Friday, April 16, 2010

FLAWLESS : INSIDE THE LARGEST DIAMOND HEIST IN HISTORY
by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell

Valentine's Day is the most romantic holiday of the year. Retailers spend months marketing diamonds and nowhere is it busier than in Antwerp home of the Diamond Center. The building that houses these sparkling gems is considered to be the most secure fortress, anywhere. Between 24/7 video surveillance, armed patrols, a couple of police stations, aboveground and sensors, closed-circuit television cameras, video cameras, magnetic alarms, a locked, bombproof steel door, underground, the vault is supposed to be impenetrable. A perfect set-up for a robbery.
On February 15, 2003, four Italians, known as "The School of Turin," entered the site and with cunning and ingenuity took off with close to a half billion dollars worth of valuables.
The investigators thought, at first, that the culprits would be impossible to find. One day after the heist, though, the local police received an astonishing phone call.
If you're a fan of true crime, then this is the book for you. From the Epilogue to the Prologue, you're in for one hell of a ride. Flawless is quite a page-turner. Impressively researched, the authors traveled throughout Europe for clues, documents, and sources to discover how the thieves planned and executed the heist of the century. Not to be missed.
Recommended.