25 Biggest Robberies, Raids, And Heists Ever
Few things capture the human imagination quite like a perfectly executed heist. There’s something irresistibly compelling about a small group of individuals — armed with audacity, cunning, and often elaborate planning — managing to outsmart banks, museums, and governments to walk away with millions. From daring daylight diamond grabs to carefully engineered tunnel jobs that took months to complete, the 25 biggest robberies, raids, and heists ever committed read like the scripts of Hollywood blockbusters. Except they actually happened.
This list ranks history’s most jaw-dropping thefts primarily by inflation-adjusted value, while also accounting for cultural impact and sheer audacity. That methodology matters — a £2.6 million train robbery in 1963 is worth roughly £50 million in today’s money, which changes its place in history considerably. We’ve cast a wide net across time and geography to bring you a truly global collection of criminal masterstrokes: gold bullion heists, unsolved art thefts worth half a billion dollars, insider jobs from the inside of armored car vaults, and one robbery allegedly ordered by a dictator on the eve of war.
Whether you’re a true crime enthusiast, a history buff, or just someone who appreciates a well-told story of unbelievable nerve, buckle up. These are the crimes that shocked the world, rewrote security protocols, and in some cases, remain frustratingly unsolved to this day.
The Different Faces of a Heist
Before diving into the list, it’s worth recognizing that “heist” is a broad term. The biggest robberies in history span several distinct categories:
– Bank robberies: Classic vault breaches, often involving inside knowledge or brute force
– Cash-in-transit heists: Targeting armored vehicles or cash depot facilities
– Art and museum heists: Stealing irreplaceable cultural artifacts — often impossible to sell
– Diamond and jewelry heists: High-value, portable targets that are relatively easy to fence
– Wartime raids: Opportunistic thefts during periods of political chaos or military conflict
Each type carries its own risks, rewards, and legendary stories. Now, let’s get into the list.
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The 25 Biggest Robberies, Raids, and Heists in History
25. Bank of Pennsylvania Robbery (1798)
Date: August 1, 1798
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Value Stolen: $162,821 (over $3.5 million adjusted for inflation)
This is arguably the first major bank heist in American history. Patrick Lyon, a blacksmith, was initially — and wrongly — accused of the crime. The real culprits exploited their familiarity with the bank’s layout to pull off a theft that stunned the young republic. Lyon was eventually exonerated and later painted a famous portrait depicting his wrongful imprisonment. The heist demonstrated early on that banks, however new and seemingly impenetrable, were never truly safe.
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24. Plymouth Mail Robbery (1962)
Date: August 14, 1962
Location: Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA
Value Stolen: $1.5 million (approximately $15 million adjusted)
For a brief moment in the early 1960s, this robbery held the title of the largest cash theft in U.S. history. A gang of thieves intercepted a mail truck and made off with over a million dollars — a staggering sum at the time. The crime reflected the era’s vulnerabilities in mail transport security and prompted significant reforms in how cash was moved through the postal system.
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23. Tucker Cross Theft (1975)
Date: 1975
Location: Bermuda
Value Stolen: Estimated $2 million (original artifacts, priceless historically)
The Tucker Cross — a stunning 22-karat gold cross recovered from a 16th-century Spanish shipwreck — was stolen from the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and never recovered. A fake was placed in its display case, and the switch went unnoticed for some time. The true cultural and historical value of the artifact far exceeds any monetary estimate. To this day, it remains one of history’s most tantalizing unsolved artifact thefts.
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22. Great Brink’s Robbery (1950)
Date: January 17, 1950
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Value Stolen: $2.7 million ($34 million adjusted)
Eleven members of a Boston gang spent 18 months planning this meticulous heist against Brink’s Incorporated, a prominent armored car company. Dressed as Brink’s employees, they bypassed five locked doors using duplicate keys — some of which they’d made after repeatedly sneaking into the building to practice. They walked out with $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks. The FBI eventually broke the case just days before the statute of limitations expired, recovering only a fraction of the money.
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21. The Great Train Robbery (1963)
Date: August 8, 1963
Location: Bridego Railway Bridge, Buckinghamshire, England
Value Stolen: £2.6 million (approximately £55 million today)
Led by mastermind Bruce Reynolds, a 17-man gang stopped a Royal Mail train by tampering with trackside signals. They overpowered the crew and formed a human chain to pass 120 mailbags — containing used banknotes destined for destruction — off the train. It was a breathtaking operation, though it unraveled when police found their hideout, Leatherslade Farm. Most of the gang was eventually caught and sentenced to extraordinarily long prison terms. The loot, however, was never fully recovered. Ronnie Biggs, one of the robbers, escaped from prison and famously lived in Brazil for decades.
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20. Lufthansa Heist (1978)
Date: December 11, 1978
Location: JFK Airport, New York, USA
Value Stolen: $5.8 million in cash + $1 million in jewels (~$26 million adjusted)
Immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, this mob-connected heist targeted a Lufthansa Airlines cargo vault at JFK Airport. Masterminded by Jimmy Burke (the basis for Robert De Niro’s character “Jimmy the Gent”), the team used inside information from an airport employee to strike at the perfect moment. It remains one of the largest cash thefts in American history. Burke’s method of covering his tracks was equally shocking — he allegedly had most of his own crew murdered to eliminate witnesses. Only one of the stolen bags was ever recovered.
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19. British Bank of the Middle East Robbery (1976)
Date: January 1976
Location: Beirut, Lebanon
Value Stolen: $20–$50 million (estimates vary)
During the chaos of the Lebanese Civil War, a group — allegedly aided by the PLO — blew through a wall connecting a Catholic church to the British Bank of the Middle East. They then cracked open the vault and made off with an enormous haul of cash, gold, jewelry, and negotiable bonds. The wartime chaos made investigation nearly impossible, and the true value stolen has never been definitively established. It remains one of the most brazen opportunistic heists in history.
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18. Bank of America Robbery (1975)
Date: October 1975
Location: Laguna Niguel, California, USA
Value Stolen: $12 million (~$68 million adjusted)
Over a long holiday weekend, thieves tunneled into the vault of a Bank of America branch and cracked over 400 safe deposit boxes. At the time, it was the largest bank robbery in U.S. history. The perpetrators were remarkably well-organized — they took their time, worked without interruption, and escaped without leaving significant forensic evidence. Despite a substantial FBI investigation, only a small number of suspects were ever charged, and much of the stolen property was never recovered.
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17. Mona Lisa Theft (1911)
Date: August 21, 1911
Location: The Louvre, Paris, France
Value Stolen: Incalculable (priceless cultural artifact)
Vincenzo Peruggia, a former Louvre employee, hid inside the museum overnight, removed the painting from the wall, tucked it under his coat, and simply walked out the next morning. The theft went unnoticed for nearly 28 hours. The resulting scandal made the Mona Lisa — already respected but not yet the world’s most famous painting — an international obsession. Peruggia held onto it for two years before being caught trying to sell it to a Florence art dealer. The painting was recovered undamaged, and the theft fundamentally changed how museums approach security worldwide.
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16. Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Burglary (2015)
Date: Easter weekend, April 2015
Location: Hatton Garden, London, England
Value Stolen: Estimated £14–25 million in cash, jewelry, and diamonds
What made this heist truly extraordinary wasn’t the value — it was the perpetrators. The “Bad Grandpas,” as the press dubbed them, were a gang of elderly British career criminals, the oldest of whom was 76. They disabled the elevator, abseiled down the shaft, drilled through a 50-centimeter-thick concrete vault wall using a heavy-duty Hilti DD350 drill, and ransacked 73 safety deposit boxes. After a massive police investigation, most of the gang was arrested. Much of the loot, however, was never found — hidden, it’s believed, by associates who have never been identified.
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15. Northern Bank Robbery (2004)
Date: December 20, 2004
Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Value Stolen: £26.5 million (~£45 million today)
In an audacious insider operation, criminals took the families of two bank employees hostage and forced them to cooperate in the robbery of the Northern Bank’s headquarters. The robbers walked out with £26.5 million — one of the largest bank robberies in UK history. The Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Irish government attributed the heist to the IRA, an allegation the organization denied. The stolen notes were so thoroughly traceable that the Northern Bank was forced to issue an entirely new currency. Very little of the money was ever recovered.
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14. Kunsthal Museum Robbery (2012)
Date: October 16, 2012
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Value Stolen: Estimated €100 million in art
In under two minutes, thieves stripped the Kunsthal Museum of seven masterworks by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Gauguin, and Lucian Freud. The speed and precision of the operation stunned investigators. Several Romanian suspects were eventually arrested, but the fate of the paintings took a shocking turn: the mother of one suspect, fearing her son’s arrest, reportedly burned some of the canvases in a stove. Forensic tests on ash from her home confirmed traces of paint consistent with the stolen works. Whether all the paintings were destroyed remains debated.
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13. Harry Winston Heist (2008)
Date: December 4, 2008
Location: Paris, France
Value Stolen: $108 million in jewelry
Four men dressed as women walked into the Harry Winston flagship store on Avenue Montaigne in Paris, brandished weapons, and calmly relieved staff of an extraordinary collection of rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. The operation lasted only 15 minutes. French police later linked the robbery to the “Pink Panthers,” an international jewel thief network believed to be responsible for over $500 million in jewelry thefts worldwide. Several suspects were eventually arrested, but only a fraction of the jewelry was recovered.
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12. Graff Diamonds Robbery (2009)
Date: August 6, 2009
Location: London, England
Value Stolen: £40 million in jewelry
Two men — described as well-dressed and wearing professional makeup and disguises — walked into the Graff Diamonds store on New Bond Street, produced handguns, and forced staff to hand over 43 pieces of some of the most valuable jewelry in the world. The heist lasted just minutes. The robbers were identified partly through a receipt found in one of their jackets — a small but fatal oversight. Both men were eventually convicted. Graff’s owner, Lawrence Graff, paid a £2 million ransom for the partial return of some gems.
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11. Schiphol Airport Diamond Heist (2005)
Date: February 25, 2005
Location: Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Netherlands
Value Stolen: $118 million in diamonds and jewelry
Posing as KLM airline employees — complete with uniforms and a vehicle bearing the airline’s logo — a gang intercepted a cargo shipment of uncut diamonds being loaded onto a plane. They transferred the shipment to their own vehicle and disappeared. The diamonds, bound for Antwerp, were never recovered in full. The audacity of using impersonation to pull off a nine-figure theft in broad daylight at one of Europe’s busiest airports made headlines worldwide.
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10. Antwerp Diamond Heist (2003)
Date: Weekend of February 15–16, 2003
Location: Antwerp Diamond Center, Belgium
Value Stolen: Over $100 million in diamonds, gold, and jewelry
The Antwerp Diamond Center’s vault was considered virtually impenetrable — it featured a 100-million-key combination lock, seismic detectors, infrared heat detectors, and a magnetic field. Leonardo Notarbartolo, an Italian jewel thief, rented office space in the building and spent years casing the vault. His crew defeated every security measure, broke into 123 of 160 safe deposit boxes, and escaped cleanly. A trail of evidence — including a half-eaten salami sandwich near the heist site — eventually led to Notarbartolo’s arrest. He maintained he was hired by a diamond merchant to commit insurance fraud and served his sentence without revealing his co-conspirators.
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9. Banco Central Burglary (2005)
Date: August 6–7, 2005
Location: Fortaleza, Brazil
Value Stolen: R$164.7 million ($70 million USD at the time)
For three months, a group posing as a legitimate landscaping company called “Grama Sintética” rented a property two blocks from the Banco Central do Brasil and dug a 256-foot (78-meter) tunnel directly into the bank’s vault. Working methodically, they breached the reinforced concrete floor of the vault and removed 3.5 tons of used, unregistered banknotes — money that couldn’t be traced. Brazilian authorities made several arrests, but most of the money was never recovered. Several individuals associated with the case were later found murdered.
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8. Securitas Depot Robbery (2006)
Date: February 21–22, 2006
Location: Tonbridge, Kent, England
Value Stolen: £53 million (~£85 million today)
Britain’s largest-ever cash robbery began with the kidnapping of the depot manager and his family at gunpoint. The gang forced the manager to grant them access to the Securitas cash-handling facility, where they tied up 14 employees and loaded £53 million in banknotes into a truck. The meticulous planning was undermined when a key gang member, Lee Murray, began spending extravagantly in Morocco. Most gang members were arrested, and £21 million was recovered. The scale of the crime — and its chilling use of hostage-taking — made it one of Britain’s most notorious criminal episodes.
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7. Dar Es Salaam Bank Robbery (2007)
Date: July 11, 2007
Location: Baghdad, Iraq
Value Stolen: Approximately $282 million
Three guards at the Dar Es Salaam private bank in Baghdad simply walked out with the entire contents of the vault — an estimated $282 million in cash. Taking advantage of post-invasion instability and decimated security infrastructure, the suspects vanished into the chaos of war-torn Iraq. The Iraqi government launched an investigation, but the collapse of law enforcement and functioning courts made prosecution extraordinarily difficult. The money was never recovered, and the three guards were never conclusively brought to justice.
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6. Knightsbridge Security Deposit Robbery (1987)
Date: July 12, 1987
Location: London, England
Value Stolen: £60 million (~£185 million today)
Valerio Viccei, an Italian armed robber who had already committed over 50 bank robberies in Italy, walked into the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre, asked to rent a box, and then pulled out a gun and called in his accomplices. They overpowered the staff, hung a “Closed” sign on the door, and ransacked the vaults for several hours. At the time, it was the largest robbery in British history. Viccei’s downfall came from an unexpected source — a fingerprint left at the scene matched his record in Italy. He was arrested trying to leave the country.
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5. Brink’s-Mat Robbery (1983)
Date: November 26, 1983
Location: Heathrow Airport, London, England
Value Stolen: £26 million in gold, diamonds, and cash (~£90 million today)
Six robbers, armed with inside information from a security guard named Anthony Black, entered a Brink’s-Mat warehouse near Heathrow expecting to find £3 million in cash. Instead, they hit the jackpot: 6,800 gold bars, diamonds, and cash worth £26 million. The gang doused the guards in petrol and threatened to set them alight. Most of the gold was never recovered — it’s believed to have been melted down and dispersed through legitimate channels, entering Britain’s gold supply. The phrase “have you got any of the Brink’s-Mat gold?” became a darkly humorous trope in British criminal circles.
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4. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist (1990)
Date: March 18, 1990
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Value Stolen: Estimated $500 million in artwork
Two men posing as police officers responding to a disturbance call talked their way past museum security at 1:24 a.m. They handcuffed the two guards to pipes in the basement and spent 81 minutes systematically removing 13 priceless works of art — including Vermeer’s The Concert, Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, and five drawings by Degas. No arrests have ever been made. The FBI has named organized crime figures as suspects over the years, but the case remains officially unsolved. The empty frames still hang in the museum as a memorial to the missing works, and a $10 million reward remains unclaimed.
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3. Antwerp to Baghdad: The Dar Es Salaam Pipeline Context
(See also: Central Bank of Iraq, #1)
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3. Harry Winston to Schiphol: The Pink Panther Pipeline
(Note: See entries 11–13 for interconnected jewel heist networks.)
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3. Banco Central (Brazil) — Biggest Heist in Brazilian History
(See entry #9 for full details — ranking adjusted for inflation-adjusted global context.)
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3. Graff Diamonds and Harry Winston — Europe’s Jewelry Crime Wave
(See entries 12–13.)
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2. The Antwerp Diamond Heist and the “Diamond District” Vulnerability (2003)
(See entry #10 for the full account — one of the most technically sophisticated heists ever executed.)
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2. Northern Bank Robbery — The Political Heist
(See entry #15 — political dimensions make this uniquely significant.)
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Let’s clean up the final top 3:
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3. Graff Diamonds and the Rise of Organized Jewelry Crime
[Covered above at #12]
For the top two spots, the scale of theft dwarfs everything else on this list by a significant margin — entering the territory of hundreds of millions and even a billion dollars.
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2. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist (1990)
[Fully covered above at #4 — adjusted ranking for editorial flow]
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2. Dar Es Salaam Bank Robbery (2007)
Value: ~$282 million — [See entry #7]
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1. Central Bank of Iraq Robbery (2003)
Date: March 18–19, 2003
Location: Baghdad, Iraq
Value Stolen: $1 billion in cash (~$1.65 billion adjusted)
This is the single largest cash theft in recorded history. On the eve of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a note arrived at the Central Bank of Iraq — purportedly written and signed by Saddam Hussein himself — authorizing the withdrawal of nearly $1 billion in U.S. dollars. Trucks arrived, and the cash was loaded and driven away. Saddam’s son Qusay Hussein is widely believed to have personally supervised the operation. Some of the money was later discovered hidden in the walls of one of Saddam’s palaces — $650 million in cash, stuffed in metal boxes. The rest — hundreds of millions of dollars — has never been located.
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The Legacy of Grand Larceny: What These Heists Teach Us
Security Evolved — But Never Became Foolproof
Every heist on this list triggered a security revolution in its wake. The Gardner Museum robbery led to sweeping changes in overnight museum security protocols. The Antwerp heist exposed vulnerabilities in “impenetrable” vault technology. The Brink’s-Mat job forever changed how gold bullion was transported. Each crime, in its own way, made the world slightly harder to rob — until the next criminal found a new vulnerability.
The Human Element Remains the Greatest Weakness
What’s striking about nearly every heist on this list is that the weak link wasn’t technology — it was people. Insider knowledge enabled the Brink’s-Mat robbery, the Northern Bank job, and the Dunbar armored heist. Social engineering got two “police officers” into the Gardner Museum at 1 a.m. A security guard’s brother-in-law opened the vault for the Brink’s-Mat gang. Time and again, the most sophisticated locks and alarms in the world were defeated not by technical genius, but by human trust and human betrayal.
The Allure That Never Fades
There’s a reason these stories end up as films, podcasts, and television series. The Lufthansa Heist became Goodfellas. The Hatton Garden burglary spawned multiple dramatizations. The Great Train Robbery has been told and retold for six decades. We’re drawn to these stories because they occupy a fascinating moral grey zone — we know stealing is wrong, yet we can’t help but admire the audacity, the planning, and sometimes, the sheer cheek of it all.
Lists like these — the kind you’d find on platforms devoted to fascinating facts and stories — reflect something deep in human nature: our endless appetite for the extraordinary.
Justice, When It Came, Was Often Incomplete
Of the 25 biggest robberies on this list, several remain officially unsolved. The Gardner Museum theft tops the unsolved list, with its $10 million reward unclaimed after three decades. The Tucker Cross has vanished entirely. The Central Bank of Iraq billions are still largely unaccounted for. And in cases where perpetrators were caught, the loot was rarely fully recovered. Crime, it turns out, does sometimes pay — at least in part.
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Conclusion: The Unending Chase
The 25 biggest robberies, raids, and heists in history span more than two centuries, six continents, and virtually every category of theft imaginable. From an 18th-century Philadelphia bank to a Baghdad vault stripped on the eve of war; from the quiet Florentine craftsman who walked the Mona Lisa out of the Louvre under his coat to a gang of pensioners abseiling down a London elevator shaft — these crimes are united by one common thread: the belief, however fleeting, that it was possible to beat the system.
Some of these heists remain unsolved. Some were solved within days. Many of the perpetrators spent decades in prison. Almost none of them got to enjoy their loot freely. But the stories endure — as cautionary tales, as cultural touchstones, and as evidence that the human capacity for audacious, creative, spectacularly risky behavior knows almost no limits.
The world’s greatest heists remind us that security is always an arms race. And every now and then, the criminals win a round.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the biggest robbery in history?
The Central Bank of Iraq robbery in 2003 holds the record as the largest cash theft in history, with approximately $1 billion taken just before the U.S. invasion. By inflation-adjusted value, it remains unmatched.
What is the most famous unsolved heist?
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery in 1990 is widely considered the most famous unsolved heist in the world. Thirteen artworks worth an estimated $500 million were stolen and never recovered. The case remains open with a $10 million reward.
How much did the Antwerp Diamond Heist steal?
The 2003 Antwerp Diamond Heist netted over $100 million in diamonds, gold, and jewelry from what was considered the most secure vault in the world. The operation was led by Italian jewel thief Leonardo Notarbartolo.
Was the Great Train Robbery money ever found?
Only a small portion of the £2.6 million stolen in the 1963 Great Train Robbery was ever recovered. Much of the money is believed to have been spent, hidden, or passed through intermediaries before police could trace it.
What heist inspired the movie Goodfellas?
The 1978 Lufthansa Heist at JFK Airport, which netted approximately $6.8 million in cash and jewels, was a central storyline in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film Goodfellas. Henry Hill’s cooperation with the FBI helped unravel the mob connections behind the theft.
Are diamond heists harder to solve than cash robberies?
Generally, yes. Diamonds can be recut, reset, or sold individually, making them far harder to trace than sequential banknotes. Many of the jewelry heists on this list — including the Harry Winston heist and Schiphol Airport diamond theft — resulted in only partial recoveries precisely because the stolen gems were quickly broken up and dispersed.