Gangsters, spies and an international security agency. There was far more to the March 1966 disappearance of the Jules Rimet trophy than Pickles the dog.
by bloomberg
Gangsters, spies and an international security agency. There was far more to the March 1966 disappearance of the Jules Rimet trophy than Pickles the dog.
by bloomberg
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*Jonathan Wilson for Bloomberg News*
London’s Westminster Hall was quiet on the morning of Sunday, March 20, 1966. A Methodist service was taking place on the ground floor, but a stamp exhibition upstairs was closed and the only people around were cleaners and security guards. At around 11 a.m., according to several news reports, one of the security guards checked the exhibition space: Everything was in order. About 70 minutes later, another guard checked again. To his horror, he saw that the prize exhibit — the Jules Rimet Trophy, to be awarded at that year’s World Cup in England — was gone.
What followed is one of the best-known stories in World Cup history. A week later, the trophy — a 12-inch statue of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, holding an octagonal bowl on her shoulders — was found, wrapped in newspaper and propped against the wheel of a car in the driveway of a suburban house in Upper Norwood, south London. It was discovered by a dog called Pickles, said to be a 1-year-old mongrel with more than a dash of border collie.
[Read the full essay here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-20/the-1966-world-cup-trophy-theft-gangsters-spies-and-the-dog-that-found-it?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc3NDAyMDAyMCwiZXhwIjoxNzc0NjI0ODIwLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUQzZPTzRLSVVQVDEwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJEMzU0MUJFQjhBQUY0QkUwQkFBOUQzNkI3QjlCRjI4OCJ9.gXLLqEMlqamvRucW9G-iHvJF-sRjSjLuB6fosHmsjKY)