappers. Tis the season. And in celebration, we're going to break format a bit. We're going to travel back to a simpler time. A time before iPods, before Cybertrucks, a time when computers didn't talk back. Larry Hankins. Larry remembers these magical days with a story about how he came this close to landing the role of a lifetime, one of the most iconic Christmas movies of all time. Now, spoiler alert, Larry doesn't get the gig, but what happens next will become Home Alone History. so grab a glass of eggnog because here's Larry live from the Crow Comedy Club Snap Judgment

By a show of hands how many people have seen Home Alone? Anybody?

Okay

Alright, this is about the curse on Home Alone So this is about 1990 1991, I was looking for rent that was the whole point, I was looking for rent and trying to learn guitar. Two things. And in between that, I was trying to audition. So my agent called me, and he said, are you available right now? And I go, of course, you know that. You're my agent. So he said, all right, look, Home Alone just called. They started a new production. It's a John Hughes next movie. It's going to be a Christmas thing. It's going to be big. it's got Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern and a kid called Macaulay Culkin and they've been filming for three days now and Daniel Stern has now stopped production because he wants more money he's gonna quit if he doesn't get more money and the producers say If he keeps on demanding more money, we're going to fire him, and we need somebody to replace him, and we're thinking about you. And I'm saying, whoa, are you kidding? John Hughes' movie, Home Alone? I mean, everybody knew then it was going to be a really cool movie. So I go, wow, that's amazing. He says, okay, they're in a negotiation right now. They're going to end it in about a half hour. I'll call you back. Pack your bag. Put it by the door. You have to leave tonight. you're gonna have to start reshooting the new film tomorrow morning I'm going watch is okay I'll call you back in half an hour hold tight okay click and I'm thinking well I'm gonna be co-starring with Joe Pesci in 1990 and I need my rent this is incredible this is incredible okay so a half hour goes by I'm sitting by the phone I'm tensed I'm jacked up I'm really cool and he goes okay, we just got it in, Daniel Stern caved, it's off, never mind, there's other jobs, click. I mean, I was madder than I've ever been, man, because they jerked me around. The producers jerked me around, and I didn't like it, so I dealt with it as best I could, I dealt with it, and then I got on with my life, which was trying to learn the guitar, audition, learn the guitar, audition okay cool rent okay and about two weeks later I get a call from my agent again he said are you still available come on man why because home alone just called they want you in the movie they need you in the movie you got to be in the movie and I go what what's going on I said the movie is cursed this is a true story they called me and I said the movie is cursed. I say, is that your word or their word? No, that's their word. They say, and the reason they say it's cursed is because of the way they jerked you around and they feel guilty about it

and they feel that that's the reason the movie is cursed because it's already shot three days and nothing's happening. It's not going right. So they figured the only way is get Hank and back in, get him in the movie anywhere just to appease the curse and get it off the movie. And I go, that is the weirdest okay i mean all right so will you do it well what do they want me to do what's the character i don't get it you know it's just what do they want me to do and they said well that's the okay here's the thing it's just it's three lines three lines are you kidding it's a cop talking to a mom about uh getting her son checking on her son no i'm not going to do it three lines two weeks ago i was co-stowing with joe pesci and now they're offering me three lines no i'm not going to do it that no so he said no listen larry just calm down man now look they'll fly you there first class la to chicago they'll pick you up in a limo and get you to the set they'll have the set all set up for you this is a half a day's work larry just go in it's three lines do one take back in a limo you will sleep in your own bed the same day no man three lines are you kidding larry listen to me they will pay you ten thousand dollars to do just what i said oh okay fine let's do it yeah okay wow what's the problem yeah so and sure enough the next morning sure enough i looked down i'm in an apartment house i look down there's a limo a white stretch limo downstairs waiting for me i go down i don't even have to pack because i'm going to sleep in my own bed that's what they said the same night half a day's work that's it so i go down i jump in a limo uh to the airport first class limo's there, Mr. Hankin, chauffeur, everything to the set. They pull me up. There's an AD waiting at the curb. I get out. They go, they pull me in. Now, right before I left, I got a phone call from one of the producers of Home Alone to verify that I'm going to show up and do it. And so I go, are you kidding? Of course I'm going to do it. Okay. So he says, Larry, you just want to verify and everything's going to be okay. We'll see you there tomorrow, right? Yeah. Okay. What do you want? I go, what do you mean? What do I want? I don't deal with that. No, no, no, because we understand it's just three lines. We understand it's a very small part. We just want you in the movie because of the curse. So just anything. So if you, uh, no, I said, okay, I can have anything. I go, okay, what? It's a cop, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I want to be eating a donut while until I say your lines.

that's it yeah that's it i want to be eating a donut a glazed donut i want a glazed donut okay see you here tomorrow right okay they take me to the producers and there's a set it's a sound stage they got the police station the chair and the phone everything's there they got the camera the lights everything is all set and the producers say uh you know okay just changing your costume get in the costume sit down one take back in the limo you sleep in your own bed tonight okay oh

wait a minute wait a minute where's my glazed doughnut

Larry just go change into the cop uniform we'll have the glazed doughnut when you get back okay so I go in I change the cop uniform I come back and standing waiting for right next to the camera as you know these are bakers rolling trays with the trays you know and you can roll it around with the bread on it and everything okay next to the camera is a baker's rolling tray with 20 trays 20 shelves and on each shelf is 30 glazed donuts 600 glazed donuts and i just say i just asked for one glazed donut and i'm thinking i'm not paying for these i don't i just don't understand what's going on or the whole thing with the curse. Okay, give me a donut. Oh, that one. Yeah, give me that. Okay, and all right, so Chris Columbus is directing, which is another perk. I mean, Chris Columbus is really cool. Larry, get in the chair. All right, you got the phone. You got the donut. I'm going to be eating it. Okay, and take one Larry action. Okay, and well, hello, police blah blah blah you want me to check on your son in the cut uh is that me what happened what was that no no no camera went off the dolly all right back to one take two larry go there all right give me another donut i just ate the whole thing just give me a new one all right okay and take two and action larry okay so blah blah police department blah blah blah You want me to go to your home and check on your son. Cut! Okay, now what happened? Camera jiggle. Let's go back to one. All right. Take two. All right, give me another donut. No, I just ate the whole thing while I was waiting to reset the camera. I just ate it. All right, just give me another one. All right. Take three and action. Larry, and you want me to go to check on your... the light, it's very hot in there, there's a sound state, it's really hot, and one of the lights above exploded and rained down glass, that shattered glass, all over the set, on me, so it's just on me, okay, so the 20 minute break, while they clean up the set, get the nurse to check, I'm not cut, I'm not gonna sue, don't worry, okay, all right, and, all right, Larry, give me another, another, no, give me another donut, that. Okay, and this is, I don't know what, take four and take five, take six, take seven, take eight, take nine. We haven't gotten through one good take. Something always happens, and

it's not me. It's not me. It's something technical each time, nine times. And now I'm starting it's saying, it is Curtis. And you can even see the crew is going, all right, it's the Curtis. And I look over at the producers and they're white, man. They are depressed. It's really weird. And everybody except Chris Columbus. He's like, cool. He's like, okay, come on, take 10. Let's go, everybody. Take 10, Larry, get a donut. And I'm saying, wait a minute. The donuts are starting to disappear from the bottom shelf. The crew is eating the donuts. So, okay. All right, fine. So, finally, take 10. All right, give me another donut. And take 10. Action, Larry. Okay, and you want me to go check on your son? Yeah. Okay, Rose. Hyper on two. Cut. and everybody laughs now for the nine takes when it was that didn't go all the way through to the end then nobody left because no you don't laugh at cruise ups you don't but if an actor up Laugh, they all laugh. Oh, oh, oh, and they captured it on tape.

so Chris Columbus says print that one Larry you're released okay get him in a limo you can change your car get it out of your costume you're released Larry and I go what just happened no if I f***ed up I want to do it again I don't want that no no Larry that's that's that's good we're good you're released I thought no I want to do it again no Larry you don't have to do it again we got it and he says come to the TV village and we will play it for you so I go and I watch it and And as far as I can see, what I'm doing is exactly the same for all 10 takes. There's nothing different. But then I start to notice something, that there's a crumb from the donut and it's caught on the mouthpiece of the phone. Now all the other crumbs, because there's crumbs when you're eating a donut, and all the nine takes, they all fall to the ground or to the floor. even in this take, except as one big crumb is not only hanging, not like this on the top of the mouthpiece, but it's over here. And it's not moving. And then very slowly it starts to, very slowly, but it doesn't drop. It's just slowly rolling. And then finally, And I don't know. I'm just talking and talking. And right near the end of the scene, it drops. And then the scene ends. And they say, we're going to print that. Why? I don't have to use a donut. I don't have to use. He says, no, no, no. That's going in the movie, Larry. That's a money shot. And I go, what do you call a money shot? What is that for you? He said, it means it's going in the movie. It's gold. It's funny, Larry. And I go, okay. He says, get out of here. Okay, get him out of here. Get him in a limo. Get him home. He's got to sleep in his own bed tonight. Okay, get him out of here. So I go in and I change my clothes. I come back and what I do is I don't go to the limo. I go over to the baker's tray because I want to see what's going on. Why did that stick? And no other crumb did. And I go over and it was so hot. I looked at all the donuts that are left. The glaze had started to melt. So it was tacky. It was thick. And that crumb obviously came from the top of the donut, so it was the glaze that was holding that thing there, okay? Because people would come up to me on the street and say, hey, you know, you were in Home Alone, right? Yeah. How did they do with the donut thing? How did they do that? How did they? Okay, so I get into the limo, and they take me to the airport. And not only do I get to sleep in my own bed the same night, but I get $10,000 for a half a day's work. I can pay my rent. Yeah, okay.

And then about a year later, Home Alone comes out, and it's a big hit. Now, the reason that it's a big hit and the moral of this story is that because the producers treated me so nice and they paid me so much money for half a day's work that I removed my curse from the movie.

Thank you Larry Hankin for sharing your story from Escape to Alcatraz to Friends to Seinfeld and Breaking Bad Larry has left an indelible mark on your TV screens over the last five decades and yes Larry has a book entitled That Guy a cautionary memoir special thanks as well to Sam Shaw for sharing Larry's story. Sam is working on a documentary on Larry's improvisational theater company, The Committee. Information about that at thecommitteemovie.com. And last but not least, special shout out to the Crow Comedy Club in Santa Monica for hosting Larry during one of their unforgettable storytelling nights, crowcomedy.com. Snap Nation, thank you for listening to the show and thank you to the people who entrust us with their stories. Honestly, it is the best gift of all. Big love from all of us at Snap. On Team Snap, the union-represented producers, artists, editors, and engineers are members of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, Local 51. KQED, in San Francisco, is Snap's orbiting hall of justice. Snap was brought to you by the team that would never release an animal species into the wild without explicit official authorization.

Except, of course, for the uber producer, Mr. Mark Ristich. Now there's Nancy Lopez, Pat McInerney Miller, Anna Sussman, Renzo Gouriel, John Facile, Sheena Sheely, Tia Ducat, Flo Wiley, Bo Walsh, Marissa Dodge, David Exame, and Regina Beriago. Now understand, this is not the news. No way is this the news. In fact, you could know a guy who knows a guy, who knows a guy who is a beaver supplier, and you would still, still not be as far away from the news as this is, but this is PRX.

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