£40m heist: London Robbers- What we can tell from their body language

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The armed robbers who stole £40m worth of jewellery from Graff Jewelers reportedly hired an unsuspecting make-up artist to disguise their faces with Mission Impossible-style rubber masks. The robbers escaped with 43 items of jewellery in Britain's biggest ever jewellery robbery.

Thankfully no one was hurt- Now let's help with the nonverbal clues.



Let's start with the first man through the door:

- Right hand in pocket, but it does not appear he is holding a gun. Is he left handed? Is his left hand concealing the gun inside his jacket? The police would know these things from the store employees.
- Left hand in a curved finger position. This is significant. If you are pumped up on adrenaline you will either ball up your fists as if you are ready to punch someone or the fingers will be straight and tight. This position suggests military experience.
- Buttoning of the suit suggests that he is comfortable wearing a suit, but the way he tied his ties is a unsymmetrical- This suggests he would occasionally be required to wear a jacket and tie- but not every day. This suggests a middle class background.
- The choice of tie suggests confidence, as it is not the obligatory red power tie, which we'd expect if this was someone who only wore suits for interviews.
- We have to look at what we can learn if we know he changed his appearance with expensive rubber masks. He'd normally would not part his hair; Probably short hair, which also adds to the theory that the robber had prior military experience. Of course the police know his his hair length after meeting with the makeup artist- but now you do.
- He is younger than he appears- the makeup artist gave him a receding hairline.
- His nose is much smaller than it appears here.
- His shirt is a bit loose around the neck. It would suggest to be that his jaw and neck was enhanced. This person is thin and square jawed if you saw him without the rubber mask.
-Facially we see closed lips and intense eyes from both of the robbers. They both have the same gaze pattern towards a point in the store; they had been in the store before. Only the first robber acknowledges the doorman/employee; he does this because it is the social normally thing to do.
- He has a fake goatee.
- He has fake ears. They are outside the normal proportions as compared to the heights of his mouth. I would expect he has attached earlobes and the large ears were done so he appeared to have unattached earlobes during the robbery.
- If the robbers know about witness identification of suspects the most important thing would be to change the appearance of their eyes, this is the most focused on and most identifiable facial feature. It would be important to ask the make up artist about this.

Now to the second man through the door:
- Both hands are in his pockets, presumably the gun is in his right hand pocket; if this was not the case there is significance to this. It would be important to know what exactly he did in the store. Who held a gun on customers? Who collected the loot? Was there a bag in the other pocket?
- He is presumably young. I'm confident the make up artist made him look older by increasing his forehead.
- He is comfortable not wearing a tie. It takes a certain amount of confidence to not wear a tie like your accomplice. By looking at the collar I believe had he wore the tie his shirt would have gaped at his neck more than his accomplice's shirt did.
- He is more athletic. It is possible he also had military experience. I would like to see footage of them actually walking in to confirm their prior military experience by examining their gait.
- He has large lower biceps which suggest some weight lifting, or this was faked also; if you look at the upper part of his arms they move inward which is not suggestive of a weightlifter.
- He shows a great deal of confidence holding his head straight up.
- He is African, made to look like he is from India or Pakistani. His hair is styled in a businessman cut. In real life he would have extremely closed cropped hair.




- They both were calm, collected and comfortable given the adrenaline that had to be going through their bodies.
- They both had a slight rightward tilt of their head, this is because they were looking around the corner of the wall as they entered.

- They both had well fitting, tailored suits on.
- Their shirts are off the rack and are from the same manufacture, style and store. They are not used to wearing white dress shirts.

THE PERSON WHO SOLD THESE SUITS TO THEM WOULD REMEMBER THEM. THEY ARE YOUNG. THEY BOTH HAVE SHORT HAIR. THEY BOTH LIKELY HAD THEM DONE AT THE SAME LOCATION AND AT THE SAME TIME; LIKELY TELLING THE CLERK THAT THEY WERE GOING TO AN EVENT TOGETHER IN THE FUTURE. THE CLERK LIKELY PICKED OUT THE TIE. THEY WOULD NOT BE REGULAR CUSTOMERS.◦

£40m heist: London Robbers- What we can tell from their body language