two gemologists sat in the basement of a world-renowned jewelry store in london
a woman named anna examined millions of dollars worth of diamonds on behalf of
some wealthy russian benefactors she completed her review and confirmed they were the real deal
then she locked the diamonds in a padlock box and left the store until the buyers could send
the cash the next day the staff discovered the diamonds had been switched for fakes
instead of million dollar gems they found everyday garden pebbles you could pick up from the streets
in march of 2016 a sweet 60 year old grandma carried out the largest shoplifting crime in
british history totaling 4.2 million pounds worth of stolen diamonds so how did this
gray-haired granny swindle millions of dollars in diamonds from professional jewelry executives
lulules is a romanian-born woman from saint bruce france who lived in a commune with her husband
and sister lyanna however these sisters fell on hard times but instead of walking the straight
and arrow they opted to follow a life of crime the sisters racked up a slew of theft charges by 2002
when it came time to steal the precious diamonds in 2016 liliana was wanted in switzerland for a
string of fraud charges meanwhile lulu was a known thief in france liliana's most egregious swiss
crime paralleled the one that would later land her sister in prison she tried her hand at swindling
400 000 euros and successfully she walked into a swiss bank and using sleight-of-hand techniques
swapped a bank envelope full of euros for one filled with worthless paper
a classic switcheroo liliana waited for the bank executive to be distracted by a phone call before
making the swap and leaving the bank the police never charged leliana with the crime for some
reason even though they knew it was her perhaps the success of this scheme pushed the girls
towards their next big feat because these two were pulling off some seriously high skill crimes you'd
assume they weren't acting alone and they weren't in fact they had a gang of little helpers to aid
them in their plans for their next big act the crew zeroed in on a shiny multi-million dollar
target poodle a jewelry store in london with their eyes on a much larger prize one of lulu's thieving
pals contacted the store's owner nicholas wainwright under the fake name of simon glass
he told wainwright that he was a spokesperson for some wealthy russian investors interested
in purchasing several high-value diamonds over the phone they arranged a face-to-face meeting where
they convinced wainwright to fly out to monaco to discuss the specifics of this transaction although
wainwright didn't do business this way this simon glass character floated a higher price than the
diamonds were actually worth with that kind of money on the table wainwright obliged a source
with knowledge of the case said wainwright thought these strange russian men were simply uneducated
in the jewelry world and had more money than sense perhaps wainwright was so blinded by their offer
that he missed all the red flags red flag number one wealthy russian investor wainwright touched
down in monaco and met mr glass for lunch after some tough negotiations they reached a deal for
seven hand-picked diamonds one of which was worth 2.2 million dollars the stipulation was that the
russians would send their own gemologists to inspect the quality of the diamonds prior to
purchase once she verified their authenticity then the multi-million dollar wire would go through
and the diamonds would be turned over for sale wainwright agreed to their specifications several
days later lulu walked into the store posing as the russians hired gemologists she met with mr
wainwright and the store's own gemologist emma barton however lulu introduced herself as anna
she entered the store wearing a camel coat low tip designer hat thick frame glasses and a pink
silk scarf she removed her coat to reveal a low-cut black dress that according to store
associates made her look like a russian dancer perhaps she was after a certain allure by dressing
this way wayne wright described it as unattractive tawdry and homely it was distracting if anything
which was lulu's plan all along mr wainwright and emma led lulu down a glass staircase leading to
the basement vault there she was presented with the previously selected diamonds to verify for
quality she weighed the stones and inspected them under ultraviolet light before wrapping each stone
and tissue paper she then placed them into a bag and then into another box boodles would keep that
box under lock and key until the transaction was complete mr wainwright watched lulu like a
hawk until he received a perfectly timed phone call from the mysterious russian investors he
noticed some suspicious behaviors from lulu at this point like the fact that she didn't use an
eyeglass to inspect the stones a typical tool for any gemologist nonetheless he walked away to take
the call as soon as mr wainwright was out of sight lulu took the zip bag of diamonds and placed it
in her purse emma sprang into action saying how she needed to see the diamonds at all times she
couldn't believe she had to ask lulu to please take them out of her purse in a broken english
accent lulu assured emma that there was nothing to worry about she was sorry and blamed the language
barrier for the confusion she took the bag out of her purse and placed it back on the table
emma promptly picked up the bag and returned the diamonds to the safe when mr wayne wright returned
from his phone call emma barton immediately told him about what had happened and he searched
lulu's purse however he didn't find anything little did he know lulu had a concealed pocket
inside her purse where she hid the decoy bag and performed the swap mr wainwright agreed
with lulu chalking it up to miscommunication now in the clear lulu left the store with 4.2 million
pounds worth of diamonds in her purse cctv footage showed lulu leaving the store and meeting with two
female accomplices walking alongside her on the street she discreetly dropped the bag of diamonds
into one of the girls shopping bags as they walked then she turned into a nearby pub where she
stopped inside for a cold one here she met another member of her con artist gang named georgetta
danila who brought her a change of clothes in the bathroom after the pub the two caught a train to
paris the two women who now had the diamonds in their shopping bags met with two more male helpers
named stankovic and jovanovic the men caught their own taxis bound for east london three hours after
committing the crime lulu was out of the country within 24 hours she'd come in committed the crime
and left the following day emma couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right about the
mysterious gemologist named anna so she decided to x-ray the padlock box of diamonds just to be sure
the x-ray confirmed her suspicions they opened the vault removed the bag and checked inside
they were horrified when they discovered seven worthless pebbles similar in size to the diamonds
police tracked down stankovic and jovanovic by the id number on their taxi however it's unclear
what eventually led them to lulu they made off with the diamonds in 2016 and the two men were
arrested shortly after however lulu remained at large until 2021 did stankovic and jovanovich talk
did the police find enough evidence nobody can say for sure after her arrest lulu was extradited to
the uk to stand trial in a shocking twist lulu claimed her sister liliana committed the crime
here's the catch liliana passed away in 2019 after a car accident according to lulu liliana admitted
that she was the fake gemologist months before her accident as the story goes liliana stole lulu's
passport travel to the uk and swiped the diamonds she even took steps to age her appearance to look
more like lulu who was nine years older than her lulu was upset when liliana came clean however
she didn't have time to be angry as she dealt with her husband's prostate cancer she accepted
her sister's promise to make it up to her and turn herself in police recovered mixed dna samples from
the garden stones left in place of the diamonds they also lifted fingerprints from the glass table
in the basement showroom however the prince didn't match lulu's and the dna results from the stones
came back as inconclusive the prosecution relied heavily on the cctv footage and emma's testimony
where she picked lulu from a lineup and identified her as the culprit emma also brought up how lulu
didn't use an eyeglass and how suspicious that was as for the equipment she did have
she didn't seem to know how to use it she used her ultraviolet light under the standard shop lights
which a gemologist would never do ultraviolet needs to be in a dark room to work properly the
prosecutor phillip stott had a different theory that contradicted lulu's claim of identity theft
he believed lulu took advantage of liliana's death pinning the crime on her knowing she
couldn't defend herself perhaps to seek sympathy from the jury lulu fired back in her eyes liliana
would be there if she was still alive confessing to the crimes and accepting her punishment you can
always come back from jail but you can't come back from death maybe this tactic actually worked lulu
was only sentenced to five and a half years in prison in order to pay back 250 pounds of the 4.2
million pounds she stole meanwhile stankovic and jovanovic pled guilty and were sentenced to three
years and eight months after telling the jury that she had no idea she was even involved in a crime
danila was acquitted as for the diamonds nobody's seen them since detectives suspect that one of
the stones may have turned up at a belgian jewelry store in 2017 but couldn't prove anything when the
paperwork didn't match every report about the case drew the same comparison between lulu's diamond
heist and ocean's 11. they committed brazen theft in plain view of trained staff they used
sleight-of-hand techniques and careful planning to get in and out before anyone ever noticed
they swapped the diamonds like indiana jones and rode off into the sunset like frank ocean
himself in the end boodles was out millions of dollars millions lulu probably stashed away on
a tropical island click to watch one of these next videos let us know in the comments section
whether or not you think there's a difference between natural diamonds and lab made diamonds