Thieves took $100 million worth of jewelry and diamonds from a safe in one of Antwerp’s “most secure” areas without a trace. But the case helped the police.
The spectacular robbery of a safe in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2003 was identified only by chance, in the form of a telephone complaint about rubbish dumped on a plot of land.
The safe, located in a guarded building in the central area of the city, was opened and looted on the morning of February 17, a Monday.
Thieves stole $100 million worth of jewelry and diamonds without a trace. The police are left in the dark, with nowhere to start their investigation.
A few days later, however, thanks to a phone call, a clue finally appeared.
The ‘Robbery of the Century’
Antwerp, in northern Belgium, is known worldwide as the “Diamond Capital.” More than 80 percent of the world’s rough diamonds pass through there, either to be sold or polished and then set into jewelry. The diamond trade here generates more than $50 billion a year.
This trade is concentrated in a single block in the center of the city, the “Diamond District.” Anyone arriving there immediately notices the heavy security system and the more than 60 cameras that monitor the three streets of this neighborhood.
The most important building in this region is a squalid office building called the Diamond Center. The basement houses a strong room, with rows of individual safes in a high-security room.
“The safe door is 30 centimeters thick. It can only be opened with a key and a security code,” said Belgian investigator Patrick Peys, who at the time was part of a special police unit specializing in diamond thefts.
“And it has a magnetic system that sounds an alarm when it’s opened. There are sensors inside the room, which alert when they detect heat, motion, sound and light and even an earthquake alarm. Anyone using a drill would immediately set off an alarm.”
When called after the discovery of the robbery, Peys found more than 100 of the vault’s 189 individual safes open.
“There were diamonds, gold coins, purses and jewelry scattered on the floor. Then we had to check the soles of the shoes to make sure there wasn’t a diamond stuck in there. And we also noticed that there were very small green diamonds diamonds on the floor of the room.
The thieves managed to deactivate all the security alarms and left behind the damage and some tools, without fingerprints. And they seized, in addition to the loot, also the videotapes recorded by the 24 security cameras of the building and from inside the safe.
When the case hit the headlines, it was dubbed the “robbery of the century.” Local media highlighted the audacity and cunning of the thieves, who stole about $100 million in jewelry and diamonds.
The police had no leads. A few days later, however, the police received a call from a retired grocer named August Van Camp. He had called several times to complain about the garbage being dumped on the land he had purchased, near a highway.
Van Camp had two weasels and walked with them every day in the forest of this land. Many travelers who passed by in their cars on the highway threw their garbage there.
But that February day, Van Camp noticed that the garbage was different and suspected it was connected to the “theft of the century.”
The police immediately collected this garbage. “They were documents, torn papers, bonds, pieces of money,” Peys said, “and envelopes printed, Diamond Center, Antwerp, containing small green diamonds.”
They spent hours examining the contents and found a receipt for the purchase of a video surveillance system. This receipt was made out to a person, Leonardo Notarbartolo, an Italian diamond dealer who had an office in the Diamond Center and a personal safe in the vault.
And who, according to what was revealed by the Italian police, had a criminal record.
Notabartolo was arrested, but at no point did he cooperate with the police.
“He was a distinguished gentleman, very polite. But when I told him that I was suspected of the crime, he did not want to answer any more questions, he decided to remain silent,” Peys said.
“And in these cases, by law, we can’t do anything. Since then, no matter how hard we tried, there was nothing that could convince him to cooperate… Even Italian investigators from a special unit came to question him and he never said a word.”
Thanks to the garbage thrown on the land by the man who was walking his weasels, however, the police managed to find, among the remains of sandwiches with salami, cheese and bottles of wine, the receipt of an Italian grocery store located in the Diamond District.
By checking the security camera footage of this grocery store, they identified the man who had bought the food. Another Italian with a criminal record, his name is Ferdinando Finotto.
With evidence found in garbage bags, items left in the safe, and footage from the grocery store’s security camera, Peys and his colleagues began to figure out how and who carried out the theft.
The perpetrators of the crime, five in total, were part of a gang called the “Turin School”, in which each member had a specialty – particular knowledge in a certain field – and was called by a code name.
The code names sound like they came out of the comics: the Genie, the Monster, Speedy and the Key King.
The Genius was Elio D’Onorio, the electronics and alarm specialist. The Monster was Ferdinando Finotto, the man caught in the grocery store footage. His great talent was picking locks. He had a weakness for salami sandwiches and tests showed traces of his DNA in food found in the garbage.
Luce was Pietro Tavano, a childhood friend of Leonardo Notarbartolo. His role in the gang’s actions was unclear. But it was he who, in a probable moment of panic, threw the garbage bags on the ground near the highway, while he was headed to France. It was this action that led the police to discover the perpetrators of the crime. Tavano, like the other arrested thieves, was discovered thanks to the tracking chip of the cell phones.
The only member of the gang who has never been identified and arrested is the Key King, who was, as his name suggests, an expert in making and forging keys. He supposedly recreated the 12-inch key needed to open the safe door. He was the only member of the gang who has never been identified or caught.
The perpetrator of the robbery was Leonardo Notarbartolo, the only one not to have a code name.
“Notarbartolo never bought or sold diamonds in the three years he was in Antwerp. He was simply there to do what we call reconnaissance,” Peys said.
“There are several recordings of Notarbartolo inside the safe in the security camera footage. He was one of the customers and therefore never attracted the attention of the security guards.”
“In the days leading up to the theft, he showed up with a black bag under his arm and discreetly pointed the side of the bag at all the security equipment inside the safe. We found this bag in his apartment. It had a video camera and a hole punched in it. In other words, this camera was recording everything.”
The ‘ingenious solutions’
Among the discoveries made by police about how thieves circumvented the security system are several ingenious solutions.
- They hid a small camera above the vault entrance, which recorded the guards pressing the security code to open the door. This camera transmitted the recordings to a receiver hidden inside a fire extinguisher in a downtown warehouse. This way they knew what combination they had to use to open the door. The Key King created a duplicate of the 12-inch key that opened the safe by watching the videos captured by the group.
- The vault door had a magnetic lock, consisting of two latches fixed on both sides. These locks generated a magnetic field, and when the door opened, this field was interrupted, setting off the alarm. But the Engineer used an aluminum plate with industrial-grade double-sided tape. He glued this plate to the latches and unscrewed them. When loose, they simply stuck to the plate, one next to the other, generating the magnetic field. This sign was glued to the wall.
- The day before the theft, Notarbartolo had skillfully and discreetly sprayed the thermal motion sensors in the safe with hairspray, as the oil in the product insulated the sensor from the temperature fluctuations in the room. This sensor relied on motion and heat to activate the alarm. The solution was temporary. They would have a few minutes to electronically deactivate the sensors.
- Police believe the gang built a replica of the inside of the safe to carry out their deed. As soon as the door was opened, the Monster walked into the middle of the room in complete darkness, counting his steps, and pulled a panel on the ceiling, where he found the input and output wires of the security system. He used a trick to ensure that any electrical impulses from one of the sensors were diverted and would not set off the alarm.
- Individual safes were opened with a sort of reverse manual jack, which was inserted into the lock. By turning the crank, the monkey slowly pulled the lock. The contents of the safes were thrown into a canvas bag.
Some phases of the robbery remain a mystery. For example: how the thieves entered the fortress of the Diamond Center.
Crime and Punishment
The police managed to gather enough evidence to indict the four known names. And in May 2005 the case ended up in a Belgian court.
Ferdinando Finotto, Elio D’Onore and Pietro Tavano were sentenced to five years in prison. Leonardo Notarbartolo, the person in charge of the operation, to 10 years in prison.
The jewels and diamonds were never found.
All the thieves of the “robbery of the century”, at least those convicted, have served their sentences. Leonardo Notarbartolo, was released on parole in 2009, for good behavior, after serving 4 years of his sentence.
But he broke one of the terms of his release when he boarded a plane and flew to California to discuss a movie deal about the heist with a major Hollywood producer.
He was arrested at a Paris airport and served the remainder of his sentence.
Source: Terra
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
