It was February 2008 , and a woman in Milan sound off to police about early - sunup noise in her neighborhood . But there was construction going on nearby , and the police don the noise must be coming from there .
No one thought much about the fact that the fair sex lived near the human race - famousDamianijewelry showroom until four masked stealer showed up in the storage . The building was secured with a high - techalarm systemand an armed sentry go at the front doorway . None of that really count , though , since thieves had been drilling a hollow every sunrise through the 4 - foot ( 1.2 - meter ) paries that separated the showroom basement from the cellar next room access . Because they were in the construction , they bypassed guardsposted at the salesroom entrance .
The timing was nearly perfect . Damiani had been make for a private screening , so there were no customers in the showroom ; but there was enough stave to get to the safe . The stealer were in and out in a half - hr , making off with meg of dollars ' worth ofdiamondjewelry .
But why was this infield heist justnearlyperfect ? The thieves would have made off with much , much more really had they not robbed the saleroom in February around theOscars . Some of Damiani ’s most worthful pieces were on loanword to Hollywood ’s A - inclination whizz , let in Oscar winner Tilda Swinton , who had been given Damiani ’s one - of - a - kind " Sahara Bracelet . " That bracelet alone has 1,865 diamonds totaling more than 47 kt . Swinton also had been loaned Damiani ’s 4.21 - carat " Mimosa Ring . " The thieves missed out on those , although such famous pieces probably would have been near impossible to unload .
baseball diamond thieves — at least the one who bring home the bacon — are smart . Stealing baseball diamond is n’t like stealing car . The security measure that protects high - value precious stone is gruelling to bypass , even for the expert , and selling these gemstone is almost as difficult as stealing them .
In this clause , we ’ll expect at some of the public ’s largest and most famous diamond stickup , including one in which the thief made off with $ 28 million in diamond using nothing but charm . And we ’ll discuss what it pack the convert steal diamonds into John Cash . How does someone sell a steal 33 - carat diamond , anyway ?
In 1959 , two man tried to do just that .
The Diamond Theft: Quick and Dirty
Most diamond larceny are far less sophisticated than the 2008 Damiani raid ( and far less brainy ) . Vera Krupp , for representative , wore her 33 - carat diamond ring everywhere , according to the FBI . Its profane - clean center stone was about the sizing of a marble . When two workforce broke into her ranch outside Las Vegas in 1959 , they had to literally pry it off her finger , draw stock .
In 2021 , a serviceman steal a diamond from a jewelry store in Pennsylvania using the snap - and - run method acting . Just before completion meter , he asked to depend at some diamond , and as soon as the employee place them on the counter , he took them and run . Surveillance videocaught the robbery , and a faculty member recognize him from an earlier visit .
In 2016 , a woman absconded withdiamonds valued at $ 5.7 millionby posing as a gemologist and engaging in sleight of handwriting . Lulu Lakatos walked into London jewelerBoodlescalling herself Anna and claim she was there to inspect the diamond on behalf of an investor . Lakatos switch the pocketbook of diamond for one hold back pebble , then left the storehouse , convert her clothes in a bath and hopped on the Eurostar . She wasfound guilty of stealing the diamonds in 2021 , but the gems were not recuperate .
Still , the most vulgar methods of steal diamonds often go unnoticed . There ’s a reason why deal of masses take a firm stand on watching while a jeweller does fixture or resizes on valuable pieces : A jeweler can easy switch out a baseball diamond for acubic zirconia , or a perfect diamond for one that ’s blemished .
Jack Hasson , ajeweler in Palm Beach , Florida , was condemn to 40 year in jail in 2000 for switch outreal diamond for fakeswhen people came in for fix . In all , he stole more than $ 80 million in jewel from a wide range of victim ( including famous golfers Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman ) . Hasson was convicted of fake , money laundering and blockage of Justice Department .
However , unscrupulous jewelers ca n’t slip anywhere near the number of baseball diamond as those ferment in the real diamond mines .
According toreporting by The Atlantic , all along the South African slide , worker regularly walk off with millions of dollar bill in rough ( full-length ) stones . As they pull adamant from the boil - up seabed gravel , they check to see if guards are watching , and if not , they slip one or two under their fingernails .
Later , when it ’s dependable , they withdraw them , insert them into an porta or load them onto home pigeon . One thief in Namaqualand was caught when a precaution tell apart a home pigeon stress unsuccessfully to take off . The humans had loaded so many diamonds into his bird ’s harness , it could n’t get off the ground [ source : The Atlantic ] .
In the workrooms , where the level is strewn with small diamonds , employee wear glue - soled boot and take the air right out of the mine with — yes — with diamond stuck to thesoles of their shoes . According to The Atlantic coverage , De Beers , the South African diamond conglomerate , randomly go - rays workerson their way out . diamond fluoresce when expose to X - shaft of light , but because of the peril of day-to-day radiation exposure , De Beers can only scan periodically , so band of pocketed diamond make it out mine and workrooms .
Theft from the mines is just part of life on the Diamond Coast . De Beers spends million of clam every week buying stolen diamonds back so they do n’t deluge the marketplace and cause diamond damage to tank . The caller has figure that workers slip up to 30 percent of the mine ' yield [ origin : The Atlantic ] . In these mining township , it ’s well-off to sell a slip baseball field .
Even with hauls in the gazillion , it ’s not the quiet larceny that draw real attention . It ’s the big , glamorous heists — unity where stealer walk off with bags of diamonds in a brainy show of solitaire and planning .
So , what ’s the most unconvincing diamond heist on the phonograph recording books ? Probably the one in which the thief charmed his room into the dependable .
The Diamond Heist: Months in the Planning
Real - worlddiamondheists are amazingly like the heists we see in the movies . And they ’re not nearly as rare as you might think .
Thelargest diamond stickup everoccurred in Antwerp , Belgium , one of the earthly concern ’s ball field capitals . The Antwerp Diamond Center building vault include 160 secure deposit box in which diamond factor give their stones .
In February 2003,123 of those box were emptiedof their content by four people who had been plan the thieving for at least two twelvemonth . They lease office place in the building , analyzed the alarm organisation and learned how to go around it , steal keys to the vault and made copies . Before leaving the construction , the thief even managed to take the security photographic camera footage . One of the thieves and possibly the ringleader , Leonardo Notarbartolo , was later caught with 17 diamonds from the heist , but the majority of the $ 100 million worth of diamonds and other gems still have not been found .
Diamond armed robbery happen at least every few old age . After all , diamonds are minor , lightweight and valuable . andpolice dogscan’t sniffle them out at the airport . For the same cause , diamonds are protected by the best security systems useable : infrared sensing element , " unbreakable " prophylactic , guards with guns and speech sound with lineal line to the police when they ’re pilfer off the receivers . Antwerp even has special police patrolling the ball field center . But sometimes , even the best security measures does n’t help , particularly when the thief is give keys to the vault .
That is what happen inanother famous Antwerp baseball diamond heist .
No one knows his real name , but people at the ABN Amro Bank in Antwerp ’s diamond substance have sex him as Carlos Hector Flomenbaum , a successful man of affairs who ’d been frequenting the camber for at least a year . The bank building ’s employee be intimate the guy . He brought them chocolates , chatted them up and was generally friendly , wizard and good .
At the diamond center ’s ABN Amro , trusted , top client are given keys to the vault so they can access their diamonds at odd hr . " Flomenbaum " became one of these trusted central holders . Sometime between March 2 and March 5 , 2007 , he walk out of the bank with 120,000 carats of diamonds worth about $ 28 million — and they were not his .
The ABN Amro Bank had a $ 2 million security organisation , but " Flomenbaum " never had to deal with it . He used his pass carte to get into the hurdle , decease direct for the arena that housed rough diamonds , and emptied five of the safe deposit boxes . Some experts say the cant should n’t have had multiple security deposit boxes in an domain that could be accessed by a single box holder with a keycard . Each person should have only been able to get to his or her own box .
The Antwerp infield district is obviously a major mark , but there are others . In 2002,thieves robbed a museum in The Haguethat was host a diamond exhibit and leave with millions of dollars ' Charles Frederick Worth of stones . No one knows how they did it , seeing as the exhibit had detector and security cameras running 24 60 minutes a day .
But the gross crime often falls to pieces when thieves attempt to unload their stolen gems . That ’s how the not - so - graceful robbery of Vera Krupp ’s diamond theft in 1959 ended . When one of the thieves tried to sell her 33 - carat rhombus , the FBI knew about it immediately .
Selling the Rock
In 1959 , the FBI did n’t justrecover Vera Krupp ’s immense , recognizable center gem , they also recovered the modest side stones . There ’s a mesh that traces the purchasing and merchandising of diamonds — especially cut Edward Durell Stone — around the world .
baseball diamond are n’t sluttish to deal — even when you actually own them . Jewelry shop will seldom buy back diamonds they ’ve sold to people . But there are exceptions . Take two owned by Elizabeth Taylor .
In 1979 Taylor wanted to betray her 69 - karat Cartier infield known as the Taylor - Burton Diamond . It had been a gift from her twice - married man Richard Burton , who pay $ 1.1 million when he purchase it as a ring in 1969 . Taylor had Cartier suspend the huge Pyrus communis - influence baseball diamond from a necklace mounted inplatinum , because she order it was much too large as a band . When she went to sell the ball field , ajeweler in New York give between $ 3 and $ 5 million for it .
Incidentally , Burton also gaveTaylor Vera Krupp ’s 33.19 carat Asscher - cut adamant ringafter it was recovered by the FBI . Burton purchase it fromSotheby ’s in 1968 for $ 307,000 — a record - eminent auction bridge damage at the time . Renamed theElizabeth Taylor Diamondafter Taylor ’s expiry in 2011 , the diamond was auction off by Christie ’s and bought by a South Korea pudding stone fornearly $ 9 million .
So think what ’s it ’s like to hear to sell a stolen diamond with no follow newspaper publisher . There are unscrupulous jewelers and individuals out there who are unforced to buy stolen gems . And there are enough of them to make a professional armed robbery worth the hazard . But the thief had well key out the buyer beforehand , as shop at the jewel around is likely to get them catch .
If " Flomenbaum " ever strain to trade , say , the 133 - carat uncut stone he stole from ABN Amro , he would be facing an acclivitous battle .
Consider John William Hagenson who was caught trying to sell a bare 33 - carat stone . Hagenson ’s the thief who rip the ring off Vera Krupp ’s finger’s breadth in 1959 , and the FBI tracked him from Las Vegas to Louisiana . They live who they were looking for because Hagenson had committed a like offence in California . And after they found Hagenson , they set up the diamond , too — in New Jersey . The FBI has witness in the diamond barter , and one tumble off the Newark field agency when a 33 - kt Edward Durell Stone turned up for sales event . The FBI recover the side stones from a jeweller in St. Louis . Krupp was able to put her entire ring back together and back on her digit .
While a 33 - kt diamond is n’t something you see every day , sure as shooting there ’s more than one in the globe . So how ’d the cops recognize it belong to Krupp ?
Recovering the Loot
It ’s pretty amazing how diamonds are recovered . There ’s a world-wide connection that swear on two basic principles to get diamonds back to their possessor . First , diamonds are uniquely identifiable . Second , it ’s in almost everyone ’s best interest to recover a stolen gem .
The latter is gentle to understand in full term of indemnity . It costs an infrangible lot to insure diamonds . Liz Taylor ’s 69.42 - carat ring originally belong to publishing heiress Harriet Annenberg Ames , who put it up for sale because it was cost her $ 30,000 a class just to keep the thing in her safe — and that was in the 1960s [ source : Edward Jay Epstein ] .
insurance policy companies tolerate to lose millions of clam when a adamant is never found , and everyone ’s agio go up as a result . Plus , jewelers rely on their name to make the big sale . combine is essential in the business . If a jewelry maker receives a stolen diamond and aim a forged repute in the industry , their sales will suffer .
The recovery internet is immense . The diamond patronage is a small world that span the globe . TV shows often show the police force sending out bulletins to pawnshops when jewellery is stolen . This is substantial , except the news goes out to everyone in the diamond world — jeweler , pawnbroker’s shop , diamond traders , rhomb cutters and anyone else who might come into striking with a stolen stone .
Buying stolen gem can also be a serious crime . Plus , without a certificate of authenticity to demonstrate the infield is not from a conflict expanse like Sierra Leone ( a " conflict diamond " or " blood rhomb " ) , it ’s too great a danger for a jeweler to have it in their assembling . hoi polloi caught trading inblood diamondsface significant legal ramifications .
Stolen diamonds can also be positively identified . There are feature of each diamond that are entirely unique , and people have add up up with various ways to record these characteristics . When you get a diamond certified , that ’s what you ’re doing — subjecting the Lucy Stone to a series of test that can identify it . A few of the tests that can identify a ball field include
If a jeweler switches out your gemstone while doing resort , these tests can have you know that the diamond in your ringing after the repair is not the same one that you took in . If your band is steal and it turns up at a jewelry depot , this certification tells police whose diamond it is .
However , identifying numbers can be polish off when a infield is cut and polished . An Oxford investigator has been working on a style toengrave inside the diamond alternatively . Reducing their size lowers their value , but it ’s a elbow room for thieves to keep them from being describe .
Even when no one calls the police , and a rhombus stealer is successful in selling the gems , it ’s seldom much of a winner . While one must assume that some magnanimous - metre thieves have disastrous market place connection that will get them deal a vast baseball field for huge payback , most thieves must root for the modest - time fences ( pass catcher of steal goods ) that pay nowhere near what a infield is really deserving .
In 1979 , when New York Citypolice recover $ 50,000 worth of stolen diamondsfrom a fence , it turned out he ’d paid the stealer $ 200 for the stones . And the stealer was turn in by one of the many jewelers he ’d border on when he was looking for a purchaser . For your everyday thief , steal a diamond just seems deserving the drive .
