Now, a lot of you have obviously watched Money Heist and have a great love for the show. But here’s the thing. If you think that the show has somehow the greatest heist story ever, you are in for a surprise.
1. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist, Boston, 1990
While the city celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by chugging beers, two thieves dressed as Boston police officers entered the museum and stole 13 works of art. The missing pieces include a Rembrandt, Manet, and a few by Degas, estimated at $500 million total. Nothing compared to the monetary value of Money Heist but then, art’s priceless, isn’t it?
Empty frames currently hang in the room, in homage to the missing art, which remains one of the greatest unsolved American crimes of all time.
2. The unsolved case of the stolen $6 billion in Post-Saddam Iraq
In all the chaos that followed Saddam’s fall, with both private contractors and US military forces trying to gain control of the region, someone stole $6 billion worth of the money that the US Congress had sent to be spent in Iraq.
The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, said he couldn’t account for the money and called it the ‘largest theft of funds in national history’.
3. The Great Train Robbery of England, 1963
They would not have been caught had they not played a game of monopoly in a barn with all the stolen cash, and left fingerprints all over the place! Reynolds evaded capture, fleeing with his wife and son. On his return to Britain, he was caught and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the train heist, of which he served just 10.
4. D.B Cooper’s leap of faith, 1971
D.B. Cooper, a favourite amongst conspiracy theorists, performed the only unsolved air piracy act in 1971. He hijacked a Boeing 727, extorted $200,000 and then leapt out of the plane with the money somewhere between Portland and Seattle, never to be seen again. The case is active in the FBI even after 40 years. Till now, no one has been able to identify who the thief was. And yes, he is referenced to in Prison Break.
5. The Vastberga Helicopter Robbery, 2009
This was quite simple though the Swedish police force had never seen anything like this. A crew of thieves stole a helicopter and parked it on the roof of a cash depot building. They broke through the glass with sledgehammers, blew through security doors with explosives and raided the cash store vaults.
All the cop cars arriving to save the day had their tires blown out by caltrops. Even the thieves who were caught received no more than 7 years in prison as per the law.
6. Thomas Blood steals the English crown jewels, 1671
If you hadn’t guessed by the name, Thomas Blood was an Irish assassin, who had made the ambitious plan of stealing the monarch’s crown jewels.
Now this one has the potential to be a Hollywood blockbuster. Blood’s plan involved costumes, a fake title, a fake wife and a fake nephew which he claimed would marry the daughter of Talbot Edwards, the keeper of said jewels!
After securing a private viewing of the jewel, they knocked Talbot out, and stuffed the jewels in their pants and made a run for it but were caught by the guards. However, King Charles II was so impressed by the attempt that he allowed Blood to live out the rest of his days on a nice piece of land in Ireland.
7. The Antwerp Diamond Heist, 2003
Leonardo Notarbartolo, the man who planned the whole thing, lived beside the diamond centre for three years before D-Day. Leonardo posed as an Italian diamond merchant in order to familiarise himself with the centre. However, Leonardo was arrested while his entire crew got away.
Years later, he said that the whole thing was actually an insurance fraud attempt by the diamond merchant who hired him. Apparently, the actual stolen amount was about $20 million, leaving the lion’s share of the theft to be suffered by the insurance company!
Holy shit, right? Anybody getting any movie ideas from this, do not forget where you first read this – your friendly neighbourhood writer guy!