In history, we find several astounding cases where banks and vaults have been robbed for unbelievable amounts. We have sifted through countless bank robbery stories to bring you the most famous cases.
The Dunbar Armored robbery
(US$18.9 million)
This was an inside job, masterminded by Allen Pace who worked as a safety inspector for the Dunbar trucking company. In 1997, Allen timed the security cameras so he could easily avoid them. He brought in 5 of his childhood friends to help him rob the vault. They broke in without being filmed and assaulted two guards on their lunch break. They loaded the money in a waiting U-Haul truck and almost got away with it!
The police suspected it was an inside job and checked on Allen but found no evidence. The robbers began to launder the money through property deals and phony businesses. One of the gang members sloppily gave an estate broker friend a stack of money still bound with the original currency straps. This friend called the police and arrested the gang member who later confessed of the crime and named his co-conspirators. Allen Pace was arrested and given 24 years of prison time. Less than $5 million of the stolen money was recovered.
The Brink's-Mat burglary
(£26 million)
This is probably Britain’s most notorious bank heist and has even been described as the ‘crime of the century’. In 1983, security guard Anthony Black led a group of robbers into the Brink’s-Mat warehouse located in London’s Heathrow airport. Once inside, they poured petrol over the staff and threatened to light them on fire if they did not reveal the combination numbers of the vault. The robbers got access and originally thought they would steal around £3.2 million in cash but, to their surprise, they found 3,000 kilograms of gold bullion and diamonds. At today’s worth, they stole over 88 million pounds of cash, diamonds and gold!
Over the next few several months gang members were arrested but the majority of the gold was not recovered.
The Knightsbridge Security Deposit robbery
(£60 million)
This is considered one of the three biggest bank robberies of all time. It took place in 1987 and was led by Valerio Viccei, an Italian national who had a precedent of 50 armed robberies. He managed to get help from a managing director at Knightsbridge, who was a cocaine user and was heavily in debt.
Two of the robbers entered the bank and requested to rent a safe deposit box. They were lead to the vault, where they drew their handguns. Once the staff was subdued, they hung a sign stating that the bank was temporarily closed whilst letting further accomplices into the bank. They broke into as many safe boxes as they could and took with them over £60 million pounds at today’s worth.
Forensic investigators found a bloody fingerprint belonging to Valerio Viccei, but he had fled to South America by then. Valerio came back later to England to retrieve his Ferrari which he intended to ship to South America and got arrested in this occasion and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
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