The Beanie Baby Heist of '97

It's Chicago in the summer of '97, and criminal defense attorney Kathleen Zellner (of Making a Murderer fame) is feeling worn out. After once defending a serial killer, she promised herself never to defend a guilty person again, and has devoted her life to exonerating the innocent. But after years of gruesome murder trials, she needs a holiday. When a lemon-yellow stretch Cadillac bounces into her parking lot, and out hops a five-foot-tall, 77-year-old man named Ben Perri, that holiday arrives. Ben has been accused of a bizarre crime: the theft of hundreds of ultra-rare Beanie Babies from the manufacturer's secret warehouse. With Beanie Baby mania in full swing, the toys are fetching stratospheric prices, and Ben will gladly hook you up with an elusive Digger the Crab or Radar the Bat. The press calls him the Beanie Baby Bandit, but he swears he's innocent. As this jovial grandfather and veteran charms Kathleen and her team, his carefree way of life gives her a new outlook on the difficult job she's chosen. But still, she can't quite answer whether he's guilty, and whether she's broken her promise to herself. Is Ben just an innocent lover of toys, or is he really the Beanie Baby Bandit?

JOURNALIST: SERENA COADY

EDITING: THOMAS CURRY

SOUND-DESIGN & AUDIO MIX: ALICE BOYD

VOICE: JILL WINTERNITZ

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