5. Bikers Raid Jewellery Store
In November 2012, shoppers at London’s Brent Cross Mall got the shock of their lives when six bikers performed a terrifying drive-by theft. There were two men on each bike – one driving and the other smashing into jewellery cases with an axe or bat.
They stole over 3.1 million dollars in watches and diamonds before disappearing in a blaze of burnt rubber. Their bikes were found abandoned, but the burglars escaped consequence free.
A witness described the ordeal as like something from a James Bond film. They said there was just no time to be frightened and that the whole thing barely seemed real.
4. Manhole Cover Crime Spree
NY TimesIn 1990, Los Angeles experienced a crime wave that was weird even by LA standards. Over the course of a few months, more than three hundred of the city’s manhole covers mysteriously disappeared.
This large-scale operation was believed to be the work of just two thieves. Their goal was to take the three-hundred-pound covers and sell them as scrap metal. At the time, their street value was just six dollars a cover, which hardly seems worth it when considering how heavy and difficult they would’ve been to steal.
In fact, the thieves could have made thirty times this amount from recycling soft drink cans, which would’ve had the added bonus of benefiting the environment. Similar manhole cover crime sprees have occurred all around the world.
3. The Sacramento Loomis Heist
Top TenzThese thieves had a literal hole in their plan. In March 1999, a security truck left to transfer a large sum of money from Sacramento to San Francisco. Their truck was heavily armoured, with an alarmed trailer, two armed guards and a driver in the cab.
When they arrived at their destination, they opened the sealed truck doors and found the 2.3 million dollars they’d been carrying was missing. The cunning thieves had gained access by cutting a hole in the truck’s thin aluminium roof.
After an extensive investigation, the FBI determined that someone had jumped onto the truck’s roof when it stopped at a weighing station. A witness glimpsed the bandit but there was not enough information to form any leads.
Authorities offered a $25,000 reward for any information that led to an arrest, but nothing ever came of it.
2. The Collar Bomb Heist
The 13th FloorThe collar bomb heist is one of the most twisted and complicated crimes in FBI history.
In 2003, a forty-six-year-old pizza delivery man walked into a bank and demanded they hand over $250,000. Although he was unarmed, the man lifted his shirt to reveal he had a homemade bomb strapped to his torso. He told the bank staff the bomb would explode in fifteen minutes unless his demand was met.
The employees gave him $8,000, and he left the bank. But while making his escape, the thief found himself surrounded by police. Unfortunately, it was too late for them to intervene. The bomb soon exploded, decapitating the man and killing him instantly.
This event drew huge media attention. It’s believed that a group of men had attached the bomb to an innocent man and forced him to commit the crime for them. Police have still been unable to get to the bottom of this tragic incident.
1. The Geezer Bandit
NBC NewsMost elderly folks are content spending their last days playing bingo and easing into retirement. But not the Geezer Bandit. This senior citizen’s claim to fame is an epic two-year spree of bank robberies across the entire state of California.
The Geezer Bandit has been described as a left-handed white male between the ages of sixty and seventy. Each of his sixteen robberies played out in the same way. First, he would enter the bank pretending to be a regular customer. Then he would pull out a revolver and hand the teller a note that read, “Give me $50,000 or I will murder you.”
The Geezer Bandit hasn’t committed any robberies since 2011, but the FBI is still offering a $20,000 reward for any information that leads to his capture. Given his age, it’s possible his health has deteriorated, which may explain why he hasn’t committed any recent robberies.
Despite the years of inactivity, the Geezer Bandit has a cult following on social media. His many Facebook fan pages sell T-shirts featuring surveillance images of him captured during his robberies.
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Well there’s our list of the weirdest unsolved heists throughout history. I hope this listicle didn’t give you any ideas. If it did or didn’t, let us know on any of our socials or in the comments section below.
