15. French Bank Robbery
In an attempted bank robbery in Pernes-les-Fontaines, France, surveillance footage appears to show
a truck being used as a battering ram in the dead of night…to no avail. The video shows a flatbed truck ramming into
the front entrance of a local bank. The would-be robber seem to be making progress,
crashing a makeshift port of entry into the bank building, but at some point, the vehicle
gets stuck and won’t move an inch. The driver revs the engine, pedal to the floor…but
nothing. The rest of the gang appears, surrounding
the truck and quickly discussing whether or not they should carry on or make a run for
it. They end up doing the latter, but not before
setting fire to the vehicle. Presumably, they walked away from the heist
gone terribly wrong with some notes for the future: Don’t try to rob a bank using a
flatbed truck. Not the best choice for a battering ram. Or, better yet, don’t try to rob a bank. Period. 14. Hacker Heist
In the age of the Internet, it’s easier than ever to scam people. And if you’re a group of super smart internet
hackers, it’s almost as easy to rob a bank…almost. That’s just what a group of hackers tried
to do, and they did get away with a large sum of money. This heist didn’t go terribly wrong for
them; it went terribly wrong for the Feds. The hackers’ target: the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York. How much did they want? $1 billion. And they nearly pulled it off. In fact, the Feds were coerced into paying
out $101 million to the hackers, before they finally realized the problem. The hackers managed to crack Bangladesh’s
central bank computers and shoot off a bunch of fake payment orders. What tripped up the whole operation? They discovered the scam on a fluke. The hackers were routing the money to a bank
in the Philippines with the address name including ‘Jupiter’. Turns out the US has sanctions against a different
Jupiter – the Iranian shipping company and oil tanker. This coincidental term triggered an investigation,
and when the Feds took a closer look at the payment orders, they realized that hackers
were behind them. If it hadn’t been for this fluke, the Feds
could have paid out $951 million more. There were other oddities in the hackers’
heist that should have triggered earlier intelligent involvement, including incorrectly formatted
forms and Bangladesh Bank payment request processes that differed from routine. For another thing, the bank that opened the
hacker accounts in the Philippines allowed them to be opened under false names. The bank manager there has since been fired. Really, the feds should have caught it sooner. In the end, the $81 million they paid out
to the four Philippine accounts remains lost. Most of it seems to have vanished into the
island country’s casino industry – an industry that’s exempt from money laundering
laws. This is one of the greatest cyber-heists to
be pulled off by hackers to date. While the culprits are still at large, the
heist did highlight something important: a real-time system of spotting fraud was lacking
for the New York Fed. “It’s a wake-up call and it has to be
corrected,” New York Democratic congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney, said. “To me, I see it as a threat to the confidence
people could have in the central banking system.” 13. The Note of Demand
If you were a bank robber, I’m guessing you wouldn’t write a note of demand on the
back of your own check. Yeah, neither would we. Mainly because we’re not stupid. But desperate 27-year-old Forest Kelly Bissonnette
was sure not the sharpest tool in the shed when he did just that at the Bank of the West
in Englewood. Bissonnette scratched off his name and apparently
thought that was enough to throw the Feds off the scent. But FBI special agent, Rene VonderHaar, said,
“We could still make it out even though he blacked it out.” Obviously... A tipster informed investigators that a man
called Forest Kelly had been bragging about using a demand note to rob the bank. The man was similar looking to the alleged
offender in the bank’s surveillance video that had been released. Kelly only took $5,000 from the Bank of the
West robbery, and – even dumber – he turned himself into the Feds a few days later. Guess he just wasn’t cut out for a life
of crime. 12. The Beer Run
You’re probably wondering how a beer heist could go terribly wrong? Did the would-be heisters make out with non-alcoholic
beer? Did the bottles break? How could a lake of Heineken ever go wrong? Well, when three 19-year-olds are behind the
wheel, things are bound to unfold like the Three Stooges. The three beer heisters were scheming to steal
a meager single 30-pack of Tecate, but they ended up with nothing but a shower. The alleged thieves attempted to make their
getaway from an LA market with their beer underarm. And they probably would’ve escaped, if the
employees hadn’t been on to them. They chased and caught one, red-handed, while
the other managed to flee to the getaway car, which was driven by their third buddy. But the store employees were not going to
let them get anywhere. To dodge the car and avoid getting run over,
one of the employees sprung onto the hood. The car then crashed. Meanwhile, one of the suspects flung the car
door open and fled the vehicle, racing into a nearby carwash. As the carwash was running at the time, the
suspect emerged dripping wet, from head to toe, and he met the police on the other side. As the manager told it: “By the time he
came out of the car wash, the officer was already on the other end of the tunnel. It was kind of funny. It was a nice show.” One suspect did manage to get away, but unfortunately
his troubles didn’t end there. He’d left his wallet in the car, which was
then confiscated by the police. They contacted him and he later turned himself
in. The three were charged with robbery, resisting
arrest, and assault with a deadly weapon – i.e. their vehicle. I’m guessing they won’t be going on another
beer run anytime soon. 11. Fast Food Holdup
Two thirty-plus-year-old men, Peter Welsh and Dwayne Doolan, found themselves in an
odd position when their jewelry heist turned into a fast food holdup on New Year’s Eve. This was their third attempt at robbing the
jewelry store. The first attempt didn’t go any further
than a broken window. During the second attempt, they made their
way through the back door, but discovered it wasn’t the back entrance to the jewelry
store, but rather, the Animal Welfare League Opportunity Shop next door. When they found themselves in the shop, they
instead stole a charity box with $50 inside. Great get! But their latest attempt went even more terribly
wrong than the first two. Using an iron bar, the dynamic duo broke into
a bathroom at the back of the row of shops by busting a hole into the wall. Crawling through the hole, they again didn’t
find themselves in the jewelry store, but in a fast-food joint. But instead of calling off the mission, they
made threats to the restaurant’s staff with their iron bar. “One female staffer opened the safe and
they grabbed lots of cash,” said police prosecutor Sergeant Damian Summerfield. Though the holdup in Beaudesert, south of
Brisbane, didn’t go as planned, they did make off with $2,600 – a little more than
their last big break. But I’m not sure if chicken nuggets are
as valuable as gold ones. After a raid on Welsh’s home, the duo was
arrested and charged with stealing, armed robbery, burglary, and attempted burglary. 10. A Drug Heist Gone Sour…or Sweet
What would you do if your drug dealer scammed you? If you weren’t higher than a kite, you’d
probably just have to chalk it up to the game. But that’s not the what 47-year-old coke
addict, Suzanne Basham, did when she realized she’d been taken for a ride. Basham, of Springfield, Missouri, shelled
out $40 of her hard-earned cash on crack cocaine. Putting the ice in her crack pot, she smoked
it, only to find she wasn’t high in the least. After further investigation, she realized
she’d been sold common sugar, not crack. So what did she do? She did the most logical thing she could do:
she called 911 to report the shakedown. Basham asked Springfield police to arrest
her dealer for the heist and get her a refund. The police took down the incident report,
and then promptly turned around and arrested Basham for possession of drug paraphernalia. It may come as no surprise that Basham hadn’t
even the mind to clean up a bit and stash her crack pipe away before the police arrived. The officer did follow up with Basham’s
report and went to check out her alleged dealer’s address, but the home’s residents refused
investigators entry and claimed they’d not sold coke – or sugar – to Basham. In the end, all Basham had to show for her
$40 was a bag of sweet sugar and her mug shot. 9. The Bomb Collar Mystery
In 2003, a heist in Erie, Pennsylvania shocked the world. It involved a pizza delivery man, of all people. Brian Wells delivered hot slices during his
shift, as normal. But a few hours later, he’d end up passing
away. After his shift was over, Wells strolled into
a local Erie bank with two things: a handwritten note demanding $250,000 and a makeshift shotgun. He left with only $9,000, and it didn’t
take police long to catch up with him. When they did, he had a strange story to tell:
he claimed that he was forced into the robbery by a gang of three men. According to Wells, he was told they would
take his life unless he completed a list of tasks by such-and-such a time. He also told police he had a bomb strapped
to him. The police had Wells sit cross-legged on the
pavement, where he was surrounded, while awaiting the bomb squad. But before they arrived, the bomb around Wells’
neck detonated on live television, exploding a hole straight through his chest. He died then and there, leaving the police
flabbergasted. They only became more confused when they discovered
instructions on Wells’ body: “This powerful, booby-trapped bomb can be removed only by
following our instructions… ACT NOW, THINK LATER OR YOU WILL DIE!” The set of instructions sent Wells on a search
around Erie for a series of keys, the last of which would unlock the homemade bomb which
was on a collar around his neck. The collar featured two 6-inch pipe bombs,
baking timers, a combination lock, and several keyholes. It appeared that Wells was the victim of a
sinister game. But then new information began to appear that
added complexity to the story. Handyman, Bill Rothstein – the neighbor
of the last location for Wells’ pizza delivery – called 911 nearly a month after the botched
heist. Rothstein told police he had the body of Jim
Roden in the freezer. Roden, he said, had his life taken by Marjorie
Diehl-Armstrong, his girlfriend, and Rothstein’s ex-girlfriend. She asked Rothstein to help cover up her crime. While this seemed to have nothing to do with
Wells’ sensational case, it actually had everything to do with it. Rothstein, Diehl-Armstrong, and a drug dealer
named Kenneth Barnes were all in on the heist. The objective was to steal enough money to
pay an assassin to take the life of Diehl-Armstrong’s father, so she could receive her family inheritance. Wells, they said, was in on it too…but he
didn’t know the bomb collar was real. When he discovered it was, he tried to back
out, but the other three forced the collar on him. It was set to explode whether he came through
for them or not. They wanted him out of the picture. When Diehl-Armstrong’s then-boyfriend, Roden,
discovered his girlfriend’s part in the heist gone terribly wrong, she then had his
life taken. And instead of receiving her inheritance,
she received a life sentence. 8. Dog Day Afternoon
There are many reasons to rob a bank. Stealing money for gender reassignment surgery
turns out to be one of them. The story that inspired the famous film Dog
Day Afternoon was that of the American bank robber, John Stanley Wojtowicz. Wojtowicz met Elizabeth Eden at an Italian
feast in NYC and married later that year. Although Eden’s gender change was cited
as one of the motives, the actual heist was a full-on Mafia operation gone terribly wrong. What went wrong on that hot summer day in
August, 1972? Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturale strolled
into the Chase Manhattan Bank in Gravesend, Brooklyn, where they proceeded to hold seven
bank employees hostage for fourteen hours. Another of the crew, Westenberg, was supposed
to keep watch outside, but when he spotted a police car up the street, he fled the scene. Wojtowicz had a background in banking. A bank teller in a previous life, he knew
of your day-to-day bank operations, but his actual plan centered around parts of The Godfather,
which he’d watched that day. Apparently, watching a Mafia film doesn’t
make you a real gangster. The FBI took the life of Naturale in the last
moments of the negotiations, and they arrested Wojtowicz, who later pled guilty in court. However, he only served a measly five years
of the twenty he was sentenced, and he managed to make a good chunk of money off the deal
anyway by selling the film rights to his story - $7,500 to be exact, which is equivalent
to $40,000 today. So, in the end, Eden received her gender reassignment
surgery, but later passed away of AIDS in 1987. Not a happy ending to this film-worthy story. 7. The Justin Bieber Heist
There are fans…and then there are super FANS. Some of the latter category tend to take their
fandom to extreme levels. One of those super fans turns out to be 23-year-old
Floridian man. When he crossed paths with a life-size cutout
of Justin Bieber, instead of simply snapping a pic with the cardboard pop star, David Dowling
decided he MUST HAVE HIM. That’s when he and a friend decided to pull
off the heist of a lifetime. They entered the Bradenton mall’s F.Y.E.
store and, according to the police report, “exited the store passing all point of sale
without paying for the cutout,” after which they raced through Sears with two-dimensional
Bieber. The highspeed chase was caught on the store’s
surveillance video. Unfortunately, the F.Y.E. store was on the
lookout for Bieber super fans and their antics. “The Assistant Manager of F.Y.E. gave chase
and caught up with them and retrieved the cutout and told them to return with her to
the store,” cops said. They ignored her and fled but were later caught
by mall security, hiding behind some bushes outside the mall. “We were just having fun holding Justin
Bieber hostage,” Dowling said in a statement taken by police after his arrest. That “fun” resulted with a misdemeanor
count for theft. Though the heist went bad, it does make for
a funny story to tell your friends...which is probably what Dowling was going for. 6. The Kunsthal Art Heist
After a Romanian thief pulled off the heist of the century at Rotterdam’s Kunsthal museum,
things went horribly wrong. The heist was actually planned quite well. In fact, it was a master class in thievery. The thieves in question stole the paintings
right off the museum’s walls in broad daylight in less than two minutes, flat. And we’re talking masterpieces – works
by Picasso, Matisse, Freud, de Haan, Gaugin, and Monet, including the famous painting,
“Waterloo Bridge, London.” So if they got away with the paintings, how
could the heist have gone “terribly wrong”? Well, because the masterpieces likely no longer
exist. The mother of one of the alleged thieves,
Olga Dogaru, claims to have burned the pieces in order to destroy evidence after her son
was arrested. She’d previously hidden the artwork in a
cemetery and an abandoned house, before things started to heat up as police searched her
home. “I placed the suitcase containing the paintings
in the stove,” Dogaru confessed. “I then added some logs, slippers and rubber
shoes and waited until they had completely burned.” Detectives say Olga seems to be telling the
truth, as forensic scientists discovered the paintings’ remains. “Small fragments of painting primer, and
the remains of canvas and paint” in the oven were confirmed. The collection of paintings has been valued
at over $100 million. Along with Olga, five other Romanians have
been charged with involvement in the heist. Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu, the director
of the National History Museum in Romania, called this alleged destruction a “crime
against humanity.” 5. 5. Slow Burn
You can run, but you can’t hide. While some heists may not have gone wrong
on the day, they may just be awaiting their comeuppance in a slow burn. Remember the 1978 Lufthansa heist, in which
thieves took off with nearly $1 million in jewelry and $5 million in cash by robbing
a cargo terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York? You may not remember the details of the actual
heist, but it served as inspiration for the film, Goodfellas. Vincent Asaro, who is believed to have been
one of the mobsters involved in the heist, was recently indicted on unrelated charges. When investigating James Burke – or “Jimmy
the Gent” as he’s known – the FBI discovered the human remains of Paul Katz, who was murdered
by the crime family in 1969 for being a suspected rat. Vincent Asaro was indicted in the murder and
cover-up. Burke is believed to be the mastermind behind
the heist – one of the largest in American history – for which the Bonanno crime family
was allegedly responsible. Burke passed away in prison in 1996, serving
time for another murder. Asaro will be one of the only persons involved
in the heist who will be arrested in connection with it. Airport employee, Louis Werner, was the only
other arrest made in the case, as he admitted to providing information to the mobsters to
assist their raid. Only a small portion of the money has been
recovered, and most of the other suspects have passed away or been murdered since the
heist. Although they got away with the heist, they
didn’t really escape the consequences. 4. Murder at McDonald’s
Do you want a bullet with your burger? A McDonald’s heist in 1992 has been deemed
a “get rich quick” scheme gone bad. And we mean three-people-killed, one-horrifically-injured
BAD. 18-year-old Derek Wood, an employee of the
famous fast food chain, was the mastermind behind the theft, in which he anticipated
to take $200,000 in cash from a safe he’d discovered in the back room of the restaurant. Wood didn’t intend to kill…but he did
come prepared for it, with a shovel handle, some knives, a .22 caliber pistol, and two
friends to assist him in the heist. The blood bath that unfolded left three dead
and one paralyzed for life. What was the take for the loss of these lives? In the end, the bandits made out with a grand
total of $2,017. The gruesome heist was chronicled by Phonse
Jessome in his book, Murder at McDonald’s. In it, Jessome describes each of the senseless
passings of the McDonald’s employees and the bungled heist job in detail. In one scene, he details the slow and painful
passing of Neil Burroughs, a father of a 3-year-old, who was shot, stabbed in the neck, smashed
in the face with a shovel handle, and then shot again, as he begged for his life. 3. The Police Perfume Heist
Believe it or not, New York City’s finest don’t all live up to their moniker. A group of them tried to pull off a $1 million
perfume heist from a Carlstadt warehouse. But the theft didn’t go as planned, and
in only three weeks’ time, the fools were caught. The case involved five armed officers who
busted into the InStyle USA warehouse days before Valentine’s Day. If they wanted to give their ladies perfume,
they could have just strolled into a store and bought some like any normal boyfriend,
instead of loading up five truckloads of it, while waving their badges and guns around
like madmen. The heisters ordered the employees to gather
in the front office, where they handcuffed them. Then sixteen day laborers arrived in five
box trucks and began loading the expensive name brand perfume – think Giorgio Armani,
D&G, Versace, etc. – some of which goes for $80 an ounce. Someone called 911 while it was all going
down, and the uncorrupted police force descended on the scene, nabbing two of the ringleaders
and several witnesses. Testimony later emerged that a handful of
officers were involved. One rented the trucks using his very own credit
card, while another used his driver’s license. And their cars were on the scene, as well. Officers Brian Checo and Richard LaBlanca
pled guilty, as did former cop Orlando Garcia. Although the situation was serious, the court
case unfolded with a little humor. U.S. District Judge William Walls asked Checo
during his plea: “Did you watch some stupid TV show thinking you could do this?” “No, sir,” was Checo’s response. “And you spent two years at John Jay [College
of Criminal Justice]?” “Yes, sir.” “You didn’t do well there, did you?” the judge ribbed. He was probably spot on. 2. The Tape Heist
After Jose Hart released a tape of himself and his ex-girlfriend, she wanted revenge. But the revenge went fatally wrong, when what
was supposed to be a robbery turned violent. 20-year-old Kayla Moreno and two other masked
accomplices entered Hart’s home to rob him. While the trio broke into the place, Hart
interfered and was shot by his own mother, who was trying to defend her home. He passed away of gunshot wounds to his torso. While they didn’t pull off the heist, Moreno’s
accomplices did manage to escape and are still at large. Before we get to number 1, my name is Chills
and I hope you’re enjoying the video so far. If you've ever been curious as to what I look
like in real life, then follow me on Instagram @dylan_is_chillin_yt, with underscores instead
of spaces. I also have Twitter @YT_Chills where I post
video updates. I'd really appreciate it if you followed me
and feel free to send me a DM if you have a questions or suggestions. If you’d like to see more of these videos
in the future, then hit that subscribe button because we upload new countdowns every Tuesday
and Saturday. 1. The Diamond Heist
There’s nothing more Hollywood than a diamond heist. But there’s nothing less Hollywood than
one that goes THIS wrong. A gang of six “brokers” came together
to rob a diamond dealer. Instead of selling on his diamonds, as promised,
they schemed to rob him blind. The gang met with Moshe Tager and Razia Bux,
a couple who dealt in diamonds. To gain their trust, they took the pair to
see “buyers” who never intended to buy a damn thing. While the plan was simple, it didn’t pan
out that way. A gunman was supposed to bust into a shop
in Robertsham, and demand the suitcase full of jewels. The gang members believed they’d appear
as victims and be overlooked as suspects, as the fake gunman “held up” their store. But Tager and Bux noticed the small details
which would later implicate the gang in the crime. On the day in question, the couple was brought
to meet a buyer at one of the fake broker’s shops. A woman and four men were there to make the
deal. But Tager noticed one of the buyers lock the
front door of the shop. That’s when an armed man wearing a balaclava
entered through the back door and commanded everyone to toss their keys and cellphones
and lie face down on the floor, where they were ordered to bind each other’s hands
with plastic cable ties. But as the shop wasn’t closed for the day,
an unsuspecting customer started knocking on the front door to purchase some jewelry. The gunman – who was actually a store employee
– removed his balaclava to try to convince the customer that all was normal and get him
to bugger off. That’s when Bux recognized the gunman. The gunman then escaped out the back door
with the suitcase of jewelry. In reality, he just ran upstairs to his apartment
above the shop. Then things went even more terribly wrong,
because a conman, named Sheik, tricked the fake gunman into handing over the stolen goods
by saying that he had to pull some money from the bag in order to bail out the rest of the
gang, who’d been arrested. The catch? Not a single person was nabbed. The gunman had left the bag on a shelf just
outside the jewelry store, and he told Sheik exactly where it was. An investigation is underway, but no one has
been arrested yet for the heist. Thanks for checking out this video. Be sure to subscribe because we upload new
countdowns every Tuesday and Saturday. Or if you're still not convinced, here are
some of our other videos that I think you'd like. Enjoy!
