This list compiles few of the most amazing heists that occurred during the history and applause to their evil mind for most of them who committed these still haven’t been caught.
10. Stardust Heist
The Stardust Heist was in a Resort cum Casino. The robbery took place in September 1992. A person named Bill Brennan was the cashier of the casino at that time and at the right time, he loaded up the bag with all the cash and never returned back. The best part of this heist was that there was no group work rather he did everything himself and without any proper planning. Hereafter, nobody knew where he went and so he was never caught. The way he tackled the security of the casino was something never done before in their history.
9. Gardner Heist
The Gardner Heist was the best-known event of 1990 which occurred at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum located at Boston. This museum was known for a collection of 2500 pieces of art. On March 18, thieves disguised as police in officers’ uniform handcuffed the two security guards, stole thirteen works of art worth of $500 million and walked away with one of the largest art thefts that happened in American history. This theft took place on St. Patrick’s Day festival. Even after twenty years still those frames lay empty in the museum storage, whereas the thieves are free and roaming.
8. Dar Es Salaam Bank Heist:
This robbery was the least publicized which occurred at Iraq’s Dar Es Salaam Bank. It was in the year 2007, after the Saddam episode when the bank’s three security guards went out the building with a looted amount of $146 million (170.75 billion Iraqi Dinar) in cash. This case was never solved by anyone neither a single penny recovered. One of the main reasons being that it happened at the worst of the times when Iraq was facing a deadly war.
7. Central Bank of Iraq Heist
In Iraq, this was one of the biggest thefts of all times since the largest bank of Iraq was looted. It happened to take place just before the U.S bombing of Iraq started in 2003 and some theories suggest that Saddam Hussein conducted the job. The looted amount was stated as approximately one billion dollars and given to his son with a statement that it was done to protect the money from the Americans. Later six hundred and fifty million dollars were recovered from the brick walls of Saddam’s palace when the American army invaded it and remaining was never recovered and remained a mystery. When it comes to this crime, Saddam was never caught but later hanged for other political reasons.
6. Carlos Hector‘s ABN Amro Bank Heist
The robbery took place in ABN Amro Bank in Antwerp. In March 2007, Carlos Hector Stole diamonds of worth $28 million from the Bank. He was a regular customer for about a year and provided an Argentinean name there. Authorities confess that the man used a fake identity there and also rented a security box with the same name and had a fake passport. Even after four years his true identity has never been found nor are the diamonds recovered.
5. Pink Panthers Harry Winston Heist
The Harry Winston Heist took place on 4th December 2008 in which four men barged into Paris’s most expensive jewelry store which is known worldwide. The thieves were armed and disguised themselves as women, looted hundred and eight million dollars in jewelry and walked away. While committing the act, they suddenly cornered all the customers and employees, filled their suitcase with all the precious gems from the display area, and made their escape. The group was found to be nicknamed “The Pink Panthers” but no arrest was ever made as the bounty on their heads were $ 1 million dollars if anyone provided information regarding these people.
4. The School of Turin’s Antwerp Diamond Center Heist.
On 16 February 2003, The Antwerp Diamond Center became the target of the thieves and out of 160 vaults, 123 vaults were thrashed and gems worth above hundred million dollars stolen. No one actually had an answer for the security breach, which was extremely high tech. Following day, when the workers hovered in that area, they figured out that this robbery was filled with precious metals like gold, paper money, along with cut and uncut jewels. After the investigation, the DNA was attained from the vault, along with a half-consumed sandwich, which was recovered from the site. Finally, the group named as “The School of Turin” was traced. Among them, one of the robbers worked at the diamond market. Even though they were traced and police arrested the group, they could never recover the stolen gems.
3. The Great Train Robbery by Robber Ronnie Biggs
The Great Train Robbery was one the most famous heists as it was one of the biggest robberies that man ever witnessed. It took place in 1963 in Bucking Hampshire, England when a train transporting millions of pounds was ran over by 15 robbers headed by Robber Ronnie Biggs. The group of robbers had such a master plan that the team used fake signals to stop the train and then locked all the workers present inside the train in the first two carriages. They then took all the bags which approximately had 2.6 million pounds, loaded them in cars and escaped. Some of the robbers were captured later by the Scotland Yard amongst which two of them again escaped and fled from the country.
2. Hijacking Schiphol Airport Truck by anonymous thieves
In this high jacking which took place on 25th February, 2005 the thieves took over an armored truck which carried diamonds and jewelry. The incident took place at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and estimated loot was of one hundred and eighteen million dollars. It is said that the thieves were well equipped with a KLM truck and uniforms and made the drivers lie down on ground, emptied the truck and took off. None of the thieves were ever caught or the stock found. The funny thing is they still do not know who the thieves were.
1. The DB Cooper Hijacking
This was a US aircraft high jacking which happened on 24 November 1971 and still remains as an unsolved case. This was a northwest orient flight which was flying from Portland to Seattle. A person named Cooper sent a written note to the flight attended who claimed that the note stated there was a bomb in Cooper’s briefcase and for this, he asked for two hundred thousand dollars and a couple of parachutes. The money was delivered to him on arrival to the Seattle airport after which the plane took off for Reno during which Cooper jumped out of the plane leaving behind two parachutes, a tie and its clip. After long search for Cooper he was nowhere to be found. In the following years of investigation only $5,880 bill was found on the Bank of Columbian River and his whereabouts or the identity could not be revealed.