6 In 1671, an Irish assassin, Thomas Blood, tried to rob the Crown Jewels of England. With his gang, he somehow made his way to the Tower of London. They escaped with the jewels but were soon caught by guards. Impressed by the attempt, King Charles II pardoned Thomas and awarded him an estate in Ireland.

Would you reward a thief who tried to rob you for his fearlessness? I guess not, but King Charles II of England did. In 1671, an Irish assassin, Thomas Blood, wanted to try his hand at robbery, and his first target was… the Crown Jewels of England! The jewels were held in the Tower of London in the basement with a large metal grille protection and surrounded by guards.

Thomas planned to make up a fake story to enter the Tower of London. He made his way in the tower with a fake title, fake wife, and fake nephew who claimed to have married the daughter of Talbot Edwards, the Keeper of the Jewels.

After getting in, they somehow managed to manipulate Edwards to unlock the vault where jewels were kept. As soon as Edwards unlocked the vault, Thomas knocked out Edwards and entered with his gang into the vault. They smashed the jewels with mallets, stuffed them in their pockets, and escaped.

However, Thomas was unsuccessful in escaping and was caught by guards. When he was presented before King Charles II, the King was impressed by his audacity of trying to steal the jewels and awarded him with an estate in Ireland. (Source)

Advertisements

7 The Banco Central in Fortaleza was robbed in 2005 by a gang of thieves who dug a tunnel into a bank from a nearby house. The thieves spent three months digging a 256-foot tunnel and managed to escape with $70 million. Arrests have been made, but most of the money has never been recovered. 

The Banco Central burglary seems like a plot straight from a heist movie where robbers tunnel into the bank, steal the money, and escape back out through the tunnel. On August 6, 2005, a gang of thieves robbed $70 million out of the vault of Branco Central in Fortaleza. The thieves rented a commercial property three months before the heist at the center of the city.

The robbers dug a 256-foot tunnel, which was two city blocks, to a position beneath the bank. The heist took place on the weekend when the vault was closed. The thieves tunneled up through reinforced concrete and broke into five containers which were filled with used Brazilian currency notes. They transported money weighing around 3.5 tons.

Surprisingly, the bank didn’t find out about the robbery until Monday when the bank was opened for business. Several arrests were made afterward, but most of the money was never recovered. (Source)

8 A hacking ring of thieves has stolen over $1 billion from banks. Active from 2013, these hackers take $10 million from each bank, and as of today, they have infiltrated more than 100 banks in 30 countries. Some of the hackers have been tracked, but many are still out of reach.

Privacy is a myth, and the hacking ring heist proves that saying right. These Russian hackers might have pulled off the biggest bank heist ever by stealing money from 100 banks in 30 countries. The hacking ring has been active since 2013, and these hackers mainly targeted the banks of Russia, the United States, Germany, China, and Ukraine.

They steal money from banks in creative ways like by taking $7.3 million out by reprogramming all of a single bank’s ATMs. A bank lost $10 million after its online portal was hacked. These hackers have all the sensitive information of consumer data. They have access to all email accounts of various Russian banks.

The hackers gain all this information when they use botnets to send out a continuous wave of malware-laced emails, and if any bank employee opened them, that would allow hackers to sneak into their computers.

Once the hackers gained all the information about the bank’s applications, they use that information to steal money without raising any suspicions. Some of these hackers have been traced, but many of them are still out of reach. (Source)

9 In 2015, seven elderly raiders robbed Hatton Garden’s underground security deposit facility in London. They used heavy-duty drills to tunnel into the vault and ransacked millions of pounds of jewels and precious items. These robbers managed to swipe £14 million worth of items.

When seven elderly robbers wished to complete their “one last job,” they targeted Hatton Garden in England. In 2015, the underground security deposit facility of Hatton Garden was ransacked by seven elderly robbers who wanted to commit their last burglary.

These burglars decided to rob London’s Hatton Garden, which is the capital city’s jewelry district during the four-day weekend of the Easter bank holiday. They entered the premises through a lift shaft, then tunneled into the vault using heavy-duty drills.

They drilled through 7-foot-thick walls to crack open 73 boxes with millions of pounds of jewels, diamonds, precious metals, sapphires, and gold. These elderly burglars managed to swipe £14 million worth of items. These burglars were later caught, but only £4.3 million worth of items were recovered. (1, 2)

10 In November 1971, a man named D.B. Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, hijacked the flight claiming he has a bomb, extorted $200,000 cash, and escaped using a parachute into the Washington wilderness never to be seen again.

The D.B Cooper heist is the only unsolved skyjacking heist in history where a strange man appears, claims he has a bomb, extorts a huge chunk of money, and escapes never to be found again. On November 24, 1971, the heist began the day before Thanksgiving.

A man named “Dan Cooper” (D.B Cooper) boarded the Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, shortly after take-off, Cooper put his plan into action. He informed the flight attendants that he has a bomb, but he wouldn’t harm anybody if his demands were met. He ordered four parachutes, $200,000 cash, and the Boeing 727-100 should be refueled immediately after landing.

The crew did everything he demanded. They refueled the flight, took off, and when in the air, they kept the plane low and unpressurized as instructed by Cooper. As the flight flew from Seattle to Reno, Nevada, Cooper escaped using one of the parachutes.

The authorities never found out who he was, or if he was actually Dan Cooper or not. After decades of investigation, authorities still aren’t any closer to identifying who the man was and to where he disappeared. (Source)