10 BIGGEST Craziest Heists Ever

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"From 850,000 missing bitcoins, to missing paintings and diamonds; these are the BIGGEST Craziest Heists Ever !

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10. America’s Data

The Equifax breach.

Short and to the point, in today’s online world, data is sometimes more valuable than cash.
Sure, the amount of personal data that facebook air quotes “lost” is and leaves a taste in your mouth, but is NOTHING compared to the amount of personal, highly sensitive data Equifax gave away.

Around 145.5 million americans, up to 44 million British and 8000 Canadian residents were affected by the breach. From the simple stuff like previous addresses, to the unthinkable, social security numbers.

Nothing has happened with the company yet, and after a sharp decline in their stock value, it seems to be normalizing again.

What do you think? Should any one company hold this much personal data? What is the alternative?

9.Mt.Gox

8.Gardner Museum Heist

6.Stephane Breitwieser - The world’s biggest art thief

Not to be confused with Budweiser, Breitwieser is one of the most notorious figures in the art world.

Between 1995 and 2001 Stephane stole 239 pieces of art with a worth estimated around 1.4 BILLION dollars. He took the artworks from 172 museums all over europe.

How was he able to achieve this?
By traveling europe and working as a waiter, plus his girlfriend was an accomplice and often kept a lookout while Stephane did the dirty work...

One of the more notable thefts happened at Sotheby’s auction house where he stole a 7 million dollar painting that was supposed to go on sale later that day.

He never sold any of the artworks, instead he kept them hidden inside his mother’s house in France. Stephane was eventually arrested in 2001, and while the police were investigating, his mother decided to destroy many paintings and threw a lot of artifacts in the Rhine River.

Yes that's right, the person who stole art because he loved it so much was responsible for its destruction, in what can be considered the biggest “If I can’t have it, no one can” moment in the art world, Mr. Stephane received a brutal 3 year sentence, which he only served 80% of. His mother also received a 3 year sentence but only served 18 months.

4.The theft of the Mona Lisa

Before Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was considered the most famous piece of artwork, the Louvre did not hide it behind bullet proof glass. In fact, it only took 1 guy and a lab coat to steal this painting in 1911.

Vincenzo Peruggia was a former worker at the Louvre who snuck inside the museum, waited for the room where the painting hung to empty out, took the painting off the 4 iron pegs, wrapped it in his labcoat and left the building the same way he came in, through a freaking side door.

He hid the painting for 2 years inside a trunk in France, and later moved it inside a different trunk in his new apartment in Italy. He grew impatient and eventually tried to sell the painting to an art gallery (weird I know). He was busted immediately, and the painting was returned to Louvre safely.

If you are thinking about doing a quick theft of the Mona Lisa again, know that it is worth about $780 million dollars, so security has definitely beefed up.

3.Antwerp Diamond Heist

The Antwerp Diamond Centre in Belgium was the scene of the biggest diamond heist east, and west, of the Mississippi.

Leonardo Notarbartolo rented an office in the building where he posed as an Italian diamond merchant to gain credibility and a 24 hour access to the center. He stuck with the ruse for 2.5 years, until it was time for the ultimate heist. His crew gained access to the main vault through sheer ingenuity. The vault that was protected by seismic sensors, doppler radars, a lock with 100 million possible combinations, infrared heat detectors, and a magnetic field ! in other words, it was supposed to be impenetrable.

The thieves broke into 123 out of the 160 safe deposit boxes and made away with more than 100 million dollars worth of diamonds, jewelry, and gold. They also stole the surveillance footage, and it seemed like they had thought of everything… well almost.

Just like any genius thief, Leonardo made just one crucial mistake. When he was getting rid of the tapes, he also threw away a half eaten sandwich… aaaand through DNA testing, he was implicated in the robbery.

He never gave up anyone else from the crew and received a 10 year sentence, none of the stolen property was ever recovered, and since this is such an awesome story J.J. Abrams is expected to produce the movie about it."

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