Do you ever find yourself kinda rooting for the bad guy in a story? You know he’s done something wrong and you know the cops are just doing their jobs, but…still.

The slick new docuseries “Heist” gives humanity to the “bad guys” in three tales (2 episodes for each one) that prove that there is no such thing as the “perfect crime.” But, damn, these folks came pretty close to perfection. The fact that they are looking directly into the camera, describing the meticulous planning, their persona;l motives (for one person, it was wanting to adopt a baby for his wife who had suffered numerous miscarriages) not only makes us identify with them, but it also tips us off that, and this is no spoiler, they didn’t get away with it, when all was said and done. But they came so close.

The first heist was a daring armored car heist involving a 21 year-old young woman and her much older, much seedier boyfriend. He was the mastermind, but she’s the one who got a job as a driver and did all the work. Now, a mother and a woman of a certain age, she describes the modern day Bonnie and Clyde days with the clarity of hindsight. I will leave out, as always, the specific plot details.

In the second heist, we are introduced to Cuban immigrants and children of Cuban immigrants who wanted a taste of the American dream. When they learned of a weekly flight from Germany that unloaded 100 million dollars in cash to an airport warehouse with no armed guards present, they saw their chance.

The third episode is about a blue collar Kentucky man who worked for a Bourbon distillery in the capital of whiskey. At a point in time in the early 2010s, the bottles of whiskey that were stored by the thousands at his workplace started being worth up to a thousand dollars per bottle.

Here’s what all the episodes have in common:

Most of the “crooks” were just ordinary people. People in your family or living next door. People who worked full-time jobs, in most cases. Non-violent types (nobody gets hurt in any of the heists).

In every case, the loot was “there for the taking,” meaning it was unguarded or poorly watched over or left in plain sight. What would you do?

No matter how well thought out the thefts were, there was always at least one thing that no one expected to happen – these are the narrative devices that really make you lean in as the tension mounts.

The stories are populated by the real people, but also visually told with well done reenactments with actors who look very much like the real subjects.

I only wish there’d been more episodes to watch – here’s hoping that somebody is already producing a second season somewhere.

Heist premieres July 14th on Netflix | 3 ½ out 4 Stars