Biggest Heists in World History [Infograph]

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Biggest Heists in World History [Infograph]

Think Danny Ocean and his gang have the monopoly on the world’s biggest heists? Think again. Would it surprise you to find out that the grand majority of the world’s greatest burglaries took place outside of the US? Granted, none of these poor patsies lost as much as Mark Zuckerberg did earlier this week, nevertheless, these losses had to be painful…especially considering the goods were never recovered.

This great infographic comes to us by way of homesecurity.com, though I would imagine ADT wouldn’t have been able to thwart these bent brigands. One notable caper that didn’t make the list was the infamous robbery of the City Bank on 52 Wall Street. Though certainly the first bank robbery in New York’s history, most historians argue that it was actually the first bank robbery in the country. On Monday, March 21, 1831, employees returned to work to find $245,000 worth of bank notes and Spanish Doubloons missing.

Though the police initially suspected the very employees who discovered the burglary, a tip from a local boarding house owner led them to the room of a particular Mr. Jones. The owner had noticed that Mr. Jones had three suspicious looking trunks in his room, and had been exhibiting some rather nervous behavior. When one trunk disappeared, the proprietor of the boarding house got even more suspicious, and the police searched the remaining trunks, finding 2/3rds of the stolen money. But Mr. Jones was only holding on to the funds, he eventually led police to the real culprit: Mr. Edward Smith, an english immigrant and family man living nearby. Though Mr. Smith was quickly convicted and sentenced to five years hard labor in Sing-Sing, only $176,000 of the $240,000 was recovered. Bet the City Bank’s members would have loved a 19th century FDIC.

Biggest Heists in World History [Infograph]
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