5 Largest Diamond Heists

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Judging by the raging success of diamond thieves in Hollywood movies, one might think walking away with millions in diamonds is a snap. Or at the very least, a sure thing with the right amount of planning, cunning, good looks and some sort of inside connection. In the real world, of course, slipping out with the gems takes more than two hours of careful consideration.

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Diamond heists are surprisingly common. Some thieves try to get away with uncut stones because they're less recognizable. See more diamond pictures.

But such heists do work occasionally and happen pretty frequently. Every couple of years or so, a team of thieves gets away with a diamond heist. A heist is no mere robbery. It's a feat of patience and engineering that yields some of the biggest payouts in history. The weird thing is, it's hard to tell if the thieves ever see the cash, since in almost every major heist, the diamonds are never found.

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Are they buried under the floorboards of an abandoned basement somewhere? Were they sold to foreign princes on the down-low? Do evil collectors have them on display in underground lairs? Or is that diamond in the jewelry store's window the very same that was stolen from the Antwerp Diamond Center in 2003 and laundered through middlemen until it was clean enough for a legitimate jeweler to give it a second glance? We'll probably never know. But this much is for sure: The thieves who go for the high-security diamonds have guts.

In this article, we'll look at five of the biggest diamond heists in history, all of which went down in the last decade. We'll see how the thieves got the goods, how much they stole and what happened in the aftermath. Each heist in this article is the stuff of legend.

How exactly do some of the most famous diamonds in the world disappear while under 24-hour surveillance without a trace? That's exactly what happened in The Hague in 2002.

Heist 5: Night at the Museum (2002)

Where: The Museon Museum of Science, The Hague

When: Dec. 1 or 2, 2002

How much: Approximately $12 million

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One of the jewels stolen in the heist at The Hague was a wedding gift given by King William III to Queen Mary II of England.

In December 2002, thieves pulled off one of the most inexplicable diamond heists of all time. The Museon, a science museum in The Hague, Netherlands, was putting on a phenomenal diamond exhibit intended to educate the public about the gems. It showed the process of mining, cutting and polishing rough stones into some of the most famous pieces of jewelry in the world. There were royal pieces on display, as well as jewelry lent to the Museon by other museums and private collectors.

The most valuable pieces disappeared either Sunday night or Monday morning. Because the museum is closed on Mondays, the theft went undetected for at least a day. Museum officials came in on Tuesday to find that six of the exhibit's 28 display cases were empty.

The Museon had 24-hour security guards monitoring entrances and exits as well as 24-hour surveillance-camera footage that covered every square inch of the exhibit. The cabinets were all in a motion-detection zone, and the displays that housed the most valuable pieces (the displays the thieves emptied) were made of reinforced glass.

To this day, no one has any idea how the heist happened. Nothing showed up on the video footage, the guards never saw a thing, the motion sensors never went off, and the display cabinets showed no evidence of tampering. The only signs of a break-in were a single smashed window leading into the museum -- and the empty cases. The flawlessness of the heist suggests inside information, but investigators have been unable to make any connection between the robbery and museum staff.

The Museon hasn't released details about exactly which jewels were stolen, but insiders note that a wedding gift given by King William III to Queen Mary II of England in the 1600s was among the Museon's prized pieces [source: NIS News Bulletin]. The museum eventually put a price tag of about $12 million on the robbery, but since many of the stolen pieces had historical significance, the haul is really priceless.

The gems will probably never turn up for auction because they're too famous to go unnoticed by anyone in the jewelry world. And after several years of investigation without a single lead, detectives have closed the case.

If invisible thieves can get away with $12 million in stones, what do the very visible, well-armed and dangerous types go home with? Number four in our countdown is a possible record breaker.

Heist 4: Follow that Truck! (2005)

Where: Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam

When: Feb. 25, 2005

How much: Possibly $118 million (unconfirmed)

Number four in our lineup is not nearly as elegant as the Museon heist, but it makes the list for its sheer dollar amount. Because many of the stolen stones were uncut (and uncut stones are difficult to put a definite value on), an absolute figure has never been confirmed. But if the roughly $118 million estimate is correct, the Amsterdam airport heist is the largest diamond heist ever.

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Thieves stole a truckload of diamonds at Schiphol Airport.

The heist was more like something out of a gangster film than a sophisticated plot like "Ocean's 13" -- it was a truck hijacking, plain and simple. Two weeks before the heist, the thieves did a test run in a stolen KLM Cargo truck. At least one of the thieves broke into the freight area at Schiphol airport and made sure everything was in order. Then on Feb. 25, wearing stolen KLM uniforms and driving yet another stolen KLM truck, the gang drove right up to a truck carrying diamonds intended for a flight to Antwerp. With plenty of people watching, the team forced the drivers out of the truck at gunpoint, had them lie facedown on the ground, hopped into the truck and drove away.

Since the thieves obviously knew which truck to target and how to get their hands on KLM uniforms and a KLM truck (twice), police suspect inside help. Diamond merchants who lost millions in stones blame the airport's poor security. And the heist was actually the second time in six months that the cargo terminal had been infiltrated [source: BBC News]. Investigators haven't recovered the stones.

It's likely the diamonds stolen in the number three heist on our list will never show up again, either. They're too famous.

Heist 3: The Italian Job (2008)

Where: The Damiani showroom in Milan, Italy

When: Feb. 3, 2008

How much: Approximately $20 million

A woman in Milan complained to police at least once about early-morning noise in her neighborhood. But because there was a construction project going on nearby, nothing came from her complaints; the police (and everyone else) figured that the noise was coming from the workmen. No one considered that the woman lived practically next door to the world-famous Damiani jewelry showroom.

Damiani is a world-famous jeweler. Its building was secure, with a high-tech alarm system and an armed guard at the front door. None of that really mattered, though, since the thieves had been drilling a hole every morning through the 4-foot wall that separated the showroom basement from the basement next door.

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Thieves made off with millions of dollars worth of diamonds, rubies and gold from the Damiani showroom in Milan.

Their timing was almost perfect. The store had been preparing for a private showing, so there were no customers in the showroom -- just staff members who could open the vault. The thieves wore fake or stolen police uniforms and popped up in the showroom through an inner, unguarded entrance, at 10 AM. Unarmed, and apparently relying on surprise and disguise, they asked to see certain store records and then pounced, tying and gagging the staff. They temporarily untied one employee to open the safe. The operation took about a half hour, netting about $20 million in diamonds, rubies and gold [source: NY Post].

So what was the only flaw in such a grand heist? The thieves would have made off with much more had it not been Oscar time. Some of the most valuable pieces were out on loan to Hollywood's stars, including Oscar winner Tilda Swinton, who wore Damiani's "Sahara Bracelet," bearing 1,865 diamonds totaling more than 47 carats [source: Reuters]. The investigation is ongoing. Police suspect an inside job -- the timing was just too perfect.

Number two on our list almost definitely had inside help. How else could thieves have bypassed one of the most expensive security systems in the world?

Heist 2: I'm Sorry, but that's Impossible (2003)

Where: Antwerp Diamond Center, Antwerp, Belgium

When: Feb. 16, 2003

How much: Approximately $100 million

The largest diamond heist ever took place in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2003. With a confirmed value of at least $100 million, the complex crime goes down in the history books.

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A thief known as "Flomenbaum" made off with approximately $28 million worth of uncut diamonds.

Antwerp is one of the two diamond capitals in the world. The other one is Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Eighty percent of the world's uncut gems go through Antwerp, and many of them are stored for various periods of time in the underground vault of the Antwerp Diamond Center building.

Of the 160 safety deposit boxes where diamond brokers leave their stones (often just overnight) while brokering deals, only 123 were emptied of their contents. The thieves had so many diamonds to carry, they were forced to leave 37 vaults unopened, and Diamond Center employees came in to find loose diamonds strewn about the vault.

At least four people had been planning the theft for years. They rented office space in the building in 2000, analyzed the alarm system and learned how to bypass it. They also obtained keys to the vault and made copies. On the day of the break-in, they recorded over the security cameras and inserted fake tapes into the surveillance system to cover their movements. All of these coordinated actions suggest an inside job, and as it turns out, it was.

The gang was identified as a group known as the School of Turin -- a "brilliant" group of thieves that never uses violence. One member is known as the King of Thieves, and insiders refer to another one as the Magician with the Keys [source: BBC News]. The investigation accordingly led to Italy, and most of the group were arrested by Antwerp police working in conjunction with Italian law enforcement. One of the thieves had left his DNA on a half-eaten sandwich among diamond-carrying bags dumped in a ditch near the crime scene. Another thief's DNA was found in the vault. He had acted as a diamond merchant for years, apparently storing stones in the Diamond Center, and had somehow passed all of the Center's background checks.

Most of the thieves are in prison, but the $100 million worth of diamonds and other gems they stole have never been found. Italian police discovered some of the loot in a vault in Italy and photographed the items for confirmation, but by the time Antwerp authorities arrived to collect the stolen stones, they were gone -- removed from yet another supposedly secure location.

And now we come to the number one diamond heist on our list of the greats. It's not the biggest haul. But it is quite possibly the most impressive. How can you beat the long con?

Heist 1: A chocolate for your key? (2007)

Where: ABN Amro Bank, Antwerp, Belgium

When: March 2, 3, or 4, 2007

How much: Approximately $28 million

No one knows his real name, but the staff members at the ABN Amro bank in Antwerp's diamond district knew him as Carlos Hector Flomenbaum. Flomenbaum billed himself as a successful business man, and he'd frequented the bank for at least a year. The bank's employees loved the guy, described as a gray-haired man between the ages of 55 and 60, speaking American-accented English and brandishing an Argentinean passport. He brought the bank's workers boxes of chocolates, talked to them about non-diamond-related matters, and ultimately won their trust to the extent that he was given VIP access to the vault.

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A thief known as "Flomenbaum" made off with approximately $28 million worth of uncut diamonds.

At the bank, certain customers are given keys so they can access their diamonds at odd hours. "Flomenbaum" became one of these trusted key holders, and sometime between March 2 and March 5, 2007, he let himself into the vault and walked out the front door with 120,000 carats of diamonds.

The ABN Amro bank has a $2 million security system. But "Flomenbaum" never had to deal with that. He used his passcard to get into the vault, went straight for the area that he knew held uncut diamonds, and emptied five of the deposit boxes. Antwerp's diamond merchants were stunned. It's still unclear how a man with what turned out to be a stolen passport could have passed the bank's background checks.

Among the stolen gems were 41 blue and two extremely rare green stones. In all, the haul was worth about $28 million.

So whether the thieves are using a sledgehammer or a really sincere smile, there are at least a couple of things the big diamond heists have in common. First, a successful heist typically requires inside help. After all, we're talking about the most highly guarded carbon in the world. And second, while the thieves may be caught, the diamonds are almost never found.

THIS close to making history
In 2000, thieves attempted to steal $700M worth of diamonds from London's Millennium Dome. Among the intended booty were the world-famous Millennium Star diamond, weighing in at 203.04 carats, and 12 blue diamonds weighing a total of 118 carats, all owned by diamond conglomerate De Beers.

The thieves were heavily armed and threw gas canisters into the Dome to cover their entrance. Wearing gas masks, they ran in and smashed the display cases with sledgehammers. They were about to grab the diamonds when police officers, dressed as cleaning crew, rushed in and shut them down.

The police had been tipped off before the heist, and had already nabbed the speed boat that was the alleged getaway vehicle.

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