Barracuda Queens says that it is inspired by true events and that such burglaries actually took place in Sweden in the 1990s. Though Amanda Adolfsson and her team of writers have taken creative liberties and added a lot of subplots that didn’t happen in real life, they have kept the crux of the narrative intact, i.e., the burglaries did happen in the posh neighborhood of Lidingo. So, let’s find out how much of what we saw in the Swedish series actually happened in real life.
The most amusing aspect of Barracuda Queens is that all the girls, except Mia Thorstensson, came from affluent backgrounds, and after they had repaid their debts, it was difficult to understand why they kept on taking such huge risks and committing burglaries. They came from reputed families, and they had everything that money could buy, yet they risked their futures, didn’t care about the ramifications of their actions, and kept on breaking into houses and stealing things. Lollo played the role of the motivator who convinced the other girls to be a part of the burglaries if they had any doubts about it. There were times when Klara, Mia, and even Amina felt that maybe they should lay low for a bit, but Lollo was always able to convince them to take the risk. We nowhere deny the culpability of the other members of the gang, but we believe that they might have stopped a bit earlier if Lollo hadn’t been at the helm of affairs.
Firstly, the real group that came to be known as the Lidingo League consisted of men, not girls. The makers might have thought that making the girls part of a burglary group would be more fascinating to witness since it breaks the stereotype, as we generally cannot imagine that there could be an all-girl group indulging in such acts. The Lidingo League did operate in the Djursholm area, where the girls in the series used to live. The thought of breaking into people’s homes came because the girls wanted to repay the hotel’s debt and additionally wanted to make sure that their parents didn’t know about it. There was no such motive that was found by the police in the case of the Lidingo Group, and the whole aspect of repaying the debt had been added in the series to maybe give some motive to the girls to start the robberies. Though the Lidingo Group targeted posh localities near the Stockholm area, it could never be ascertained if they themselves came from affluent backgrounds, as has been shown in the series. It is true that, like Amina Khalil in the series, the real-life group also had a taste in art, and that is why, apart from cash, they stole a lot of other things that they believed could be sold at a high value in the black market. They knew who would have an expensive painting or an artifact in their house, and they primarily targeted those houses only. The group had the audacity to steal from really famous and influential people living in those suburbs, and that told us how much confidence they had in themselves about not being caught by the authorities. They were leaving trails as if to tease the police to catch them if they could.
It is shown at the end of Barracuda Queens that Lollo’s mother, Margareta, comes to know about the girls being involved in some kind of illegal activity. Up until then, many cases had surfaced in the media, and almost everybody was talking about these incidents that were happening. During the family dinner, Margareta noticed that Lollo and Carl-Johan were having an argument about something. Before she could confront her daughter, she took the Rolls Royce and drove away. The Rolls Royce didn’t belong to Carl Johan, and Margareta got to know about it when the police caught Lollo and informed her that she was driving a car that had been reportedly stolen. Though Margareta didn’t want to believe that the girls were committing the burglaries, she knew that she would have to embrace the truth as soon as possible if she wanted to save the girls from rotting in prison. She confronted Carl-Johan and told him that she knew everything about what was happening. Together, they shifted a barn full of stolen goods to another location, and when the police arrived, they couldn’t find any evidence in Carl Johan’s house. This entire part has been created for the screen, maybe to dramatize and add a bit of thrill to the narrative, and the characters of Margareta and Carl Johan aren’t based on any real-life people.
The one thing that did happen, though, and which the show has got right, is the fact that the Lidingo group left glasses of champagne in whichever house they broke into. In a way, they challenged the authorities and left the glasses as if to mock them and tell them that they would always be a step ahead, no matter what. In Barracuda Queens, it is shown that the police could not find any evidence against the girls as the stolen goods had been shifted by Margareta and Carl earlier, so they had to release them and abstain from pressing any kind of charges. The detectives felt that the girls were innocent, and considering they came from such privileged households, it was absurd that they would indulge in any sort of criminal activity.
In reality, though, there were multiple arrests made by law enforcement authorities, and many of those suspects were also convicted by a court of law. Though the robberies stopped after a point, the police could never really ascertain how many people were part of the Lidingo group, and that is why it is still believed that a lot of the gang members are still out there, operating from the shadows. Though there hasn’t been any official announcement for the second season of Barracuda Queens, we believe that if the makers want to extend the storyline, we would once again see Lollo and her gang indulging in all sorts of unscrupulous activities, though they would have to explain everything to Margareta, and it would be interesting to see her reaction when she comes back from her trip and finally confronts the girls.
