Diamonds Boca Raton

Stealing diamonds can be incredibly lucrative.  Just think about it.  Diamonds are so small!  And some rare ones can be worth tens of millions of dollars.  It’s not like stealing a car or even a piece of artwork.  You can literally put something worth $100 million into your pocket.  This makes stealing diamonds a priority among the world’s top thieves.  Because diamonds are so valuable, they are locked up in fortresses hard to access even if you have access to them.  Which makes the crimes themselves grand enough to make a movie about.  Below are the top 5 biggest heists of diamonds Boca Raton.

1.  August 1994: Carlton Hotel

Just before closing time, the thieves stormed into the Hotel and into the jewelry store yielding machine guns.  This was in the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France.  They started shooting their weapons in the air scattering customers and employees alike.  They scooped up as much as they could and made way with almost $60 million in jewelry.  What makes this crime so intriguing is investigators never found any bullet holes.  Which means the robbers were shooting blanks!

2.  February 2003: Antwerp Diamond Center

This is one of the biggest heists in history, and the biggest at the time it was committed.  Over 100 safety deposit boxes were cleaned out from the Antwerp Diamond Center.  Not only did the thieves take the jewelry, they also stole the security equipment!  Investigators had no where to look, until a pile of suspicious garbage left on the highway led them to the robbers, notably Leonardo Notarbartolo.  Notarbartolo was posing as a diamond merchant for more than two years, and cased the place the entire time.  He got ten years for his crime but the loot that was stolen has never been found.

3.  February 2005:  Schipol Airport

Surprisingly, this crime has never been solved.  Four men in a stolen KLM cargo vehicle ambushed an armored truck.  The truck was headed to Antwerp’s diamond district.  The men had guns and forced the security officers to leave the vehicle.  Most of the gems and diamonds from this robbery were uncut which makes it hard to estimate how much they stole.  But the common consensus is around $118 million.  If this figure is correct it is the largest diamond heist ever.

4.  December 2008:  Harry Winston

This heist will make you question everyone.  December 4th, 2008 in Paris, three well-dressed women walked into the Harry Winston jewelry store.  Employees thought nothing of it as they fit in with their usual clientele.  But then the three women removed their masks and revealed themselves as men with guns!  They fired their weapons and attacked some employees.  Then the calmly strolled off with over $108 million in jewelry and watches.  This crime has also never been solved, although most people think it is the work of the Pink Panther organization.

5.  August 2009:  Graff Diamonds

Similar to the previous crime, this one also involved criminals altering their appearance to look innocent.  This time instead of changing genders they decided to look like old men.  At London’s Graff Diamonds, they walked in, showed their guns, and walked out with $65 million worth of goods.  Then, they drove away in a getaway car, fired some shots and got away.  But one of the crooks left a cell phone in the car and it led to their arrests.  However, like in most of these cases, the loot was never found.

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