How do you defeat a three-ton vault buried two floors underground, guarded by heat sensors, seismic detectors, Doppler radar and a magnetic field system, then walk away with over $100 million in diamonds? With hairspray, styrofoam and two years of patience.
This episode unpacks the 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, instantly dubbed the heist of the century. We trace how Leonardo Notarbartolo posed as a legitimate diamond merchant to scout the Antwerp Diamond Center, how his School of Turin crew beat sci-fi-level security with drugstore tricks, and how the perfect crime collapsed over a half-eaten salami sandwich tossed in the bushes near a highway.
Notarbartolo rented an office for over two years to become a trusted tenant with vault access
The crew defeated thermal sensors with hairspray and beat infrared and Doppler radar with a styrofoam shield
A camera hidden in a fire extinguisher captured the vault combination; the King of Keys forged a foot-long key
They cracked 109 of 189 boxes and left cash behind because they couldn't carry the weight
DNA from a discarded salami sandwich led to arrest, yet most of the diamonds were never recovered
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
pplpod. Innehållet i podden är skapat av pplpod och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
