Tuesday, February 19, 2013

$50M In Diamonds Stolen In A Minute

Earlier today in Brussels a group of 8 men cut open a hole in a fence at the airport and then drove up to a plane that was headed to Switzerland and stole $50M worth of diamonds from the plane before making a successful getaway. The robbery was obviously meticulously executed, but what gets me is how easy these people got on to the airport grounds and how easily they managed to get close to a plane. What if they had been terrorists? Apparently it is pretty damn easy to walk up to a plane.

40 comments:

Christopher Cruz said...

Oh my god!!!

Frufra said...

All of our movie experts out there: this has got to be a plot point in one of those slick heist movies! Anybody? If not, it should be.

FSP said...

Ocean's 14

dia papaya said...

Did Danny Ocean only need 8 for this job? What happened to the other 3 guys? *wink wink*


This was on cable the other day. I miss Bernie Mac :(

dia papaya said...

@FSP - great minds!

LottaColada said...

@dia- I miss Bernie Mac too :(

FSP said...

Hola dia. Haven't seen you around in a while.

Meanie Rhysie said...

I'll take just a little rock, pretty please! =)

So, it was seriously the plot of a movie? Wow. Hahahaaa!!

Maximus said...

Inside job.

dia papaya said...

Hola FSP!!!! And hello Lotta Colada!

I've been working too much. Working sucks :(

A good friend asked me the other day what I wanted to do with my life. I honestly replied - lounging on a beach with a cocktail. Is that so wrong?

Anonymous said...

Maybe I've been watching too much tv, but this sounds like something that would happen on Burn Notice, especially the meticulous planning part.

MISCH said...

Where they cut or raw......That makes a big difference..?

Karen said...

@dia, with your phone reading CDAN, of course, right? Good to see you. :)

libby said...

raw, MISCH.

prolixe said...

I read the article this morning - they cut a hole in the security fence, drove up, grabbed & went, and that they were dressed in dark clothes and passed themselves off as police officials. The article mentioned that they'll get nowhere near $50mil for the diamonds and talked about a similar case a few years ago ($14mil worth stolen) where the diamonds were sold super-cheap to jewelry launderers.

dia papaya said...

@karen - of course!!! Cocktails. Sun. Sand. And CDaN!!!

I haven't been able to figure out how to keep reading CDaN while treating patients. I have a feeling they'd find it rude.

Now how do I get me one of those diamonds??? Do we need a CDaN 11-style heist?

LottaColada said...

@dia, with a specially blended cocktail right ;)

MISCH said...

@Libby....that's interesting

dia papaya said...

You know it Lotta!!!

a non a miss said...

Hey Dia! Thanks for the birthday love yesterday (you too karen and anyone else) glad to see you posting again!!

timebob said...

That must of been a real awkward call to the diamond company President.

Eeekalicious said...

I wonder which insurance company will be coughing it up for these losses?

LottaColada said...

I find it hilarious that there are diamond ads at the top of the page for this story. Well, on the mobile site that is.

Unknown said...

Good for them for sticking it to DeBeers. All of those diamonds would've just ended up in their storage vaults, anyway. They won't miss 'em.

Nellie said...

"Neil..."
"Peter, I did not steal those diamonds!" Mozzi enters the room with champagne and two glasses.
"Oh. Hello suit. .... Care to join us in our toast to Tuesdays? It's a tradition. Has nothing to do with diamonds."
Close up of Neil looking stressed while Peter l

Nellie said...

Looks angry.
"I trusted you Neil. Never again"

lc said...

I wonder where LiLo is today....

mooshki said...

Hahahahahaha!

Sherry said...

Someone knew they would be there. THAT is the interesting part.

Kloie said...

OK, it took me a minute to realize the "cut or raw" question referred to diamonds. :-\

MiVidaCoca said...

Something really similar happened at Arlanda airport in Stockholm, Sweden 2002. It wasnt diamonds, but millions in foreign currency.. The robbers just cut up the lock at the emergency exit/entrance, drove up to the plane and took the lot. Swedish police/gov. tried to prosecute a couple of people who they thought/knew we're involved but none of the charges stuck, everyone got away with it.. Except for this one guy who decided to sing, he was murdered by some of his best friends and his body hasnt been found yet.

Airports arent as safe as you think!

sylmarillion said...

Heard it on the news here, it's the biggest story today. The airport is making excuses about it being a large area to patrol, and therefore more or less impossible, but for Pete's sake, you can pay a lot of guards for 37 million euros...or for the money the lawsuits are probably going to cost.

MalibuBarbie said...

This sounds like a fusion of Guy Ritchie's 'Snatch' and the 'Oceans' movies.

Margaux said...

Wow. That's quite worrying really, they were definitely professional and organised but so are a lot of whackos.

Jessi said...

I'll chime in on this one as this is my field of expertise. Airports are as safe as the people who are working them. I work on the private side and it is OUR job to ensure that security is handled. The officials are correct, it is impossible to guard every inch of an airport with personnel. Oh, sure the operations guys and police do their "perimeter" checks. Once every 4 hours. It is the employees of the airport who are responsible to watch for any suspicious activity and to challenge any individual who does not display the proper credentials immediately.

Unfortunately it comes down to: Bad guys who are going to do bad things will find a way to make it happen. You can have all of the safety precautions in place and as many rules and regulations as you want. They will still find a way in.

Incidents like this only make my life more difficult. Governmental agencies then decide that they need to step in and create more red tape and regulations. The rules that the TSA agency impose upon us are ridiculous most times. For example: My employees and I go through regular fingerprinting and background checks. Most of us hold special security clearance because we also deal with the Air Force base and their high security operations. I can drive a fuel truck loaded with 5,000 gallons of highly combustible fuel anywhere on the airport. Yet I'm not allowed to escort an electrician out to change a light bulb at our facility.

Sherry said...

Jessi: Thanks for your input. Love it! And it does seem sad that we go completely overboard in the completely wrong direction when something like this happens and never really address the true issue. Like a knee jerk reaction.

I remember having toenail clippers taken from me at a James Taylor concert after 911. What for? It was not even reasonable logic.

BondGirl said...

I hate to break it to all of you, but if you work in logistics and import/export of cargo, it's REALLY easy to get near AS WELL AS INSIDE THE CARGO HOLD of an airplane at a major airport. Security screening? What security screening?? TSA/Security barely looks in personnel's direction. They are more focused on screening passengers.

And yes, it's mostly cargo planes but shipping of light cargo is also done on passenger flights.

BondGirl said...

My original point above that I completely forgot to add?

We're not as safe as we think.

Sherry said...

And water is wet BondGirl. Not to sound snotty but to totally agree with what you say. It's a huge joke this show of security at the airport for innocent flyers when there are a 1000 breaches of security elsewhere. It's a travesty without a doubt.

CK76 said...

Guess they didn't learn anything from the 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK---

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