6.The First National Vault Robbery — $1 Million US
It's like something David Copperfield would have devised. On Friday October 7, 1977, before Columbus Day Weekend, a bank worker counted $4 million dollars in cash and stored it in a locked money cart within a heavily guarded vault, two floors below the Chicago First National Bank. Then poof! Tuesday morning, the money is counted again, and exactly $1 million dollars – in $50 and $100 dominations and weighing over 80 pounds – had vanished into thin air. In 1981, $2300 of the money showed up in a drug raid, but otherwise both the perpetrators and the cash are still at large.
7.The Harry Winston Heist — $108 Million US
The winner for boldest burglary goes to the perpetrators of the so-called Harry Winston Heist. On December 4, 2008, four men, three of whom wore long blonde wigs and disguised themselves as women, charmed their way into the famous Paris jewelry store just before closing time. Once inside, they brandished a .357 and a hand grenade and began their pillaging. Less than 15 minutes later they escaped with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds worth an estimated $108 million US. Investigators believe it to be the work of the notorious Serbian criminal gang The Pink Panthers, responsible for $132 million in robberies around the world, and have never been nabbed.
8.The Tucker Cross Heist — Priceless
The Tucker Cross, named after diver Teddy Tucker who, in 1955, recovered it from the 1594 wreck of the San Pedro, was a 22-karat gold cross embedded with sparkling green emeralds and considered priceless. Nonetheless, Tucker sold it to the Government of Bermuda for an undisclosed sum. In 1975, the Cross was moved to the Bermuda Museum of Art to be displayed for Queen Elizabeth II. No one knows when or how, but during this transition, a clever thief replaced the original with a cheap plastic replica. Presumably, this historical artifact was melted down, stripped of its jewels, and funneled into the Black Market. (Source)
9.Baghdad Bank Robbery — $282 million
Yes, Saddam Hussein allegedly pillaged a billion dollars before the US-led invasion, but we all know what happened to him. On July 11th, 2007 a different Thief of Baghdad struck… and got away with it. Dar Es Salaam, a private financial institution, was knocked over by two, or possibly three guards, absconding with a third of a billion in cold, hard US bills. Perhaps the bank itself did not want people to start wondering where, how, and why it had so much cash at hand, so they have kept mum and there has been minimal press. Somewhere, SOMEBODY is rolling around naked in a wad of cash and laughing all the way from the bank.
10.The French "Vacuum Gang" — 600,000 EU and counting...
This crew wins the award for Most Ingenious. Monoprix, a French supermarket chain, locks their Euros inside steel safes many inches thick. But the pneumatic tubes connected TO the safes… not so much. Using little more than a drill and a vacuum, the gang à l'aspirateur (vacuum gang in English) have so far siphoned away 600,000 EU in 15 robberies. Suckers… (Source)