The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist

March 12, 2009 6:03 AM

The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Diamond Heist.
posted by chunking express (60 comments total)

reality puts hollywood to shame again
posted by incompressible at 6:28 AM on March 12

I was going to say the same thing, is it just me or are Wired articles sounding more and more like Hollywood films?
posted by dabitch at 6:33 AM on March 12

Its always amazing to me that people pull of these elaborate heists and then are undone by a single stupid mistake. 99% of careful, exacting planning 1% sheer idiocy.
posted by zennoshinjou at 6:34 AM on March 12

I love heist stories.
posted by jquinby at 6:42 AM on March 12

I was going to say the same thing, is it just me or are Wired articles sounding more and more like Hollywood films?

Not all heist films are Hollywood. Big Deal on Madonna Street, Rififi, and the heist films of Jean-Pierre Melville might be better comparisons.
posted by jonp72 at 7:01 AM on March 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

That was a hell of a story. I remember hearing about the robbery when it happened; thanks for the rest of the story.
posted by TedW at 7:07 AM on March 12

In the meantime, his share may very well be waiting for him, hidden somewhere in the foothills of the Italian Alps.

Well, it's not like he's just going to be able to rush to retrieve and cash in his stash once he's released from prison.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:12 AM on March 12

That was a very entertaining read. Although, it would have been funny if the link actually didn't tell the story at all.
posted by aftermarketradio at 7:13 AM on March 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

Who will play him in the movie?
posted by chillmost at 7:21 AM on March 12

I'm surprised they haven't already made a movie based on this. It's got to in the works - the true story (assuming its true) is better than most movies.
posted by COD at 7:21 AM on March 12

It's a fantastic story and must agree with zennoshinjou that it's really amazing to me that these guys just about beat all external odds, jump over all barricades, brush past all kinds of technogizmo security and when it matters the most bend to scratch their ankles. WTF! I for one am rooting for a good heist where the culprits don't get caught and yet somehow we get to know their story.
In this case they left several traces. There was no need to purchase all the equipment using their real IDs/creditcards. Or was there?

Also, can someone explain to me this :

.."In September 2002, a guard stepped up to the vault door and began to spin the combination wheel. It was 7 am. He was right on schedule.

Directly above his head and invisible behind the glare of a recessed light, a fingertip-sized video camera captured his every move. With each spin, the combination came to rest on a number. A small antenna broadcast the image. Nearby, in a storage room beside the vault, an ordinary-looking red fire extinguisher was strapped to the wall. The extinguisher was fully functional, but a watertight compartment inside housed electronics that picked up and recorded the video signal.

When the guard finished dialing the combination, he inserted the vault's key. The video camera recorded a sharp image of it before it disappeared inside the keyhole."

How did Notarbartolo (?) managed to get the camera and fire extinguisher down there in the real vault before the heist without anyone noticing? I presume the camera was affixed on to the ceiling or something (no?) and that it would be v.difficult for him to routine enter the vault as a tenant of the bldg with a fire extinguisher in hand and atleast needing a ladder to attach his spycam up somewhere?
posted by forwebsites at 7:28 AM on March 12

I agree with forwebsites, the entire theft hinges on that video camera getting the combination but there is no explanation of how it was installed.
posted by PenDevil at 7:31 AM on March 12

Uhm...

"He took the elevator, descending two floors underground to a small, claustrophobic room—the vault antechamber. A 3-ton steel vault door dominated the far wall. It alone had six layers of security. There was a combination wheel with numbers from 0 to 99. To enter, four numbers had to be dialed, and the digits could be seen only through a small lens on the top of the wheel. There were 100 million possible combinations."

and

"Notarbartolo would answer a simple question: Could the vault in the Antwerp Diamond Center be robbed?

He was pretty sure the answer was no. He was a tenant in the building and rented a safe-deposit box in the vault to secure his own stash. "

As somebody who used the vault to store his own valuables he had the perfect opportunity to plant the camera.
posted by I-baLL at 7:40 AM on March 12

The story says the camera was behind/next to recessed lighting, which is why it couldn't easily be seen. My guess is you just install it when you replaced the light bulb. If the plan took over a year to be implemented, they could have conceivably paid off who ever is in charge of maintaining the lights. Same thing with fire extinguishers. Local ordinance probably requires they be regularly inspected, and either swapped out or topped off if the pressure is found low. No mention of inside help, though, but I'm guessing at least one guard and/or janitor was somehow involved.

Not sure if I believe the double-crossing story. Also, no security in the stairwells? That seems like the biggest breach of security next to hanging the key in the adjacent room.
posted by ShadowCrash at 7:43 AM on March 12

again though I-baLL, wouldn't it be weird to go to your safe deposit box carrying a fire extinguisher? I feel like someone would question that.
posted by zennoshinjou at 7:44 AM on March 12

The thing that bothered me was the motion sensor that only went off if it also detected a temperature change. Why would anyone ever build or install an alarm like that? If there's motion in the vault at 3 am the alarm company doesn't care unless there's also a temperature change? That makes no sense to me. How many false alarms are going off that they would implement this? Perhaps you ignore temp changes unless there's motion, but not the other way around.

Again, I think technical challenges point to inside help, and I suspect he's lying about the diamond dealer to avoid implementing his other accomplices. Also, stealing 100 million only results in 10 years (5 years for half the culprits)? Seems as if the punishment doesn't fit the crime.
posted by ShadowCrash at 7:47 AM on March 12

I think there's a very specific reason that heist stories, especially of diamond heists or precious jewelry or whichever, evoke such delight and admiration from the public - it's because the entire gem trade is based around veblen goods, these ephemeral trinkets that are artificially valued specifically BECAUSE of their desirability, and would drop to near valueless-ness if priced appropriately. That takes the entire enterprise from stealing something of actual value based on construction and/or need (like medicine, or employees pensions) to stealing something of imaginary value... which transforms the entire procedure into something almost akin to a game, or sport. Whereupon these roguish figures go from being devilish criminals to hyper-skilled sportsmen, and appreciation of the craft is what entices the public.

warning: theory may be incredibly poorly thought out.
posted by FatherDagon at 7:48 AM on March 12 [11 favorites has favorites]

FatherDagon -

For my part, the thrill of heist stories comes from watching the careful, methodical defeat of some impossibly difficult problem, usually with some laughably simple bag of tricks. It gives glee to my inner delinquent and satisfaction to my outer cynic. And especially so if the thieves get in and out without having to resort to violence, always the hallmark (trope?) of Things Going Horribly Wrong.
posted by jquinby at 8:00 AM on March 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

That was an awesome read. Now I'm going to ponder the veracity of it for the rest of the day and not get ANY work done. Sweet.
posted by educatedslacker at 8:01 AM on March 12

The camera wasn't installed in a light.

"Directly above his head and invisible behind the glare of a recessed light,"

The glare of the light hid the camera. Not the actual light.

How did they get a fire extinguisher down there? Simple.

It's a safety deposit box. They don't check what goes into a safety deposit box. So he could've put a fire extinguisher in a suitcase/briefcase and brought it down there with him.

Also, a security hole helped:

"Notarbartolo pressed a buzzer on the steel grate. A guard upstairs glanced at the videofeed, recognized Notarbartolo, and remotely unlocked the steel grate"

and

"Notarbartolo stepped inside the vault.

It was silent—he was surrounded by thick concrete walls. The place was outfitted with motion, heat, and light detectors. A security camera transmitted his movements to the guard station, and the feed was recorded on videotape."

So outside of the vault there's only a camera that shows the guard the person entering the vault. There's a bunch of cameras IN the vault but only one RIGHT OUTSIDE of it.
posted by I-baLL at 8:05 AM on March 12

He headed toward the Diamond Center itself, a gray, 14-story, fortresslike building on the south end of the district. It had a private security force that operated a nerve center located at the entrance. Access was blocked by metal turnstiles, and visitors were questioned by guards.

So, during the daytime the access is manned by security. Pretty much rules out how he could carry a fireextinguisher during runs to his safe-deposit box. Maybe spycam...but then,

Notarbartolo pressed a buzzer on the steel grate. A guard upstairs glanced at the videofeed, recognized Notarbartolo, and remotely unlocked the steel grate. Notarbartolo stepped inside the vault.

It was silent—he was surrounded by thick concrete walls. The place was outfitted with motion, heat, and light detectors. A security camera transmitted his movements to the guard station, and the feed was recorded on videotape.

Again, it seems difficult how he could fix the spycam. ShadowCrash, as an inside job it seems plausible but still pretty audacious. They'd need to be aware that nobody watches these videofeeds regularly etc. Anyways it's still an awesome story. Just that if sitting in my pajama I could verify for sure that indeed that was what happened it would have been way a EPIC WIN!

And what jquinby said.
posted by forwebsites at 8:06 AM on March 12

way more EPIC WIN! Excuse my repeated stumbling ppl.
posted by forwebsites at 8:08 AM on March 12

Read that again. A private security force that was centered at the entrance..... of the building. Not of the vault. As a regular Diamon Center customer he would not be searched. Especially if he was putting something into his safe. Why would they search through a briefcase? What a customer is putting into the safety deposit box is the customer's business.
posted by I-baLL at 8:10 AM on March 12

Also:

A security camera transmitted his movements to the guard station, and the feed was recorded on videotape.

Right?

What is said right before that?

"Notarbartolo stepped inside the vault."

That camera is inside the vault. The guard who looked at the video feed as he was about to go into the vault RECOGNIZED him. That means that the camera showed his face so it was an intercometype camera aimed at the vault's door and not above it.
posted by I-baLL at 8:13 AM on March 12

Thx I-baLL. Didn't preview your comment. That does make sense.
posted by forwebsites at 8:13 AM on March 12

better than any movie.
posted by pmbuko at 8:13 AM on March 12

Regardless of different theories for how the camera got there, keep in mind this quote from the 2nd paragraph of the article:

The robbery was called the heist of the century, and even now the police can't explain exactly how it was done.
posted by mannequito at 8:15 AM on March 12

For my part, the thrill of heist stories comes from watching the careful, methodical defeat of some impossibly difficult problem, usually with some laughably simple bag of tricks.

Oh yeah, that's what I was talking about re: appreciation of the craft - the skill that it takes to overcome the obstacle. But the obstacle is almost necessarily physical (open this vault door, manipulate that security device) or interpersonal (use this disguise/persona to fool the guards). If the entire enterprise was a spectacularly clever arrangement of online transactions through shell companies to defraud Debeers and then launder the money thro Latvian online gambling sites or something, I think the appeal would be lessened greatly (but not entirely). Also, if the target was something that had a more inherantly recognizable value to the world at large, and wasn't just a high-end sham to begin with, I think perception of the players wouldn't be quite so admiring. As it is, a combination of factors causes the thief to be fit into the role of "highly skilled player defeating another challenging team" instead of "person who illegally took something important away from someone else".
posted by FatherDagon at 8:18 AM on March 12

What a great read! I did wonder how common the practice of allowing any old tenant to take stuff in and out of a safety deposit box vault is. This seems a lot less secure than having a trusted guards be the only ones who are allowed to enter the vault - carrying boxes in or out on behalf of tenants.

I also wonder what the reaction of the Antwerp Diamond Center will be to this article. I hope that they have changed their security arrangements pretty substantially since the robbery.
posted by rongorongo at 8:18 AM on March 12

forwebsites who are your repeated stumbling ppl?
posted by criticalbill at 8:18 AM on March 12

There was a detailed show on television a few years back all about this robbery--though there's more details now that Notarbartolo is talking.

The funniest character was the guy who owned the little strip of land next to the freeway. In the show they showed him constantly grumbling, hiking across his property. Without him they would have gotten away with it. Who would have guessed that this empty piece of land next to the freeway has some angry eccentric guy patrolling his land and going through all the garbage that gets tossed on to it?
posted by eye of newt at 8:20 AM on March 12

Heh, forwebsites, I'm glad you asked those questions. I answered them easily because I read the comments section before the article so I had these questions in mind as I was taking in paragraph by paragraph.

My problem is this:

"Next, the King of Keys played out a hunch. In Notarbartolo's videos, the guard usually visited a utility room just before opening the vault. When the thieves searched the room, they found a major security lapse: The original vault key was hanging inside."

Either the utility room is right by the vault, or the spy cam had a really, really wide lens, or there was more than one camera, or the guy is lying.
posted by I-baLL at 8:24 AM on March 12

I found it interesting that 3/4 of the diamond trade takes place off the books. I suppose they have to cast the dealers as bad guys to a certain degree so that we end up rooting for the criminals. What they didn't mention is that those diamonds belonged to HOMELESS ORPHANS.
posted by mecran01 at 8:26 AM on March 12

If the entire enterprise was a spectacularly clever arrangement of online transactions through shell companies to defraud Debeers and then launder the money thro Latvian online gambling sites or something, I think the appeal would be lessened greatly (but not entirely).

Agreed. Similar stories of intricate white-collar fraud don't do a whole lot for me. They're impressive in scale, but amount to giant paper chases. The physical bit is critical, and probably prompts considerable empathy from the viewer/reader. I could never perpetrate some complicated investment scam, but with a little practice could (and have) learned to pick a lock. Good stuff. Successful prison breakout stories have the same sort of appeal.
posted by jquinby at 8:31 AM on March 12

Also, is it common practice for tennis tournaments to be played after midnight?
posted by mannequito at 8:32 AM on March 12

Great story, lots of fun. I'm curious about the journalistic style

On Thursday night, Notarbartolo ate dinner with his family at home outside of Turin. He tried to pretend that everything was normal. As usual, his 3-year-old granddaughter played with his cell phone and made him laugh. He momentarily forgot his worries.

What's this style called? What is its origin? It's written in direct description, like the author was there having dinner in Turin. The bit about the cell phone becomes important, but what about "made him laugh"? It's just the kind of detail that makes the story seem real and urgent, but it seems to me like it could easily be made up.
posted by Nelson at 8:37 AM on March 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

Wow.

Just wow.

"The police would later discover stripped wires in the ceiling and guess that the thieves considered cutting them, only to lose their nerve. But Notabartolo says that the Monster knew exactly what he was doing. Once the copper wires were exposed, he clipped a new, precut piece of wire between the inbound and outbound cables. This bridge rerouted the incoming electric pulse over to the outbound wire before the signal reached the sensors. It no longer mattered what happened further down the line. The sensors were out of the loop. It was now safe for the others to enter."

The police didn't figure that out? Sheesh, those fire escape doors that trigger an alarm when you open them are defeated the same way. They have a metal plate on the door and a metal plate on the door frame and either an electric signal goes through them. When the door is opened the electrical circuit is broken and the alarm rings. If you connect a wire from the door frame to the door with enough slack you can open the door and walk right in or out without triggering the alarm. If the police over there didn't figure that out then holy moley that's bad.
posted by I-baLL at 8:38 AM on March 12

Awesome story. As said upthread, I think part of the appeal comes from their mind-bogglingly simple undoing. It lets the reader think:

"I, too, could be a suave international jewel thief. I may not be able to pull off the careful casing, rehearsal (they built a damn replica??), electronic and lockpicking expertise, but dammit, I wouldn't have a garbage bag labelled 'ALL THE INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE MAKE SURE TO DISPOSE OF PROPERLY' and fail to do so."

seriously, he saved the receipts for the spygear? wtf? was he planning to return it?
posted by ScotchRox at 8:49 AM on March 12

I think that thieves and other criminals should be caught and punished, but a little part of me hopes that Speedy got his ass kicked for screwing up. Of course, given a heist this size and the resources that would go into prosecuting it, Notarbartolo would probably have been caught anyway. As a tenant with reputed criminal ties they would have looked pretty closely at him early on in the investigation.

Also, I would bet he threw a bunch of red herrings into his story to protect accomplices, hide his methods, keep the loot from being found, and so on.
posted by TedW at 8:53 AM on March 12

Nelson, in such elaborate yarns, it's almost a given that a good chunk of borders and periphery of such pieces are embellishments and writerly-jujitsu. In this case you can be assured it's coming from both Notarbartolo and the writer Joshua to make it interesting. Infact I feel pretty sure that Notarbartolo has taken the writer for ride for atleast some of his story. But as long as the core facts hold forth I am happy. Had the writer not ensauced and stylised the story would seem less heist-y. So yeah A++ to the journalist.

I am so giddying up that grandpa KingOfKeys was never caught. Holy mad shit happy for him. I want to see a part-II of this story where Notarbartolo is last seen around Italian alps with his few millions out of this sweet fucking act! However with the diamond industry such a close circle, it would be another challenge how he'd encash such a considerable loot.

This story just reminded me of the excellent movie, Capote. Maybe because there is certain similarity in the dynamics between the journalist and the prisoner giving his tell-all tae (although the movie is about murders and much more). My first Phil Hoffman movie and the real kicker was after the movie, when I went online and came to know that fucking Hoffman is not really gay and that was not his natural voice.

criticalbill:Excuse my repeated stumbling, ppl.
posted by forwebsites at 9:25 AM on March 12

he saved the receipts for the spygear? wtf? was he planning to return it?

He needed to keep the receipt to make the extended warranty valid. Such a deal!
posted by rokusan at 9:52 AM on March 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

Also, I would bet he threw a bunch of red herrings into his story to protect accomplices, hide his methods, keep the loot from being found, and so on.

"Joshua Davis shakes hands with Notarbartolo at the door of his office and we watch the latter walk away for the final time. David goes back to his chair and gathers his notes together with a satisfied look of a job well done - then something catches his eye and his jaw drops open. Camera pans around room to reveal a magazine cover showing a picture of an old grandfather, a tourist map of the Italian alps, a book called "Fundamentals of the Insurance Industry" and a fire extinguisher...."
posted by rongorongo at 10:03 AM on March 12 [4 favorites has favorites]

Without an existing buyer it might be hard to move all those diamonds.
posted by I-baLL at 10:18 AM on March 12

It seems to me that these incredibly involved heists are similar to incredibly involved computer programs, each problem broken out, analyzed, solved and then integrated into a cohesive whole.

Also not surprising in this context that a simple human error can undo the entire thing.
posted by sfts2 at 10:21 AM on March 12

zennoshinjou: Its always amazing to me that people pull of these elaborate heists and then are undone by a single stupid mistake. 99% of careful, exacting planning 1% sheer idiocy.

It's probably safe to assume that the criminals in these cases, being mere human beings, after all, actually goof up a lot of things. But we don't hear about most of them; we only hear about that one goof-up that actually gets them caught.
posted by Western Infidels at 10:48 AM on March 12

TedW: Also, I would bet he threw a bunch of red herrings into his story to protect accomplices, hide his methods, keep the loot from being found, and so on.

I've thought about that too. A good TV show could be made about testing out elements of the story. The mechanical aspects alone would make for a great episode, 2-parter even, of Mythbusters.
posted by Kattullus at 11:12 AM on March 12

The Hollywood twist ending would involve one of the alleged insurance scammers meeting Notarbartolo after he's freed from prison, implying that Notarbartolo had also orchestrated the insurance fraud as well as the robbery, and thus collecting the rewards of the "double whammy".

Ten years sounds like a ridiculously light sentence for such a large crime, especially since the loot has never been recovered.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 12:30 PM on March 12

The mechanical aspects alone would make for a great episode, 2-parter even, of Mythbusters.

Well, Savage? You heard him!
posted by jckll at 12:57 PM on March 12

What's this style called? What is its origin?

Nelson, it's called New Journalism. From the wikipedia article:

"The four main devices New Journalists borrowed from literary fiction:

* Telling the story using scenes rather than historical narrative as much as possible
* Dialogue in full (Conversational speech rather than quotations and statements)
* Third-person point-of-view (present every scene through the eyes of a particular character)
* Recording everyday details such as behavior, possessions, friends and family (which indicate the "status life" of the character)

Despite these elements, New Journalism is not fiction. It maintains elements of reporting including strict adherence to factual accuracy and the writer being the primary source. To get "inside the head" of a character, the journalist asks the subject what they were thinking or how they felt."
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 1:10 PM on March 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

What's this style called? What is its origin?

I can't speak to the name, but I'm pretty sure it comes from journalists who don't read much except novelisations of Jason Statham movies.

Cor! Notarbartolo looked at the gleaming diamonds. "The guvnor is going to go mental when he sees these," he whispered to himself while giving this awesome look with his eyes. Just then a big title card flashed up that said "TWO YEARS EARLIER..." and the camera slowly zoomed in on like this crappy little house in Italy or something, and there's this guy with a gun, right, and he's walking up to the door...

posted by stammer at 2:40 PM on March 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

Actually, I've just remembered the name. I'm pretty sure this genre is called a treatment.
posted by stammer at 2:43 PM on March 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a hundred mil.

A film treatment isn't exactly a "genre", it's just an outline of the film itself. Key characters, sets, pieces of dialogue, plot points, etc.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:23 PM on March 12

I have to say that Josh Davis has consistently put out some of the best stuff Wired has seen in years, i.e. Hunting Super Cocaine, 4 Immigrant Kids Beat MIT, Face Blindness, The Decline & Fall of Randolph Hobson Guthrie III, all of which I believe have hit the FP at one point or another.
posted by bhance at 3:53 PM on March 12 [3 favorites has favorites]

I take parts of this story with a grain of salt, too. There's a warehouse with a complete mock-up of the vault -- just like Ocean's Eleven. They defeat the sensor with hair spray. In Rififi, the alarm is silenced with fire extinguisher foam. Heck, there's even an actual fire extinguisher! Also, bits like the original key are just too good to be true, somehow, and the story about the Jewish dealer who a) finds out who this safecracker really is, b) strong-arms an experienced thief into a heist he doesn't want to do, and c) conveniently never shows up to divide the loot just stink to high heaven. I suspect he's embellishing around facts the police know as part of the wave-off. Who's to say it wasn't both the mafia and an insurance scam? The facts really point to some inside involvement. How could you build a replica of the vault if you didn't have access to the actual mechanicals? How could you diagnose how to disable an alarm in the ceiling unless you had blueprints and specs? How would you know that polyester or whatever coudl defeat a sensor, or where it was? Wouldn't there be fake sensors in the mix to disguise the real ones? Etc.
posted by dhartung at 4:54 PM on March 12

Also, is it common practice for tennis tournaments to be played after midnight?

Surprisingly yes. I don't watch all that much tennis, but they seem to schedule two matches in the night session, if one turns in to a marathon five set match it can easily go to 1am. See for example here were they discuss a 4:30am finish to a match in the Australian open recently.
posted by markr at 5:27 PM on March 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

Absolutely amazing. Because his 3-year-old granddaughter accidentally switched off the ringer to his mobile phone while she was playing with it, he never received the tip-off that the police were after him. Boy, is that going to make family reunions awkward.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:35 PM on March 12

" The thing that bothered me was the motion sensor that only went off if it also detected a temperature change. Why would anyone ever build or install an alarm like that?"

This is your just your every day, common as dirt Passive Infrared motion detector used in security systems everywhere. They don't detect motion per se but rather a change in temperature which is usually a person. Cheap and effective is you don't let people tamper with them.
posted by Mitheral at 5:47 PM on March 12

The guard who looked at the video feed as he was about to go into the vault RECOGNIZED him. That means that the camera showed his face so it was an intercometype camera aimed at the vault's door and not above it.

Yes, camera in the vault pointed at the gate behind the solid vault door.


This seems a lot less secure than having a trusted guards be the only ones who are allowed to enter the vault - carrying boxes in or out on behalf of tenants.

The guard and, more importantly, the guards employers, could then be held liable for having assisted the safe box owner's illegal actions, ie. who's to say the guy isn't putting bricks of cocaine in the safe box?
posted by five fresh fish at 7:51 PM on March 12

Maybe we've been trolled by a movie pitch...
posted by five fresh fish at 7:56 PM on March 12

Well, that was quick...

Paramount seems to have bought the rights and set JJ Abrams on the job.
posted by miratime at 5:50 PM on March 16