The heist took place on February 2006 by seven masked men armed with handguns wearing balaclavas. They abducted the depot manager, threatened him with his family and tied up fourteen staff members which were held in cash cages until the raid came to an end.
The robbery of $90 million lasted for about an hour and a half, while approximately $200 million was left behind since they could not fit it in the Renault Lorry which they escaped with.
In under a week, the British police tracked down then arrested the suspects and recovered $35 million. The seven of them got 20 year to a life sentence, however the remaining $55 million has never been found and the whereabouts remains a mystery. It is assumed they have been smuggled to Morocco, Cyprus and Albania.
At the time when the gang raided, Securitas depot was holding cash for the Bank of England.
4. Knightsbridge Security deposit Heist
Estimated amount stolen: ~ $200 million
The heist took place on July 1987 in Knightsbridge, London – England by the Italian criminal Valerio Viccei and his accomplices. Two middle-aged men entered the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Center where they requested to rent a safety deposit box. Once they gained entry into the vault, they pulled guns and threatened the manager and security guards. The thieves then proceeded to smash open 146 strongboxes and escaped with pockets full of gold, jewelry and banknotes valued at $200 million.
After weeks of investigations, several men were arrested and convicted of crime. Police forensics also managed to recover a fingerprint that was traced back to Valerio Viccei. However, he fled to Latin America where he remained for a while until his arrest from the British police who sentenced him 22 years. On April, 2000 – the day of his release, he died on a gunfight between him, an accomplice and a police officer.
3. British Bank of the Middle East Heist
Estimated amount stolen: ~ $212 million
The heist took place on January 1976 in the British Bank of the Middle East in Beirut, Lebanon and lasted for a week. It all happened during the Lebanese Civil War, by a group associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization which fired 40mm grenades to break through the wall of the bank. With the help of Corsican locksmiths they proceeded to blast open the main vault and stole cash, stock certificates, jewelry, and rare coins which are valued in a total of $212 million. Two whole days were spent to load all the assets from the safety deposit boxes into four trucks.
A mixed cargo of stolen goods was then allegedly flown directly to Geneva and deposited in Swiss bank accounts, whereas the stock certificates were later sold back to the original owners for merely third of the price.
The commander and soldiers that carried out the heist were never found and no amount of money has ever been recovered.
2. Dar Es Salaam bank Heist
Estimated amount stolen: ~ $342 million
The heist took place on July 2017, in Dar Es Salaam Bank in Baghdad by three men dressed as bank guards. According to the police, bank employees showed up in the morning only to realize the door was open and all the vault were emptied. Besides, the guards who normally secured and slept at the bank, had also disappeared.
It was also speculated by police officials that the thieves were closely tied to the militias, since it would be difficult for them to move such amount of cash without being searched through checkpoints in Baghdad.
To the police, it was unclear why so much cash, much more than usual, was being held in the bank. This also raised suspicion to the investigators who claim that an Interior ministry official was as an accomplice to the robbers. However, there was never found proof of such allegation.
1. Central Bank of Iraq Heist
Estimated amount stolen: ~ $1 billion
The heist took place in March 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq only a day before the U.S. military rolled into Baghdad.
Saddam Hussein, anticipating that US bombing would begin the very next day, ordered his second son Qusay to carry out the biggest, most peaceful money heist in history.
Qusay showed up to the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad with a handwritten note from his dad calmly demanding all of the bank's cash for safekeeping. The robbery didn’t require guns or explosives, just truckloads to carry metal boxes of $100 bills. Over a period of five hours the Husseins managed to haul off an estimated of $1 billion without making a single threat.
Qusay Hussein was later killed by the U.S. forces in a battle in Mosul, Iraq. Police officials reportedly found $650 million hidden in Saddam’s palace. However, one third of the quantity has never been found.
#5. Dark Matter & Dark Energy Originally known as the “missing mass problem”, dark matter’s existence was first inferred by Swiss American astronomer Fritz Zwicky, who in 1933 discovered that the mass of all the stars in the Coma cluster of galaxies provided only about 1 percent of the mass needed to keep the galaxies from escaping the cluster’s gravitational pull. But the name "Dark Matter" is very misleading. Because it implies we know it is matter of some kind. But we have no idea what this thing is. A more fitting name would be, dark gravity, because we can detect the gravitational effects of this thing, but we don't know what it is. While dark energy, is an unknown form of energy, which is hypothesized to permeate all of space. Dark energy, is a theoretical repulsive force that counteracts gravity and causes the universe to expand at an accelerating rate. Together, dark matter & dark energy make up 95% of the total mass-energy of the u
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