It’s been more than a decade since Hurricane Sandy raged through the Caribbean and US East Coast, causing an estimated $81.9 billion in damages and making it one of the costliest storms in the US. It wasn’t just the physical destruction that racked up the dollars. Wall Street fell victim to the storm’s wrath, which would eventually inspire showrunner Eric Garcia to create the heist anthology show Kaleidoscope.

The series follows a crew of bandits over the course of 25 years, centering on an elaborate and dangerous plan to break into a vault containing $7 billion in bonds. However, the true events that inspired Garcia’s story actually involved a reported $70 billion in bearer bonds. In real life, there may not have been actual thieves involved — but both stories involve lots of water. Kaleidoscope “is loosely based on a thing that might have happened,” Garcia tells Tudum. “That’s a perfect cover-up for a heist. If I’m doing a heist, I’m going to use Hurricane Sandy as my excuse.” 

How did Hurricane Sandy inspire Kaleidoscope?

When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City in late October 2012, floodwaters made their way into a large depository located underneath downtown New York, operated by DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation). Linked to some of Wall Street’s biggest firms, the vault housed more than 1.7 million bond and stock certificates that were soaked by water. Among its contents were a reported $70 billion worth in bearer bonds. 

What are bearer bonds?

Unlike registered bonds, which include the holder’s name and contact information on file at the issuing company, bearer bonds don’t. Instead, they contain a physical certificate with coupons that are used to redeem an interest payment. Because bearer bonds aren’t registered to an owner, they’re more susceptible to theft. In this case, it was Hurricane Sandy who got her hands on the soggy securities.

“They can be used as cash to buy anything from stolen jewels to stolen art. If they’re unmarked, they can’t be traced. If you have them in your possession, they are yours,” says Kaleidoscope star Giancarlo Esposito, who plays the heist’s mastermind.

Were the bearer bonds ever recovered?

In what became perhaps the largest vault recovery ever undertaken, 99.9% of the certificates were eventually recovered over the course of six months. Two weeks after Hurricane Sandy, recovery teams descended into DTCC’s vault, 60 feet below street level, to collect the more than 1.7 million certificates threatened by the floodwater.

With high security and audit oversight, the recovered certificates were packed into boxes, placed in on-site freezer trucks and then transported to Texas to be freeze-dried to stop the paper from deteriorating. Once dried and sterilized, the boxes were sent to DTCC Jersey City where each certificate and piece of paper was individually cleaned and vacuumed. The grueling process continued with DTCC staff matching, sorting and filing each certificate against a complete vault inventory. 

Although Kaleidoscope takes creative liberty from the Hurricane Sandy events, the series has no shortage of security personnel, loads of cash and an epic flood scene. Enter the heist, and stream all eight episodes now. 

Breaking Down the Timeline & Ending for KaleidoscopeEverything you need to know about the ending and events in chronological order.