- Just because someone steals something
doesn't mean that they're as poor as Aladdin.
We often assume that when someone steals,
it's because they're hard off financially,
but in reality some people just steal for the thrill of it,
because, well, they're already rich.
All the way from celebrities to kings,
these people are the last that you would
ever expect to be thieves, but they are.
These are the 10 richest thieves on the planet.
Number one is King Farouk of Egypt.
Looks like the crown jewels weren't enough.
In 1936, King Farouk became the 10th king of Egypt
at only 16 years old.
He was known for basically acting like a rampaging toddler,
including taking whatever he wanted
from whomever he wanted whenever he wanted.
During a state visit, King Farouk stole
Winston Churchill's watch right out of his pocket
and then wore it around like, "Hey, finders keepers, bro."
Then, in 1944, the Shah of Persia died
and when his coffin was brought to Cairo,
King Farouk showed his respects by stealing
a ceremonial sword, belt, and medals right off of his body.
Oh, the man dead, he's not gonna use 'em.
Given that he had the attitude of a spoiled child star,
it's not surprising that he wasn't exactly well-liked,
and in 1952, he was overthrown and forced into exile.
But then, his horde of treasure was later discovered,
which included everything from, prepare yourself for this,
rare coins and stamps, fine art, magic tricks,
and even the world's largest collection of porn.
Well, guess everyone needs a hobby.
Number two is Nick Prugo.
From October 2008 to August 2009,
a group of wealthy rich kids decided
to go on a burgling spree.
Well yeah, those 10 yachts get boring quickly.
The ringleader, Rachel Lee, who drove an Audi A4 by the way,
and her friend, Nick Prugo,
first decided to break into Paris Hilton's mansion.
Over the next 10 months, they broke into her home
at least five times stealing personal items and even,
for some reason, trying on her shoes.
This must be what it's like to have no talent.
They then decided to recruit their friends,
Alexis Neiers, Diana Tamayo, and Courtney Ames
to join them and broke into at least 50 more homes,
including other celebrities like Orlando Bloom,
Lindsay Lohan, Rachel Bilson, and Megan Fox.
They used social media to see if their targets were home
and then Google mapped directions to those homes.
In total, they stole over $3 million in clothing,
jewelry, accessories, and cash.
Prugo's face was caught on surveillance
and the rest of the group was caught
because they were bragging online,
coupled with an anonymous tip
that led to all of their arrests.
Must be nice to have all that money
and just continue to be stupid.
Spoiled little (bleep).
Number three is Thomas Langenbach.
Thomas Langenbach was vice president of mega tech firm SAP,
had a good marriage, two kids, and a beautiful house
worth $2 million in San Carlos, California.
But was that enough? Obviously not.
Langenbach used the internet to get his thrills,
but on eBay, that is, using the screen name TomsBrickYard
and reselling of all things Lego.
Turns out, Langenbach was printing off fake barcodes
for Lego products at home before switching them in store.
His bar codes would scan in way lower prices
for really expensive Lego sets,
so this meant that he could buy Lego
for a fraction of the real cost
before going home and selling it on eBay for a profit.
And man, was he good.
In under one year, he made $30,000
and had a 99.9% positive rating.
But, the world of Lego trafficking proved to be too much
and he was arrested on May 8th, 2012 and charged
with four felony accounts of second degree burglary.
Somebody didn't get to play with their toys enough as a kid.
Number four is Caroline Giuliani.
I don't know about you, but when I'm heading to Sephora
with hundreds of dollars in my wallet,
it's about to be shopping spree madness
for the hottest new palettes and definitely
that new mulberry matte lipstick, you know.
I mean, uh, trucks, man.
Sports, wrestling, guy stuff.
Anyways, on August 4th, 2010, Caroline Giuliani,
daughter of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani,
had similar plans minus the whole actually paying thing.
The then 20 year old Harvard student was caught stealing
over $100 worth of makeup from a Sephora in New York City
near her home in the Upper East Side,
despite both of her parents being multimillionaires
and having $320 in cash in her purse.
Although she was led out in handcuffs
and had to complete one whole day of community service,
it just so happened that the store decided
not to press charges against Caroline
once they found out who her daddy was.
Lucky.
Number five is Farhad Hakimzadeh.
Farhad Hakimzadeh was a millionaire,
respected author, publisher, and businessman,
but from 1997 to 2005, he had another hobby,
stealing thousands of pounds worth of priceless texts
from a British library.
These people, man, is whacked.
As a frequent visitor of the library,
he was given access to some of the library's
most precious manuscripts,
which he said he wanted to look at for research.
But in reality, he would use a small hidden scalpel
to remove the pages and smuggle them out
for his private collection.
It was only after another patron noticed
that the pages were missing from a bunch of manuscripts
that the library did a massive audit
and discovered that he was the only person
who had viewed all of the damaged books.
When police searched his home, they found the stolen goods,
including a 16th century golden-lined map
engraving of the world worth 30,000 pounds.
Overall, he caused 71,000 pounds in damages
and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Number six is Rita Crundwell.
From 1983 to 2012, Rita Crundwell was the finance chief
in Dixon, Illinois, a small city located west of Chicago.
She was also the city's comptroller
and was a well-respected member of the community,
but that all changed on April 17th, 2012,
when she was arrested and charged
with stealing at least $53 million from the city.
Turns out being the only person in charge of a city's money
also makes it a lot easier to steal, like, a lot of it.
It was only while Crundwell was on a long vacation
that a co-worker who had taken over her duties
noticed that things weren't, you know, adding up.
Turns out an $80,000 a year salary wasn't enough for her.
Investigators found that over the years,
she had spent $2.1 million on a motor home,
$450,000 building a horse breeding empire,
and $2.5 million in credit card charges.
Rita now gets to spend the next 20 years in prison
to reflect on whether that vacation was really worth it.
Number seven is Dr. Richard Ludwig.
On March 5th, 2011 in Davenport, Florida,
Harrun Majeed, a 14 year Navy veteran,
lost his wallet while buying supplies
for his nine year old son's birthday party.
Majeed called his credit card company
less than 10 minutes after he lost his wallet,
but he was told his card was already being used.
Turns out Dr. Richard Ludwig,
a respected dentist from Michigan,
was in town for his son's baseball tournament
and had found Majeed's wallet
in the supermarket's parking lot.
Oh, but he's a respected dentist.
I'm sure he would've just gave it back.
No, he didn't!
Police caught Ludwig buying $40 worth of pizza
in the same plaza where he found the wallet.
When police asked if he was having money troubles,
Ludwig laughed and told them, "Absolutely not!"
And that he was worth nearly $4 million,
and he gave them no reason why he did it.
To make it even worse,
Ludwig had $250 cash in his pocket the whole time.
I'm sorry, there was a shortage of fillings this month
and I really want some pizza.
I'll use my credit card.
Number eight is Madhukar Mohandas Prabhakar.
Madhukar is known as the Robin Hood of India
and man, did he take stealing from the rich
to give the poor to a whole nother level.
For 40 years, he had been flying all the way
from his home in Pune, India to rob houses in Mumbai.
On May 15th, 2011, police finally caught him mid-robbery,
and during his interrogation,
not only did he confess to 90 other robberies,
but he also revealed that he was actually a multimillionaire
with multiple homes and even a temple.
But unlike most thieves, he wasn't using his loot
to pay for his own lavish lifestyle.
He would sell the things that he stole
and donated the money to the poor
or unemployed in his own town.
Oh man, I'm confused, is this okay or not?
It's kind of a grey area.
Anyway, it turns out that this wasn't even
the first time that he'd been caught.
He'd been arrested before,
but since his crimes were considered petty theft,
he could always afford to be released on bail.
Kind of hard to hate this guy.
I'm so confused.
Number nine is Winona Ryder.
In December of 2001, actress and '90s princess Winona Ryder
was arrested for shoplifting $5,560
worth of clothes and accessories
from the high end department store,
Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Of course, it's not like she needed to.
At the time, she was reportedly earning $6 million per film.
When she was caught on camera,
she tried to get out of it by telling security guards
that she was just researching for a new role.
After a highly publicized trial,
she was convicted of grand theft and vandalism.
She was fined $3,700, sentenced to 36 months probation,
and 480 hours of community service,
and even had to pay over $6,000 in restitution to the store.
Winona has actually said that the whole thing
was for the best and saved her from a downward spiral,
which is great,
because I for one would hate to see
her whole life get turned upside down.
Get it? 'Cause Stranger Things.
It's a Netflix show.
Yeah.
And number 10 is Bernie Madoff.
Bernie Madoff was the CEO of his own company
and was one of the most respected financiers on Wall Street.
That was until his arrest on December 11th, 2008.
Turns out bad boy Bernie was also running
the biggest Ponzi scheme in US history.
He was basically promising investors crazy high returns
on their investments that he could never actually pay off.
He was well-connected and well-liked,
which likely has something to do with
how he managed to pull off this con for decades.
Instead of paying his investors,
he actually stole nearly $65 billion from them.
When the market started to turn in 2008,
his clients requested $7 billion back,
but he only had 200 to 300 million left.
Before his arrest, Madoff's net worth was estimated to be,
brace yourself, $17 billion.
But he won't be able to use that for commissary
because it was all frozen, and on June 9th, 2009,
he was sentenced to 150 years in prison.
Well, it looks like the only thing he made off with
was being somebody's pin cushion in prison.
That should be fun.
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