(footsteps)
- Yeah. You know what they say.
A kiss on the hand may be quite continental.
♫But diamond's are a girl's best friend♫
- Well at least that's what Marilyn Monroe, Carol Channing,
and certain criminal masterminds think.
- Yeah.
- And regardless of their shiny appeal,
isn't there something compelling about getting away
with millions of dollars in diamonds?
- Run.
- Well here are five of the biggest, craziest heists
ever pulled off successfully.
- [Voiceover] How exciting.
- It's 1994 at the luxurious Carlton Hotel
in Cannes, France.
This place is so fancy, it's bedazzled
with it's own jewelry store and in walk three masked men
at closing time, spraying machine gun fire around
like they're on a "Call of Duty" mission or something.
Of course everyone either hit the deck
or fled in terror, so these guys easily swept
roughly 60,000,000 in gems into they're bag before escaping.
♫Oh, my♫
- Afterword the police realized that despite all
the gun play, there wasn't a single
bullet hole in the walls.
In fact the robbers had been firing blanks the whole time,
and to this day they were never apprehended.
They could be watching this video right now.
I mean, maybe it's you. Hey.
Welcome to Den Haag where the Museon Museum of Science
has approximately 12,000,000 in diamonds
for an educational exhibit, or at least they did
until 2002 when someone ran the jewels.
♫Like who really run this?♫
- Literally they disappeared without a trace.
During a window of time when the museum was closed
security guards, motion detectors and surveillance cameras
didn't catch a thing.
The only sign that someone was there at all
was a single broken window leading into the building.
I mean, and, you know, the empty cases
where they used to have diamonds.
And just between us, one of those was a gift
from King William III to Queen Mary II of England.
And here's another line from that song,
"square cut or pear shaped, these rocks
"don't loose their shape" especially if they're
worth around 118,000,000.
♫Oh, my♫
- Yep that is the estimated value
of the largest diamond heist ever.
At least up to now.
This happened when a truck was hijacked
and looted at Amsterdam's airport in 2005.
The crew stole uniforms and a truck from this cargo company
and then they just drove right up, forced the real drivers
out at gunpoint, hopped in their diamond-filled vehicle
and skidaddled, just drove away.
♫Runnin' the jewels of the game♫
- Still not caught. Police think they may have had
inside help. Oh, really?
But the thieves were never apprehended.
So Antwerp in Belgium is one of the
diamond capitols of the world.
I mean like, 80% of the worlds uncut gems
go through that town.
In 2007 the staff at ABN-AMRO Bank
in Antwerp got to know a successful business man
in his late 50's named Carlos Hector Flomenbaum.
Didn't make that up, that's the name.
He made small talk, he bought them some boxes of chocolates,
you know, gradually escalating it.
Eventually he gains VIP access to their vault
and that is when he emptied five deposit boxes
and waltzed out under their noses
with $28,000,000 in precious stones.
(whip) ♫We run this♫
Flomenbaum was a charming, gray fox
who was never captured.
They still don't really know his actual name.
I mean, I assume it's not Flomenbaum, I assume they couldn't
just like, Google him and find him.
Here's another quote, "The French are glad to die for love.
"They delight in fighting duels."
♫But I prefer a man who lives
♫and gives expensive jewels♫
- Or, in this case, more like a man dressed like a woman.
In the case of the 2008 Harry Winston
store robbery in Paris.
Dressed in female clothes and wearing wigs,
four guys drew handguns before sashaying away
with about $107,000,000 in jewelry and diamonds.
They'd obviously cased the joint
since they knew the location of all the secret safes
and they even knew the first names of the employees.
Like, "Derrick, how are you doin'? Get on the ground."
So now I'm curious. What's your master plan
for a diamond heist?
Let us know in the comments below,
and be sure to check your plan
against even more big heists in our original article
at howstuffworks.com once you're back at the safe house.
You can also always throw us a like or subscribe,
it's like tipping for diamond thieves.
Right there. Somewhere in this area.
Click. Click. When are we gonna stop rolling?
I'm just gonna, okay. (laughs)
(bell toll)
♫Acting brave and courageous ain't
♫advantageous for health and safety♫
♫So when we say run the jewels just run 'em baby,
♫please don't delay me♫
- So when we say run the jewels, just run 'em baby,
please don't delay me.