[MSN] The World's Most Remarkable Heists

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The World's Most Remarkable Heists
Lisa Lerer, 02.13.07, 3:00 PM ET

Pictures:
http://snipurl.com/1a48f


In 1950, when a gang of thieves broke into the heavily guarded offices of
the Brinks Mat's armored car company in Boston, the headlines heralded it
the crime of the century. The building was considered impenetrable, but the
thieves managed to walk out with $2.8 million in cash, checks and money
orders. The crime shocked even then-FBI head J. Edgar Hoover, who theorized
that it might be a communist plot. 

Today, the Brinks bandits seem like petty crooks robbing a 7-11. Over the
past several years, a spate of high-netting robberies has fascinated crime
aficionados. The burglaries are innovative, meticulously planned heists. 

To break into a bank vault in Brazil, a gang of thieves spent three months
digging a 260-foot tunnel under a busy city avenue. The work paid off: They
lifted $81.6 million over the course of a weekend in August 2005. 

A year later, a team of British thieves tracked down the wife and 8-year-old
son of the manager of a cash deposit facility in Kent, England. The family
was used as hostages in a complex plan to pressure the manager into giving
the thieves access to the warehouse, run on behalf of the Bank of England by
Swedish security company Securitas. They walked away with over $100 million
in cash.

In Pictures: The World's Most Remarkable Heists 
These crime stories often turn into mysteries, particularly when art is
involved. Much of the work stolen in the biggest art thefts--be it from
museums, galleries or homes--remains missing. Thirty works taken in the 1990
heist of Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum have never been seen
again--despite a $5 million reward offered by the FBI. Rumors have variously
implicated terrorist groups, drug dealers and organized crime in the heist.

The disappearance of the paintings isn't that shocking. Really valuable
contraband art is hard to unload. After all, the more famous the work, the
more recognizable it is, and serious buyers will certainly know they're
paying millions for stolen art. "Most people aren't going to buy a Rembrandt
without checking out its history," says law professor Patty Gerstenblith,
director of DePaul University's program in cultural heritage law. "Buyers
are concerned about where the work is coming from. Presumably no one could
sell stolen work on the market openly."

Lack of liquidity doesn't seem to stop the criminals. University of
Missouri-St. Louis criminology professor Richard Wright calls the heisters
"super-criminals." They tend to start small and move up, often getting
recruited in prison. "It's a really rare talent," says Wright. "So many
people play and so few are pros."

Common street criminals, the kind who commit muggings or holdups at
convenience stores, tend to be desperate, undisciplined and lack
self-control. "They never stop talking about their criminality," says
Wright. But big heists take a very different kind of person, someone who's
extraordinarily organized, trustworthy and, above all, discreet. Bragging
about an uber-crime will certainly end with jail time. "These crimes fly in
the face of everything we know about criminals," says Wright.

Maybe that's exactly why we love them. Big crime heists are a favorite
Hollywood motif, be it Ocean's 11 or The Italian Job. Real-life bandits are
even more fascinating. We love the ballsy criminals, complicated schemes and
huge payouts. "These are rare events," says Wright. "That makes them
remarkable."

In compiling our list of the world's most remarkable heists, we stuck to the
jobs that truly amazed--and were successful, at least for a time. Simply
lifting a whole lot of cash wasn't enough to make the cut. We also ruled out
war looting, identity theft schemes and corporate crimes. For the best
comparison, we adjusted the takes to 2006 dollars.

In Pictures: The World's Most Remarkable Heists:
Pictures:
http://snipurl.com/1a48f