People are always surprised to learn that the glamorous diamond heists in all of the movies are true to life and that such heists happen even today in this age of high tech security. Of course, while many diamond robberies are the slick, cunning operations that resemble the movies, many diamond thefts are quick and dirty, gaining practically no media attention.In February of 2008, a brilliant execution of a diamond heist took place in Italy. While every notable Hollywood personality and all of the socialites from all over the world gathered themselves together at the Oscar award ceremonies, including the owners of the Italian jeweler to the stars, four very clever men were stealing the absent jeweler’s wares.
The jewel thieves apparently had spent the previous month drilling a hole from the basement of the vacant building next door to the jeweler’s building through the basement wall into the basement of the jeweler’s building. From there, these four men were able to bypass the security force at the entrance of the building, including the security cameras. They tripped no alarm.
The four thieves, dressed in balaclavas, sunglasses and fake uniforms of the Guardia di Finanza walked into the jeweler’s establishment and proceeded to rob it by first posing as accountants, then overpowering and binding the five employees, including catering personnel, cleaning personnel and the manager of the jeweler’s showroom.
The owners of the Italian showroom thankfully had all of their finest and most expensive diamonds on display at an Oscar Party in Los Angeles at the time of the robbery, including the grandiose yet elegant diamond bracelet that Tilda Swinton was wearing when she accepted her Oscar. Nevertheless, the sophisticated diamond thieves got away with £10,000,000.00 worth of diamonds and they did it in less than forty minutes with no more violence than tying up and gagging five employees. The police do not believe they were even armed.
The owners of the Italian showroom were distraught over the diamond robbery, but were glad that no one was hurt. Since they had their most valuable diamonds with them and they had a good insurance policy on their remaining diamonds, the theft will not hurt the showroom too much financially.
While the police continue to investigate the robbery, unless the diamond thieves attempt to sell the diamonds, it will be very lucky if they find the culprits. Diamonds are easy to transport and therefore they are easy to smuggle. Unless any of these thieves discusses the theft with someone who informs the police about it or unless they make some major mistake, it is likely that these thieves will not have to pay for their crime.
The bright side of this is that these thieves will probably not ever have the chance to enjoy any profits from their diamond heist because stolen diamonds are extremely difficult to sell. People who work with diamonds certify individual certified diamonds by recording each diamond’s “fingerprint” and issuing it with the diamond.
If someone tries to sell a diamond without such a certificate or even if they do have such a certificate, any jeweler, pawnshop or diamond trader or diamond cutter would know that this diamond is on a list of stolen diamonds so they would contact authorities to alert them of the location of the stolen gem. Of course, you can find unscrupulous people who will purchase such stolen goods, but they will only offer a fraction of the amount that the gem is actually worth and sell it for little more than that.
It is in the honest jeweler, diamond trader or pawnshop owner’s best interest to recover stolen diamonds because if too many are loose on the market, the prices of diamonds will fall. Because it is in their best interest to do so, most people in the diamond world would prefer to contact authorities than not to contact them.
While the Italian showroom still has most of its valuable items, such a theft could be devastating to other jewelers. Jewelers, however, are not the only entities that must worry about diamond thievery.
The biggest diamond company in the world must contend with the fact that thieves make away with over forty percent of their diamonds. In Africa, where a great deal of this company’s diamond mining occurs, workers devise ingenious ways to walk out of the diamond mines with treasures tucked away in all sorts of hiding places.
This diamond company can only stop so much of this thievery, but they cannot allow forty percent of their wares to flood the market at rock bottom prices, as they could never realize the actual value of a diamond again if they did. Therefore, the diamond company regularly buys back stolen diamonds in order to keep the price of diamonds at a profitable level.
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May 22nd, 2011 at 3:29 am
If you would just point me in the right course, it will be great, thanks mucho.