10 most famous robberies

There are many ways to have enough money: work hard all your life, gamble or be born into royalty ... or simply commit robbery. The last method was used by the members of our list. They managed to pull off some of the most daring and stunning robberies in history. Some were caught, some were not, but all of them, at least for a while, were insanely rich. We present to you 10 of the most famous robberies.

10. Robbery at the Isabella Gardner Museum

This is one of the greatest thefts of art and one of the most famous unsolved crimes. This event took place on March 18, 1990 at the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston. Two robbers, dressed in police uniforms, entered it at night, while the celebration of St. Patrick's Day was in full swing on the street. Thanks to this, they managed to force the guards to leave their post. They then tied up security and left the crime scene with several key exhibits, including Rembrandt's painting Christ in a Storm on the Sea of Galilee and his self-portrait.

These works were never found, and the museum is still promising a $ 5 million reward for any information that will help find works of art. They are valued at around $ 500 million, but of course the art is priceless. Some points in the case are still incomprehensible: for example, why the robbers passed by Botticelli's valuable works and did not take them. But maybe one day we will all find out.

9. Robbery of a Graff Diamonds jewelry store

This is an example of how even the most elaborate plan can go wrong. In August 2009, the robbers of this jewelry store went to great lengths not to be caught: they used the services of a professional makeup studio and put on prosthetic face masks. They told the makeup artist that they were going to shoot a music video. The robbers simply entered the store brandishing their pistols and fled with 43 pieces of jewelry worth £ 40m ($ 65m). They even used several types of escape vehicles to obscure their tracks. But one of them forgot his cell phone in the car, which allowed the police to track them down, arrest them and put them in jail. The leader of the gang (Aman Qassai) is currently serving a term of 23 years in prison, the other three accomplices are serving a term of 16 years in prison each. So far, no product has been found.

8. Stardust Casino robbery

We all know that robbing a Vegas casino is one of the hardest things to do. Some have tried to implement it, and some have even been lucky. The luckiest of all was Bill Brennan, who became famous only for his impressive robbery. In September 1992, he worked at Stardust Casino and went to lunch in the middle of his shift. It doesn't really matter. The important thing is that he never came back. And since then, no one has seen him. Oh yeah, and he also brought chips and cash with him (for a total of $ 500,000), which he hid in his backpack. This is the greatest casino robbery ever, and is just as remarkable for its simplicity. They say Bill was in league with the guard who later killed him. This explains both his disappearance and the ease with which he left the building with money. Although, perhaps we will never know the whole truth.

7. Robbery of the Central Bank of Brazil

This crime, which occurred in 2005, is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest bank robbery. The catch amounted to 164,755,150 reais (about $ 71.6 million) in denominations of 50 reais. The weight was 3.5 tons. The robbery took place according to the standard scheme: the robbers dug a tunnel in a building located 78 meters from the bank and somehow made their way through a layer of reinforced concrete a meter wide in the vault, and then disappeared with the money.

Then everything went not so pleasantly: one of the suspects, Luis Fernando Ribeiro, was killed two months after the robbery. Other suspects have been kidnapped, some of them by police officers (with the police in Brazil, not everything is so clear). Only about R $ 9 million were discovered, fueling rumors of criminals interacting with the police. And rumors around this case do not subside.

6. Robbery of the showroom of the Damiani jewelry house

This robbery, which happened in 2008, has a lot in common with other robberies on our list. For example, a tunnel was also used here (in this case, leading to an exhibition hall in Milan), the robbers were dressed in police uniforms, and a fatal mistake was also made. On the day of the crime, some of the most valuable items were absent from the hall - they adorned the stars of the first magnitude, since at that time the Oscar ceremony was taking place. The criminals knew that the owner would be present at the event in Los Angeles, but they did not allow the thought that the most expensive jewelry (a bracelet with 1865 diamonds worn by Tilda Swinton) would also be there. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the robbers were very upset, as they managed to take with them items worth $ 30 million. At least until his arrest on December 5th.

5. Robbery of the Securitas collection company

Until now, this robbery is considered the largest in the UK. It happened in February 2006, and 53 million pounds (approximately $ 87 million) were stolen. The manager of this company was stopped and kidnapped, he believed, by a police patrol (robbers often use this trick). By that time, his family had also been kidnapped. They were then taken to the company's vault and tied up along with 14 workers. The robbers at this time took the money and fled. As a result, 5 people were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment: Stuart Royle, Jettmeer Bukpapa, Roger Coatts and Emir Hisenay. At least one suspect (Cayenide "Kane" Patterson) remains at large, probably with stolen money.

4. Robbery of the Brinks company

This is another Boston robbery, which can be described in the words "robbery of the century." Despite the fact that the brightest minds of the underworld planned everything carefully, they were eventually caught by the FBI. The crime took place on January 17, 1950 in the Brinks building. For about two years this robbery was worked out, the optimal time and date of the raid was carefully thought out. At 6:55 pm, the burglars entered with duplicate keys, tied up workers and left the building with $ 1,218,211.29 in cash and $ 1,557,183.83 in checks. The FBI spent 6 years catching the criminals, sifting through all possible suspects, except those who died during the investigation. Eight people were sentenced to life imprisonment. It seems that the crime of the century has failed miserably.

3. Robbery of the Antwerp Diamond Center

Another robbery, which can also be considered the “robbery of the century”, but in this case, unlike the brinks robbery, the action took place in another century. In February 2003, in the city of Antwerp, robbers led by Leonardo Notarbartolo stole $ 100 million worth of diamonds. At that time, it became the largest theft of diamonds. Notarbartolo carefully worked out a plan for the robbery: two and a half years before this event, he rented an office in the same building in order to get into trust and gain round-the-clock access to the premises. Unfortunately, he made a mistake - he left his half-eaten sandwich at the scene of the crime, and the police were thus able to track him down by DNA. He was sent to prison for 10 years, but released on parole. He claims that it was a contract robbery.

2. Robbery of a Lufthansa warehouse

Many of these robberies have been filmed, but the most famous movie based on the 1978 Lufthansa vault robbery is Martin Scorsese's The Nice Guys. The action took place at the John F. Kennedy airport in New York. The target was a vault that contained money brought from West Germany. The crime was planned by Jimmy Burke, associated with the Lucchese crime family, and was executed almost flawlessly by his accomplices, who took away $ 6 million. And then everything did not go according to plan.

Parnell "Stacks" Edwards was supposed to dispose of the van used for the robbery, but instead left it in a no-parking area, also with his fingerprints. The FBI knew that Edwards was associated with Burke and began working in this direction, but Edwards was killed before he could tell anything. After that, a series of murders followed, in which the victims were the participants in the robbery, as well as potential witnesses. However, justice was done: Burke was ultimately convicted of the 1985 murder of Richard Eaton and died of lung cancer in 1996. The money was never found.

1. The Great Train Robbery

When it comes to the famous robberies, everyone knows only one of them. This event took place in 1963 in Buckinghamshire, England. Fifteen robbers, along with the famous Ronnie Biggs, fled with 2.6 million pounds (today - about 46 million pounds). They chose an incredibly simple method of robbery: they changed the signals of the traffic lights, waited for the train to stop, and jumped into the carriages, demanded that the guards give them the money.

Of course, they were caught and some were even imprisoned for 30 years (one died there), but they deserve their place in the history books as the most famous robbers.