A Night at the Museum

We have a strange habit of idolizing criminal masterminds. Even thieves who don’t necessarily share their robbed riches with the poor still seem to retain the adoration of fans who live vicariously through their daring escapades. Who hasn't watched The Thomas Crown Affair and wanted to be just like the main character in the movie. Perhaps we live such boring lives that we like to live through their callous disregard for society's rules and regulations. In December 2002, thieves pulled off one of the most inexplicable diamond heists of all time at a science museum in The Hague, Netherlands. I always thought that I was pretty good at solving puzzles but I can't crack this one. If anyone out there manages to figure out just how these guys pulled this off please let the rest of us know.

The museum was putting on a huge diamond exhibit intended to educate the public about diamonds. There were royal pieces on display, as well as jewelry lent to the museum by other museums and private collectors. The most valuable pieces disappeared either Sunday night or Monday morning.Because the museum is closed on Mondays, the theft went undetected for at least a day. Museum officials came in on Tuesday to find that six of the exhibit's 28 display cases were empty.

The museum had 24-hour security guards monitoring all the entrances and exits, as well as 24-hour surveillance-camera footage that covered every square inch of the exhibit. The cabinets were all in a motion-detection zone, and the displays that housed the most valuable pieces (the displays the thieves emptied) were made of reinforced glass.

To this day, no one has any idea how the heist happened. Nothing showed upon the video footage, the guards never saw a thing, the motion sensors never went off and the display cabinets showed no evidence of tampering.The only signs of a break-in were a single smashed window leading into the museum -- and the empty cases. The flawlessness of the heist would seem to suggest an insider, but investigators have been unable to make any connection between the robbery and museum staff.

The museum never released details about exactly which jewels were stolen, but insiders note that a wedding gift given by King William III to Queen Mary II of England in the 1600s was among the prized pieces. The museum eventually put a price tag of about $12 million on the robbery, but since many of the stolen pieces had historical significance, the haul is really priceless.

You can take it for granted that the diamonds will probably never turn up for auction because they're too famous to go unnoticed by anyone in the jewelry world. And after several years of investigation without a single lead, detectives have closed the case.

So if anyone out there knows how this was accomplished please let the rest of us know.