Throughout history, people have been stealing from one another in varying degrees of severity, from having your lunch money stolen in the playground to the mastermind bank heists that shock the world. While our aim is to prevent you from falling foul of burglars, we’re still fascinated by some of the world’s biggest and most famous robberies of all time! Today, we’ll begin a running series that’ll look at some jaw-dropping heists that shook the world.
In 1986 Italian criminal, Valerio Viccei arrived in London to continue his life of crime. After securing the help of Parvez Latif, the managing director of the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre, he began to formulate his plan.
On 12th July 1987, two men entered the centre where they requested to rent a safety deposit box. They were then shown into the vault where they took out hand guns and subdued the manager and security guards.
The robbers then placed a ‘closed’ sign in the door and let in more gang members to assist with the heist. The group of thieves proceeded to break open many of the safety deposit boxes, pocketing the contents, which was estimated to be worth around £60 million. This is thought to be a conservative guess, as the owners of the security boxes may have not reported the full extent of the contents.
Although the gang members made it out with their loot, several of them were later tracked down by the authorities and arrested during the next month. Viccei, on the other hand fled to Latin America, where he seemed to be safe from arrest. It wasn’t until he returned to England to retrieve his prized Ferrari that the authorities caught up with him. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, but in April 2000, during a day release, he became involved in a gunfight and was killed by police.
Here at AFS Security, our top priority is to keep you safe from burglars by making sure that your home or office is kitted out with the best security equipment. So, if you want to improve your property’s safety and are looking for a locksmith in East London, get in contact with us today by calling 0208 471 9000 to speak to a member of our team.
