​ An infamous theft took place on this day in 1966

The police received hoaxes and a ransom note

A dog astonishingly found the World Cup Trophy Most of football’s Hollywood-worthy plots take place on the field, featuring underdog triumphs, late goals and impossible drama. However, arguably one of the game’s greatest storylines, involving mystery, intrigue and an unlikely hero, took place away from the floodlights, featuring a church hall, a ransom note and a loyal dog. On Sunday 20 March 1966, the FIFA World Cup™ Trophy was stolen. It was an event that sparked global news, panic among the FA – who had been granted it ahead of the upcoming tournament – and London’s Metropolitan Police, before ultimately making a celebrity of the eventual finder, Pickles the dog, and his owner David Corbett. It’s an event that still resonates with football fans around the globe today, as Corbett testified. “It is amazing really,” he told FIFA.com. “I think it’s the fact that every four years it comes up again, it’s not like something that happens and then it’s forgotten.” Journalists from around the globe get in contact to hear his memories of the tale, though he modestly admitted: “People remember the dog; they don’t remember me!” While the Collie is the star, the plotline that led to Pickles’ ascension into football folklore is intriguing in its own right before the hairy hero enters during the final act. With the World Cup due to kick off in four months’ time, the FA received a request to display the Trophy at the Stanley Gibbons Stampex stamp Exhibition at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster – a well-policed part of London, just a couple of hundred metres from the Houses of Parliament.

Then FIFA President Stanley Rous agreed to this, as long as these three conditions were followed: the Trophy had to be transported by a reputable security firm, it must be placed in a locked glass case which was guarded 24 hours a day and it was to be insured for £30,000. The trophy was only valued at a tenth of that, while it was surrounded by stamps worth £3m. Crucially, though, security was not around the clock and, with the exhibition closed, somewhere between 11am and 12:10pm – with a church service taking place on the floor below – the perpetrator broke in through the back door and left without a trace. Cue hysteria and embarrassment, after the world-famous trophy was stolen from under the nose of the reputed Metropolitan Police. A golden ransom One member of staff on watch was quoted as saying, “Nothing at all went wrong with our security, the cup just got stolen,” before police issued a description of a suspect: a slim male in his 30s, sporting slicked black hair and a possible scar on the right of his face. Hoaxes causing halted underground trains and possible sightings ensued, before FA chairman Joe Mears received a ransom note. It began: "Dear Joe Kno [sic] doubt you view with very much concern the loss of the world cup... To me it is only so much scrap gold. If I don't hear from you by Thursday or Friday at the latest I assume it's one for the POT." The sender, known as ‘Jackson’, eventually agreed to meet in Battersea Park, though instead of Mears, Detective Inspector Len Buggy – posing as the chairman’s assistant ‘McPhee’ – would bring the demanded £15,000. However, the case in fact contained just £500 – concealing newspaper below. After being told to drive around south London for ten minutes the supposed-thief, real name Edward Betchley, caught sight of the police back-up vehicle and ran, only to be arrested. Claiming to just be a middle man, Betchley was eventually convicted as such – getting two years in prison – with the burglar never found, though during his court case Betchley did show he was still a fan of the game, saying: “Whatever my sentence is, I hope that England wins the World Cup.”