Page 18 - All About History - Issue 08-14

Crime

Combination dial
01 A fingertip-sized camera
directly above captured a guard
entering the combination one
morning in September 2002, with
a small antenna on the camera
broadcasting video footage
that was in turn recorded by an
electronic device hidden inside a
nearby fire extinguisher.

Leonardo Notarbartolo was
the man behind the heist

Keyed lock
WORLD FAMOUS had been entered, the vault could
02 After the combination
be entered by unlocking the
door with a foot-long key. The
robbers managed to duplicate it,
DIAMOND HEIST but it wasn’t needed, as in what

represented the building’s biggest
security faux pas, the original key
had been left by the guard in a
nearby utility room.

THE ‘ROBBERY OF THE CENTURY’, 03 Seismic sensor 01

ANTWERP, 15-16 FEBRUARY 2003 The seismic sensor was embedded
within the doorframe, so any extreme
pressure (like drilling, for instance)
would set off the alarm. In any case, the
three-ton steel door could withstand 12
hours of non-stop drilling, necessitating
the thieves’ eventual entry method of
subtlety rather than brute force.

he Belgian city of Antwerp has
How do we know this?
The diamond heist and subsequent capture of been described as one of the
its mastermind, Leonardo Notarbartolo, made two diamond capitals in the
international news across all forms of media and world, the other being Dubai in
news outlets. An interview with Notarbartolo Tthe United Arab Emirates. 80 per
conducted by Joshua Davis, entitled ‘The Untold cent of the world’s uncut diamonds go through
Story Of The World’s Biggest Diamond Heist’,
for Wired magazine in 2009 while the criminal Antwerp at some stage, with many of them stored
mastermind was in prison, provides extra layers in the underground vault of the Antwerp Diamond access to the
of information. Interestingly, Notarbartolo Center building. Protected by an array of cameras, building and his
contests the official story claiming over $100mn sensors and solid obstacles, the customers of the own safety deposit box.
(£61mn) worth of diamonds were taken and says
the true amount was closer to $20mn (£12mn), Diamond Center would have been forgiven for Posing as a diamond merchant,
far less than what the thieves were expecting to believing that their deposits were safe within its Notarbartolo used this time to study the
find in the vault they robbed. walls. They were sadly mistaken. inside of the vault, and working with a team
On 16 February 2003, workers at the Diamond of thieves all with differing skill sets – known
The Antwerp Diamond Centre
Center came into work to discover the steel safe collectively as the School of Turin – robbed the
door ajar and the safe itself ransacked, with place on 15 February 2003 before removing the
the remaining contents of the various safety- security footage to conceal their identities.
deposit boxes strewn all over the floor. Of the 160 Ironically, considering the intricate level of
boxes, 123 had been completely emptied, with planning that went into the heist, Notarbartolo
a staggering $100 million (£61 million) worth of was caught after circumstantial evidence he had
diamonds going missing. carelessly dumped by a roadside was discovered,
As it turned out, the thieves had spent years linking him to the robbery. He was given a ten-year
planning the heist. Leonardo Notarbartolo, the man jail term, with his accomplices receiving similar
who organised the heist, had rented an office in the sentences, but much of the diamond haul is yet to
Diamond Center in 2000, which included 24-hour be discovered.

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