Thursday, March 12, 2009

World's Biggest Diamond Heist - The Inside Story

I've just read the first few bits of this Wired story by Joshua Davis about Leonardo Notarbartolo, who is being released from prison this week, after maybe masterminding the (possibly) greatest theft of all time.

I love stories about real life master thieves, and so far, this profile is no let down.   Go and enjoy.  (found via boingboing.net)

In elementary school, he filched money from his teachers. As a teenager, he stole cars and learned to pick locks. In his twenties, he devoted himself to the study of people, tracking jewelry salesmen around Italy for weeks just to understand their habits. In his thirties, he began to assemble teams of thieves, each with their own specialty. He knew lock-picking experts, alarm aces, safecrackers, guys who could tunnel under anything, and a man who could scale the sleek exteriors of office buildings. Each job brought a different mix of thieves into play. Most, including Notarbartolo, lived in or near Turin, and the group came to be known as the School of Turin.



1 comment:

Lillian Wey said...

Endearing story, BBM.