The Hatton Garden Heist
July 17, 03
Diamond robberies are just not what they used to be. Apparently the days of ‘smash and grab’ are coming to an end, well at least in Europe. These days, the ultimate diamond thief doesn’t walk around with a mask over his head and a hammer in his hand. Rather, he’s audacious, well-organized, meticulous in his planning and has nerves of steel. Lessons, it seems, were not learnt from the diamond heist in the vaults in Antwerp. London’s diamond district recently suffered from an equally brazen robbery, although this time, the thief walked away with a mere 1.5 million pounds, compared to the estimated $65 million stolen in Antwerp.
For several months, a man had been making the rounds in London’s Hatton Garden diamond district. He became well acquainted with many of the diamond dealers and jewelers in the area, introducing himself as Philip Goldberg, (aka Luis Ruben or Ruben Luis). According to police reports, he rented four safety deposit boxes in 88-90 Hatton Garden, the premises of the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit Ltd, visiting the building on numerous occasions since November last year.
His last visit was on Saturday morning, June 28th. This time he walked away with 1.5 million pounds worth of diamonds and jewelry. The thefts, similar to the Antwerp story, were only discovered on the following Monday morning, when a customer found his deposit box had been glued shut.
“It would appear that this was a well planned and sophisticated theft targeting security boxes containing large amounts of cash and jewelry,” said, Detective Inspector Pete Milner of Holborn CID.
Goldberg is described as a well-dressed man of about 6ft 4ins in his 50s. As yet, police have no leads to his whereabouts.