Dear hicks90210-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question with the limited information I was able to compile.
As I mentioned, I am happy to provide you with “my” favorite heist
stories. If this topic interests you these will undoubtedly make for
fascinating reading. I, for one, enjoy the mystery associated with
such crimes because I have invested most of my life in my career in
law enforcement. There are of course many more interesting and
notorious heists in the distant past, but here goes my attempt to find
some of my more “recent” favorites:
This may be self-serving, but my all time favorite is a bank robber
about whom little is written (with the exception of the “Miami Herald”
feature mentioned below), named GILBERT JAMES EVERETT. In 1981 Everett
became the 376th criminal to make the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list
and eventually worked his way up to #8. He was a master of deception
and assumed the identity of a number of people in the course of his
criminal career. Over the years, Everett had managed to escape from
prison on not one, but two occasions and had robbed 64 banks in
several different states. His methods were not that sophisticated, but
he was “extremely” prolific. After a harrowing, car slamming, 17-mile
high-speed pursuit on the evening of August of 1985, Everett was
finally captured. He had assumed a man’s name and had all his
identification details memorized. His fatal error came a few hours
later when he sat down to talk to an FBI agent directly in front of
his own wanted poster. Although this man was convicted of his crimes,
to this day the money from these 64 banks has never been found and
it’s whereabouts is still an unsolved mystery that he has yet to
cooperate on. In fact, he may be patiently awaiting his next
opportunity to escape and get to the money before someone else does,
since only HE knows where it is.
Now this might not sound like a really infamous unsolved case to you,
but it’s my personal favorite because, after all, “I” was the officer
who captured him.
FBI’S MOST WANTED
http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/topten.pdf
“MIAMI HERALD”: “TO ROB A BANK”
By ANGIE CANNON AND DAVID MARCUS
Published on January 5, 1986, Page 8, Miami Herald, The (FL)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/archives/
D. B. COOPER – SKYJACKER
The first notable incident that comes to mind however, is the $200,000
skyjacking of a Boeing 727 that took place on November 24, 1971. It
wasn’t the most money ever taken in a heist, but the cool robber, who
identified himself only as “Dan Cooper”, unquestionably took a lot of
loot and to everyone’s astonishment, opened a door and stepped out of
the plane – at an altitude of 10,000 feet! Much has been written about
this incident and some even believe they now know who this mysterious
“Dan Cooper” was, but whatever the case, he got away with it, and he
did it with style!
SUPER 70’S
http://www.super70s.com/Super70s/News/1971/November/24-DB_Cooper.asp
WHO2
http://www.who2.com/dbcooper.html
NAPLES DAILY NEWS: “PACE WOMAN CLAIMS LATE HUSBAND WAS SKYJACKER D.B.
COOPER”
http://www.naplesnews.com/00/08/florida/d483884a.htm
FOR MANY MORE SOURCES SEARCH FOR: “D B COOPER”
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%E2%80%9CD+B+COOPER%E2%80%9D
Here are some other notable heists:
THE LUFTHANSA HEIST 1978 – Almost $6 million in cash, $850,000 in
jewelry was taken (roughly $16-$17 million on today’s market).
THE LUFTHANSA HEIST
http://www.betterlucktomorrow.com/character_sites/steve/Lufatsha%20page.htm
FOR MANY MORE SOURCES SEARCH FOR: “LUFTHANSA HEIST”
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%E2%80%9CLUFTHANSA+HEIST%E2%80%9D
Brinks Mat Gold Theft – 6,800 bars of gold (three tons) and two boxes
of diamonds were taken. Nobody even saw them do it either.
BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/714289.stm
FOR MANY MORE SOURCES SEARCH FOR: “BRINKS MAT GOLD”
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Brinks+Mat+Gold%22+
ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, BOSTON – ART THEFT, 1990. Armed only
with handcuffs and duct tape, thieves dressed in authentic guard
uniforms and face disguises walked right in, abducted the staff and
took priceless objects of art valued at roughly $300 million dollars.
1EARTH
http://www.1earth.com.au/collect/Art_Theft_isabella.htm
FOR MANY MORE SOURCES SEARCH FOR: “ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER” THEFT
1990
HTTP://WWW.GOOGLE.COM/SEARCH?HL=EN&LR=&IE=UTF-8&OE=UTF-8&Q=%22ISABELLA+STEWART++GARDNER%22+THEFT+1990
ADDITIONAL LINKS OF INTEREST
SHERGAR THROUGHBRED THEFT 1981
Estimated at $5 million
There’s nothing sweeter than having the loot walk away on it’s own
“four” feet!
“JOCKEYSITE”
http://www.jockeysite.com/stories/shergar1.htm
THE ANTWERP SAFE DEPOSIT HEIST
There were 123 safe deposit boxes broken into and more than $100
million in diamonds, gold, jewelry, stocks, and bonds stolen. The
thieves didn’t count on finding more loot than they could carry – but
they somehow managed to work it out.
“THE POST AND CURRIER”
http://charleston.net/stories/030403/wor_04diamonds.shtml
“CNN”
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/02/18/belgium.diamonds.ap/
“GUARDIAN UNLIMITED”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,898531,00.html
CARLTON HOTEL ROBBERY 1994
More than $4 million in cash and gems
Crooks rushed in and started blazing gun battle…using blanks!
“GOLDPOINT”
http://www.goldpointjewellers.com/newpage41.htm
ARAFAT’S BANK ROBBERY 1976
Who knows how much was taken here. Some put the figure at nearly half
a billion in currency, gold, jewelry, and stock certificates. What we
do know if that there was so much it took the crooks two days to load
it into three trucks.
“LEBANESE FORCES.COM”
http://www.lebaneseforces.com/blastfromthepast001.asp
THE MILLENNIUM DOME
This is the best “foiled” heist in recent memory, but I give these
fellows a great deal of credit to ingenuity, planning and
goal-setting. They definitely get an “A” for effort.
“BBC”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1010974.stm
BAGHDAD ART THEFT
I guess you have to go wherever opportunity presents itself. It
appears now that professional art thieves from all over the world may
have descended on Baghdad before the war to just for this reason. If
this theory happens to be true, it was a gutsy, dangerous plan – but
by golly, it was a good one (well, you know, as crimes go).
“ROTTEN.COM”
http://www.rotten.com/library/crime/art-theft/
AMSTERDAM VAN GOGH THEFT
Like a scene out of Mission Impossible, thieves cut through the roof
and descended three stories into the first floor room just far enough
to grab two priceless paintings from you-know-who before climbing back
up like a spider. Nobody got hurt and no one “else” lost even as much
as an ear.
“CNN”
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/12/07/vangogh.stolen/
“REUTERS”
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/news/world/4688751.htm
MUSEUM OF THE CROSS
I actually had trouble finding much about this because there simply
isn’t a great deal published about it. What makes this art theft so
unique is the fact that these crooks not only knew where each of the
pieces were, they studied the poor curator’s business records and only
took the ones that were uninsured. No insurance company will spend a
nickel searching for these guys. Pretty smart huh?
THE HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM OF THE CROSS
http://www.freelaunch.com/museum/history.html
Again, as I mentioned, my circumstances have left me unable to devote
the time necessary to do your question the service it deserves (I’m
caring for an ill parent). If you find these few that I was able to
compile worthy of attention, you may, if you like, adjust any
compensation you deem appropriate at the time of your final rating. If
not, well, I hope I have been able to offer you at least a means of
insuring that very little is risked on your part for the effort. In
the meantime, I sincerely apologize for my sudden, but quite necessary
exit.
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research is acceptable in spite of the limited incidents
I was able to mention. If you have any questions about my research
please post a clarification request prior to rating the answer.
Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final comments and I look
forward to working with you again in the near future. Thank you for
bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
DEFINED ABOVE
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
NOTABLE HEISTS
LARGEST HEISTS
BIGGEST HEISTS
ART HEISTS
GOLD HEISTS
JEWLERY HEISTS
GEM HEISTS
SOPHISTICATED HEISTS
GREATEST HEISTS
STRANGEST HEISTS
UNSOLVED HEISTS
“MOST BIZARRE” HEISTS
“MOST CREATIVE” HEISTS
“MOST COMPLICATED” HEISTS
Alternatively used in place of the term HEIST was CRIME, BURGLARY,
ROBBERY and THEFT. |
