Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History

Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History PDF Author: Scott Andrew Selby
Publisher: Sterling Publishing
ISBN:
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 397

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Tells the story with the gripping pace of a true-crime 'Ocean's Eleven.'" The New York Post • "Like a diamond, this true-life caper is clear, colorful, and brilliant." Publishers Weekly ★Starred Review★ The Antwerp Diamond Center was one of the most secure buildings in the world. With hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of diamonds stored in its subterranean vault, it had to be. Located in the heart of Belgium's ultra-secure Antwerp Diamond District, it benefited from two police stations, armed patrols, extensive video surveillance, and vehicle barriers securing an area where 80 percent of the world's diamonds traded hands. But on February 15, 2003, a band of skilled Italian thieves — fronted by the charming Leonardo Notarbartolo, who spent over two years clandestinely casing the building — subverted every one of the Diamond Center's defenses and made off with a record amount of loot. Experts estimate they got away with nearly half a billion dollars in diamonds, cash and other valuables. They'd pulled off the biggest heist in history--everybody loves diamonds and they now had more than any thief before them. The robbers did it with stealth and smarts; no one was hurt or even threatened during what was quickly labeled the largest diamond heist in history. The bandits — members of a group of professional thieves known as "The School of Turin" — used cunning in lieu of violence, successfully evading security cameras, thwarting an array of electronic sensors, and penetrating a vault protected by a double-locked foot-thick steel door. Even when the police zeroed in on who committed the crime, how it was done remained a mystery, like something out of a heist movie or TV show. Flawless is a fast-paced global scavenger hunt uncovering the truth behind the daring Valentine's Day weekend heist. Tracking clues, sources, and documents throughout Europe — from seedy cafés in Turin, Italy to sleek diamond offices in Antwerp, Belgium — authors Scott Selby and Greg Campbell retrace Notarbartolo's careful discovery of the building's security flaws. They recreate the heist and its aftermath — detailing how the thieves brilliantly neutralized each element of the security protecting the Diamond Center's vault while inviting the readers into the secretive world of diamonds and diamond dealing. The result is a thrilling ride through the better-than-fiction heist of the century. "Fans of caper books and movies will be in seventh heaven." Booklist ★Starred Review★

Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History

Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History PDF Author: Scott Andrew Selby
Publisher: Sterling Publishing
ISBN:
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 397

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Tells the story with the gripping pace of a true-crime 'Ocean's Eleven.'" The New York Post • "Like a diamond, this true-life caper is clear, colorful, and brilliant." Publishers Weekly ★Starred Review★ The Antwerp Diamond Center was one of the most secure buildings in the world. With hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of diamonds stored in its subterranean vault, it had to be. Located in the heart of Belgium's ultra-secure Antwerp Diamond District, it benefited from two police stations, armed patrols, extensive video surveillance, and vehicle barriers securing an area where 80 percent of the world's diamonds traded hands. But on February 15, 2003, a band of skilled Italian thieves — fronted by the charming Leonardo Notarbartolo, who spent over two years clandestinely casing the building — subverted every one of the Diamond Center's defenses and made off with a record amount of loot. Experts estimate they got away with nearly half a billion dollars in diamonds, cash and other valuables. They'd pulled off the biggest heist in history--everybody loves diamonds and they now had more than any thief before them. The robbers did it with stealth and smarts; no one was hurt or even threatened during what was quickly labeled the largest diamond heist in history. The bandits — members of a group of professional thieves known as "The School of Turin" — used cunning in lieu of violence, successfully evading security cameras, thwarting an array of electronic sensors, and penetrating a vault protected by a double-locked foot-thick steel door. Even when the police zeroed in on who committed the crime, how it was done remained a mystery, like something out of a heist movie or TV show. Flawless is a fast-paced global scavenger hunt uncovering the truth behind the daring Valentine's Day weekend heist. Tracking clues, sources, and documents throughout Europe — from seedy cafés in Turin, Italy to sleek diamond offices in Antwerp, Belgium — authors Scott Selby and Greg Campbell retrace Notarbartolo's careful discovery of the building's security flaws. They recreate the heist and its aftermath — detailing how the thieves brilliantly neutralized each element of the security protecting the Diamond Center's vault while inviting the readers into the secretive world of diamonds and diamond dealing. The result is a thrilling ride through the better-than-fiction heist of the century. "Fans of caper books and movies will be in seventh heaven." Booklist ★Starred Review★

The Heartless Stone

The Heartless Stone PDF Author: Tom Zoellner
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1429910127
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 2000, Tom Zoellner purchased a diamond engagement ring and proposed. His girlfriend said, "yes" and then, suddenly, walked out of his life making Tom the owner of a used engagement ring. Instead of hitting the self-help shelves of his local bookstore, he hit the road travelling to diamond mines in Africa, Canada, India, Brazil and Russia to discover the true worth of this shining gem. He travelled to Japan to understand how diamonds were linked with engagements and delved into the history of our own American romance with the diamond ring. He gained entry to DeBeers, the London diamond merchants. He visited shopping mall jewellers with starry-eyed couples. Through all of his travels, he searched for an answer to the question "How has one stone created empires, ruined lives, inspired lust and emptied wallets throughout history?" A diamond version of Susan Orleans's The Orchid Thief, Tom Zoellner's The Heartless Stone is a journey to the cold heart of the world's most unyielding gem.

The Ring of Truth and Other Myths of Sex and Jewelry

The Ring of Truth and Other Myths of Sex and Jewelry PDF Author: Wendy Doniger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190267119
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 425

Get Book Here

Book Description
In The Ring of Truth, Wendy Doniger expertly unfolds the cultural and historical significance of rings and other kinds of circular jewelry through timeless stories taken from mythology, religious traditions, and literature. Each chapter, like a separate charm on a charm bracelet, considers a different constellation of stories, linked by a common cluster of meanings: the mutual imitation of real and fake, legal and illegal, marital and extra-marital jewelry; the circular form of rings and bracelets, miming the circle of eternity, which persists in the face of human ephemera

Diamonds and War

Diamonds and War PDF Author: David De Vries
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781845456337
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on previously unexamined historical documents found in archives in Belgium, England, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United States, this book is the first in English to tell the story of the formation of one of the world's main strongholds of diamond production and trade in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s. The history of the diamond-cutting industry, characterized by a long-standing Jewish presence, is discussed as a social history embedded in the international political economy of its times; the genesis of the industry in Palestine is placed on a broad continuum within the geographic and economic dislocations of Dutch, Belgian, and German diamond-cutting centers. In providing a micro-historical and interdisciplinary perspective, the story of the diamond industry in Mandate Palestine proposes a more nuanced picture of the uncritical approach to the strict boundaries of ethnic-based occupational communities.

The Diamond Deception

The Diamond Deception PDF Author: Mike Gallagher
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1477296093
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Get Book Here

Book Description
When FBI Agent Pete Dobbins is assigned to investigate three murders, in three different cities, connected by ballistics evidence, he discovers a conspiracy of criminal activity that requires him to go undercover in an organization that is believed to be beyond reproach. Dobbins a former minor league baseball star discovers that all of the murders have occurred while the Arizona Sidewinders were in those cities. He determines that he must go undercover, as himself, attempting a baseball comeback. The stakes are raised when the main suspect exploits Dobbins vulnerability. His lovely and irreverent wife Trish, is in the late stages of a difficult pregnancy. Along the way, Dobbins discovers a defense lawyer with a shocking secret, fights for his life with a hired assassin, collaborates with a beautiful US Attorney, tries to help a wrongly convicted man win his freedom and improvises a variety of solutions to heart pounding situations that could blow up his investigation and destroy everything he holds precious.

Simply Fortune Telling with Playing Cards

Simply Fortune Telling with Playing Cards PDF Author: Jonathan Dee
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
ISBN: 9781402726989
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Get Book Here

Book Description
The successful Simply series now offers an easy-to-use guide to the art of telling fortunes with cards. Starting with the general significance of each suit (for example, hearts stand for autumn and good fortune, while spades mean winter and possible trouble), it goes on to give a detailed interpretation of each card in the deck--including how the meaning changes when its position is reversed. Copious charts show exactly how to lay out the cards and interpret combinations and spreads. The many different patterns allow the reader the choice of providing a quick answer to a single question, or doing a comprehensive reading.

Treasure Under the Tundra

Treasure Under the Tundra PDF Author: L. D. Cross
Publisher: Heritage House Publishing Co
ISBN: 1926936086
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Get Book Here

Book Description
"It is said that the sparkle from Canadian diamonds mimics the awesome and seductive radiance of the northern lights, and yet, until 1991, no one thought diamonds could even be found in Canada. No one except two geologists who went in search of diamonds and found them on the Lac de Gras Barren Grounds at Point Lake near Yellowknife in Canadas Arctic. The discovery by Chuck Fipke and his partner, Dr. Stu Blusson, caused great excitement in international diamond circles. Today, Canada is the worlds third-largest producer, by value, of rough stones. Why? In contrast to gems mined in Africa, Canadas stones are considered pure ice, and they are also clean--not tainted by bloodshed and war as they are in such parts of the world as Sierra Leone and Angola. The discovery of diamonds in Canadas Arctic is an amazing story of perseverance in the face of immense odds. And the story has a very happy ending."--Back cover.

Artisanal Diamond Mining

Artisanal Diamond Mining PDF Author: Koen Vlassenroot
Publisher: Academia Press
ISBN: 9038213514
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
Effective development of artisanal diamond mining communities must be based on a thorough understanding of the inherent complexities that characterise the sector. This research coordinated by the Egmont Institute and undertaken in support of the KPCS Working Group on Alluvial/Artisanal Producers (currently chaired by Angola), involved many of the leading thinkers in this field. It makes a significant contribution to our knowledge on the sector, laying the foundations for a concerted work programme. This study does not underestimate the challenges this sector poses. However, it emphasises the critical importance of this task because the integrity of the KPCS and all it stands for are dependent upon addressing the developmental dimensions of the diamond trade not just policing it.

Clarity, Cut, and Culture

Clarity, Cut, and Culture PDF Author: Susan Falls
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479877433
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Images of diamonds appear everywhere in American culture. And everyone who has a diamond has a story to tell about it. Our stories about diamonds not only reveal what we do with these tiny stones, but also suggest how we create value, meaning, and identity through our interactions with material culture in general.Things become meaningful through our interactions with them, but how do people go about making meaning? What can we learn from an ethnography about the production of identity, creation of kinship, and use of diamonds in understanding selves and social relationships? By what means do people positioned within a globalized political-economy and a compelling universe of advertising interact locally with these tiny polished rocks?This book draws on 12 months of fieldwork with diamond consumers in New York City as well as an analysis of the iconic De Beers campaign that promised romance, status, and glamour to anyone who bought a diamond to show that this thematic pool is just one resource among many that diamond owners draw upon to engage with their own stones. The volume highlights the important roles that memory, context, and circumstance also play in shaping how people interpret and then use objects in making personal worlds. It shows that besides operating as subjects in an ad-burdened universe, consumers are highly creative, idiosyncratic, and theatrical agents"--

Love & Other Scams

Love & Other Scams PDF Author: Philip Ellis
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593542487
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
She wants to steal the ring. He wants to steal her heart. You are cordially invited as two con artists fake-date their way into the poshest wedding in town. Single, broke, and about to be ejected from her London flat, Cat feels left behind by her friends, who are all either married or engaged. At least if she picked a few pockets when fellow wedding guests get handsy, no one's the wiser. No one, that is, except her favorite bartender, Jake, who has his own less-than-legal side hustle. When she's unceremoniously fired and roped into bridesmaid duties for best frenemy Louisa, Cat can’t help but notice that Louisa’s priceless diamond engagement ring sure would solve a lot of problems. But Cat isn't as skilled a thief as Jake is, so to pull off the scheme of their lives, they'll have to pair up. From an engagement party on a boat to the bachelorette weekend in Palermo, Cat and Jake play cat and mouse with each other in a romantic charade. But who’s to say what’s real and what’s fake, when love and money are on the line?