Jewellery
is my favourite subject. I thought to write something different today and found
this subject. I have to admit, when I go through these details it became more
and more interesting. Here is top 7 jewellery and diamond robberies in terms of
money as of my knowledge. It is highly possible that I could have missed any
big. If you know any such please mention in comments. But I promise these are
not less thriller.
The Carlton Cannes Hotel
(approx. $136 million)
28th
July 2013
The
brazen theft occurred about 11:30 am Sunday at The Carlton Intercontinental
hotel, French Riviera. The Carlton hotel dominates the exclusive Promenade de
la Croisetta that stretches a mile and a half along the French Riviera. There
was an exhibition of jewellery by the prestigious Leviev diamond house which is
owned by London based Russian Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev.
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| Image Source:www.wikipedia.org |
The exhibition
scheduled to run until end of August. On 28th July, Sunday morning,
two suspect, wearing a scarf and a hat, entered through a glass door off of
Cannas’ main street pulled a semi-automatic pistol, grabbed the bag of
jewellery (containing 72 jewels, 34 of which described as exceptional) and
jumped through another glass door that led to the Rue Einsy. The investigation
is going on for the biggest jewellery heist of the world with esteemed value of
the theft is $136 million and no suspect has been charged yet.
On a
lighter note, it is the same hotel that Alfred Hitchcock shot much of the
classic 1955 romance-thriller To catch a
Thief.
Amsterdam Million-Dollar Airport Heist (Esteemed value $118
million)
25th
February 2005
Two men
dressed as KLM workers entered the cargo terminal of the airport in a stolen KLM
car. The Men intercepted the truck carrying diamonds which were on route to a
Tulip air plane bound for Antwerp. They were armed with pistols and force
drivers to leave the truck and laid down before casually drive away with the
valuable.
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| Image Source:www.wikipedia.org |
It was well planned robbery as culprits were able to gain access to a
secured freight area. The truck later found at a short distance from the
airport. Nothing has been recovered yet.
Antwerp Diamond centre, Belgium (esteemed value $100 million)
15-16th
February 2013
Antwerp
Diamond heist, dubbed “heist of the century”. It was largest when it happened. Antwerp
Diamond centre is located at the gem district of Belgium. This robbery is no
less than what we see in the movies. The diamonds were located two floors below
the diamond centre protected by multiple security mechanisms like a lock with
100 million possible combinations, infrared heat detectors, a seismic sensor,
Doppler radar and a magnetic field.
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| Image Source:www.wikipedia.org |
According to speculations, the leader of
the robbers was Leonardo Notarbartolo who has rented space in diamond centre.
He was arrested after sufficient evidence and sentenced for 10 years in prison,
but has since been released on parole. The diamonds remained uncovered till
date.
Harry Winston store in Paris, France (esteemed value $100
million)
9th
December 2008
Harry
Winston is top jewellery store in Paris. On the day, four men, some wearing
wigs and female clothing, produced handguns from their pockets. They cornered
all the employees and customers, some of them reported of to have been
assaulted. They stole almost every jewellery piece on display and also stole
two backdoor storage cases as well.
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| Image Source:www.viewpictures.co.uk |
This robbery also became mystery as nothing
has been recovered yet.
Graff diamond robbery (esteemed value $65 million)
6th
August 2009
Graff
Diamonds is located at New Bond Street, London. Two men entered as customers
and executed one of biggest jewellery robbery of UK. They stole 43 pieces of
jewellery including rings, bracelets, necklaces and wrist-watches. Only one
necklace among them has value of £3.5 million as reported.
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| Image Source: www.dailymail.co.uk |
The robbers have
used professional make-up artist to alter their look. They have used wigs,
their skin tones and their features using latex prosthetics. The interesting
thing is, total of 10 male suspects has been arrested, remanded and charged for
conspiracy, robbery, attempted murder etc. but none of the stolen jewellery
recovered. It also became mystery as others
The Carlton Cannes Hotel
(approx. $60 million)
11th
August 1994
Yes this
is the same place as the first one I have listed. Three men entered the
jewellery store in the hotel with brandishing automatic weapons and executed
the robbery of jewellery and precious stones valued around $60 million. The
thieves have not been arrested yet and nothing has been recovered yet.
Brussels Airport diamond heist (esteemed value $50 million)
18th
February 2013
Image Source: www.scmp.com
They have a Mercedes van and an Audi, both with flashing blue police lights. They drove straight to airplane, stopped it, brandished their guns to stop pilots and transport security and loaded 130 bags into their car and drove off. The car later found burned. The whole drama took only 20 minutes. Several arrests were made later but nothing has recovered yet.
From many centuries crime for diamond and jewellery report and it will be reported in future too because everyone is tempted by diamond's including robbers or theif. Do you like this article? Give your feedback in comment and let me know if you are victim of any heist.
Article is published by UK's leading jewellery retailer- the jewel hut
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