An underwater iPad, police, murder mystery: A curious case of a sunken tablet solving a crime

An iPad recovered from the River Thames after five years underwater has helped police arrest three men in an attempted murder case–sounds like a movie plot right? But it isn't. The device, found by officers during a search for a weapon, provided key evidence. It helped link the suspects to the shooting of Paul Allen, a man involved in one of the world’s biggest armed robberies, according to a report by 9to5Mac.

Here is what happened

Paul Allen was part of a gang that robbed a Bank of England cash depot in 2006. He and his gang stole around £53 million (about $68 million). They had planned to take even more—another £154 million—but their truck wasn’t big enough to carry it all.
Allen was caught and sentenced to 18 years in prison. However, he was released in 2016 after serving less than half his sentence.
In 2019, three years after his release, Allen was shot at his home. Six bullets were fired through his kitchen window, one hitting him in the throat and leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.

For years, the case remained unsolved. Then, police arrested three men—Louis Ahearne, Stewart Ahearne, and Daniel Kelly—for an unrelated museum robbery. They had smashed glass cases and stolen Ming Dynasty antiques worth £2.8 million. Their downfall came when they tried to sell one of the stolen items at an auction, which alerted the authorities.