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Now, if youre curious about how he pulled it off and his current whereabouts, we have your back! His granddaughter had accidently turned off the ringer the night before. The King of Keys shrugged. WebBut 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 The police were finally treating his litter situation with the proper respect. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. Their beat: the labyrinthine Antwerp Diamond District. VideoTV host admonishes man gluing himself to podium. He still remembers every detail of his first robbery. Back at Van Camp's property, another detective knelt among the thorny brambles and peered at a small, jagged piece of paper poking out of the mud. "Don't worry," the Genius said. "That's not so easy," Notarbartolo pointed out. The group climbed down a lift shaft before drilling through the vault and escaping with their haul. External security camera, The Vault7. It was enough evidence to link the crime to Notarbartolo. Some of the robbers dressed as women. Following a trail of evidence disposed of in a nearby bush, the detectives found envelopes from the Diamond Center and a receipt for a sandwich. Originated in the Middle Ages, it gave to the island numerous personalities who have made a significant contribution to its social, political, intellectual and artistic life. It was a simple but effective hack: The oily film would temporarily insulate the sensor from fluctuations in the room's temperature, and the alarm went off only if it sensed both heat and motion. He was later sentenced to 10 years. Or: There was no insurance scam. Still, the men were cautious. Diamond Heist It was an embarrassing oversight, but what really irked him was that he had vouched for his friend, and the guy had cracked. There was videotape strewn all over the place. The gang took two 17th Century crowns and an orb from a cathedral before making a dramatic escape by speedboat - and police do not yet have any suspects. he asked. It was his job to stay in touch with Notarbartolo, but there was no cell phone reception down in the vault. Then, they loaded up bags of diamonds and other jewels. It didn't take long to reassemble the pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. A silver Rolex peeks out from under his cuff, and a vertical strip of white soul patch drops down from his lower lip like an exclamation mark. He viewed it as the safest place to keep valuables in Antwerp. Leonardo Notarbartolo was born in Palermo in 1952 and has been called the bandit of the century. The bolts that secured the door retracted and it swung heavily open. In elementary school, he filched money from his teachers. He just knew how to walk there. Leonardo Notarbartolo was born in 1952 in Palermo, Sicily, and by his admission, he became addicted to stealing at an early age. There were also a lot of holes with rabbits in them. The subterranean chamber was supposed to be one of the most secure safes in the world. In 1998, he bought a narrow strip of forest alongside the E19 motorway. But Notabartolo says that the Monster knew exactly what he was doing. On the night of the heist, a cell tower in the Diamond District logged the presence of all three, plus Notarbartolo. Since they had memorized the layout of the vault in the replica, they worked in the dark, turning on their flashlights only for split secondsenough to position the drill over the next box. Brooklyn, NY, Garden City, NY, Delray Beach, FL. Thursday morning, February 13, 2003. "This is a ridiculous time to be having a panic attack," Notarbartolo muttered. It was Saturday night, and Williams was dominating the semifinals of the Diamond Games, an event that hyped Antwerp's predominant position in the gem world. The Monster bypassed the vault security system's main inbound and outbound wires and then covered this light sensor with tape, rendering it useless. Notarbartolo claims that they only got $20 million of merchandise. The other robbers in The School of Turin got five years each. He has left for his homeland in Italy and is prohibited admission to Belgium. He put the car in gear and slowly pulled away. 8. He seemed to be standing in the vault antechamber. When armed, the plates formed a magnetic field. Is climate change killing Australian wine? The man behind the Antwerp diamond heist, Leonardo Notarbatolo, was familiar with the area. Meanwhile, 51-year-old Leonardo faced more severe punishment for masterminding the heist. There were also some white envelopes printed with the words diamond center, antwerp. Join Facebook to connect with Leonardo Notarbartolo and others you may know. Leonardo Notarbartolo Profiles. Each box had 17,576 possible combinations. To enter, four numbers had to be dialed, and the digits could be seen only through a small lens on the top of the wheel. Things could get much worse. They had to drop the bag immediately. Some 30 hours later, the authorities would marvel at the ingenuity. This bridge rerouted the incoming electric pulse over to the outbound wire before the signal reached the sensors. The caveau was protected by infrared heat detectors and locked with a lock with 100 million possible combinations. They had anticipated a haul in the tens of millions each. Now they were looking at a fraction of thatprobably about $20 million. Notarbartolo used women's hair spray to temporarily disable the vault's combined heat/motion sensor. Next, the King of Keys played out a hunch. As usual, his 3-year-old granddaughter played with his cell phone and made him laugh. A typical conversation: "The kids have made a mess on my land again. The vehicles rocketed past the guard gate at the entrance of the district, and the giant metal cylinders rose out of the ground behind them, blocking any further automotive access. WebLeonardo Notarbartolo is on Facebook. They'd rendezvous outside Milan to divvy it all up. The Belgian courts sentenced him to 10 years in prison. The receipt had a time-stamp. Notarbartolo intends to set the record straight. In a 2016 interview, Leonardo stated, Do you know what my dream is? The dealer introduced them, though Notarbartolo refuses to reveal their names, referring to them only by nicknames. He has refused to allow his attorney to make any statements on his behalf. They emptied 236 security deposit boxes into duffel bags. It was silenthe was surrounded by thick concrete walls. But Speedy was having trouble. The streets would fill with people soon, and they needed to transfer their bags into Notarbartolo's car. Leonardo Notarbartolo was birthed in Palermo, Sicily, in 1952, as well as by his admission, he transformed connected on swiping from a more youthful age. Police soon suspected one of the Diamond Center tenants, a one-time jeweler from Turin, Italy, named Leonardo Notarbartolo. Every month, Antwerp's share of the boxes was flown into Belgium and transferred to a Brinks armored truck. A wave of anxiety swept the room. Internal security camera10. He felt the security system's main inbound and outbound wires. In 2000, Notarbartolo rented a small office in the Diamond Center, one of the areas largest buildings. Peys and De Bruycker lead the Diamond Squad, the world's only specialized diamond police. Patrick Peys and Agim De Bruycker arrived at the Diamond Center the next morning. But that's exactly what Notarbartolo did. Nobody would ever find the stuff here. He stole because he was born to be a thief. The group was dubbed the "School of Turin." How a Rogue Geologist Discovered a Diamond Trove in the Canadian Arctic, Digging for Diamonds 24/7 Under Frozen Snap Lake, The Mohs Scale of Hardness, From Talc to Diamonds, 2023 Cond Nast. Leonardo Notarbartolo (Credit: Wired) February 16 2003, Notarbartolo took the E19 motorway out of Antwerp, racing towards Brussels. Even though most of the gang, known as the School of Turin, has since been arrested, the diamonds have never been retrieved. Six years earlier Graff Diamonds lost 23m in another raid. During business hours, Hasidic men wearing broad-brimmed hats hurried past with satchels locked to their wrists. But Notarbartolo had no intention of muscling his way in when people were around and then shooting his way out. In Notarbartolo's jacket pocket, his phone flashed but made no sound. Jeffrey Notarbartolo Notarbartolo drove his rented gray Peugeot 307 past the city's soot-covered central train station and turned onto Pelikaanstraat, a road that skirted the district. The loot was never found, but their trash was. Leonardo Notarbartolo Now Unaware, Notarbartolo sped toward Antwerp. Three other Italians Elio DOnorio, Ferdinando Finotto and Pietro Tavano were sentenced to five years each. He had found his calling.