How the gang behind the Antwerp diamond heist committed one of history’s biggest thefts and got away with it — almost.
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The Antwerp Diamond District is one of the most heavily secured office in the humans , with billions of dollars of diamond change deal there every year . And it was there in 2003 that one gang of thieves pulled off one of the largest diamond heists in history .
Even though most of the crew , cognize as the School of Turin , has since been arrested , the diamonds have never been retrieve .
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The man behind theAntwerp baseball field armed robbery , Leonardo Notarbatolo , was intimate with the area . He sometimes journey there to hock off adamant steal back home in Italy , having been a stealer since the age of eight ( his first victim was the milkman ) .
While law enforcement conceive that Notarbartolo was the ringleader , he has said that an unnamed rhomb bargainer recruit him . This nameless mankind , Notarbartolo claims , paid him to take pictures of the vault ’s complex security organisation and create a replica of the hurdle .
Then , with the assistance of a group of dealers , and Notarbartolo ’s School of Turin , the thieves forge a style to get into the secure vault . ultimately , on Feb. 16 , 2003 , they do their plan .
The thief got through the 10 layers of security , previously thought to be impenetrable . They bypass cameras , the combo telephone dial , the keyed lock , magnetized sensors , the locked brand logic gate , light sensor , heat and motion sensor , and keypad disarming sensors . They used atomic number 13 to fox the charismatic discipline and stripped plastic off the wires of the detector ’s circuits . Then , they load up purse of diamonds and other jewel . It took two minute to get it all out of the building .
But , thanks to one gang member , things finally precipitate apart . That man was Pietro Tavano , known as Speedy and one of Notarbartolo ’s womb-to-tomb friends .
However , Tavano did n’t have his Quaker ’s level brain . After the looting , they cart the diamond into a duad railway car . On the way back , Speedy had a panic blast , and made Notarbartolo force the car over .
presently , Speedy was throwing the grounds into the Wood . After calm his booster down , they recovered most of the contents and speed off . But they did n’t pull in they were on private property , which belonged to August Van Camp , a Belgian troglodyte .
He call the police force because of the debris , which contain videotape film strung about , a half - eaten sandwich , dozens of small diamond , and a reception for a video surveillance scheme . It was enough evidence to link the crime to Notarbartolo .
Nevertheless , Notarbartolo stick to his story that he was n’t the ringleader of the Antwerp infield rip-off , and has never led authorisation to the whereabouts of the diamonds .
After this look at the Antwerp diamond armed robbery , show up on theBerlin gold coin heistthat ’s as unbelievable as they come .
