Have you ever considered a life as a robber? To pull off one great gold heist and live off the proceeds of your ill gotten gains for the rest of your days? It seems like an exceptionally simple idea in theory, you go somewhere, you wave a gun around and you leave a very rich man. Most would be robbers get away with very little other than a prison sentence but there are the elite few who have gotten away with a serious retirement nest egg. Here are a few famous examples:
The Brinks Mat Gold Heist (Nov 26 1983)
Six men broke into the Brinks Mat Warehouse in London with the intent of stealing 3 million pounds in cash, Dressed in security uniform they were waved through the main gate and within the compound with relative ease.. Whilst inside the building, on their way disabling a huge array of electronic security equipment, they came across 26 million pounds worth (10 tons) of gold bullion and £100,000 worth of uncut diamonds. 4 men were eventually caught and jailed for their part in this heist but 3 tons of gold from this robbery remains unaccounted for to this day. This is the biggest gold heist in UK history to date.
The Great Ghan Gold Robbery (May 1935)
On a stretch of railway between Alice Springs and Quorn in Australia, a registered mailbag containing a parcel of gold ingots weighing 34lbs was stolen from the safe in the brake van of the express train The Great Ghan. The gold was never recovered and no one has been attributed to committing this crime. There are many theories abound in this case, that it was an inside job also that the safe key was stolen from the guard but nothing has been proven and the robber has never been caught.
Weston Gold Robbery (June 1861)
A whole state of the United States would never have existed were it not due to this heist taking place. The union army took $27,000 in gold coins from a Weston bank and brought it to Wheeling to fund the Re-Organised Government of Virginia - a group of Virginians who did not want to withdraw from the union. This gold eventually lead to the creation of West Virginia.
The "Nazi" Gold (1939-1945)
One of the most chilling and brutal regimes of the 20th Century had forcefully acquired billions of dollars worth of gold and jewelery. Just before the collapse of the regime $3.36 billion of gold went missing from a private Swiss bank account. Only a fraction of this gold has ever been recovered and despite a massive worldwide hunt not much more has come to light as to what became of the rest of it.
