a bank robbery was described as the heist of the century ingenious plan of a mastermind to crack an impregnable Vault makes the detectives out of their minds the events of today's story took place in a French Bank named saucity General one of France's most well-known banks with branches all over the world the bank is in the city of niss which is located on the French Riviera the Southeastern coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea at that time most people used to save their valuable property in this Bank such as money jewelry gold and so on
the bank accepted all sorts of deposits and placed them in safe boxes inside the Vault the customers were so confident that their properties were safe since the bank had one of the biggest and strongest Fault in all France however what happened on Monday 19th of July in 1976 is something that has never happened before the day started like every other day all the officers took their seats to start a typical day there was nothing strange that indicated that something unusual was about to occur everything was fine until the bank's director and a few officers tried
to open the vault to release funds for customer transactions The Vault main door opened normally but the inner door remained persistent and they were unable to open it they remained calm since it is not the first time the door had been stuck before it is a 75 years old steel door that weighed more than 20 tons so dealing with such problems was common but the problem was that many of the customers were gathered in front of the bank waiting for the officers to open the door so that they could make their transactions the the bank
director called The Vault manufacturer company which is also in charge of maintaining it a few minutes later a representative of the company arrived to work on the lock mechanism and went on the unlocking procedure again and again trying to figure out why the door is stuck after a while the expert discovered that the lock worked fine nevertheless the door remained stuck and no marks showed that the door had been forced the expert brought all the tools and continue on trying to discover what made the door stuck same time frustrated customers started to crowd around the
bank with increasing impatience they begun to worry they wanted their money they wanted to get to their values and nobody was telling them why they had to wait anxiety was all around the expert attempts on solving the riddle of the mechanism had no clue despite the assistance of additional Personnel sent by the manufacturer company they couldn't even find out what was going on it seemed confusing and complicated they had no explanation unless the door was closed from the other side which is impossible How could a door be closed from inside if it is the only
way in and out the Vault that was insane by noon a decision was made to break through the side of the vault door they wanted to figure out what made the door stuck by three o'clock P.M a small hole at last opened up in which they can peer inside the vault the Workman declared what to be seen as impossible the bank had been robbed the bank director called the police within a few minutes the bank swarmed with cops including every important policeman in nice as they were aware that they were going to conduct an investigation
into one of the biggest bank robberies in history they made the hole bigger all these cops came in bank robbers took all the money that was inside in addition to other 4 000 safe boxes of valuable things and there was a quote written on the wall with a Big Font that says without weapons without violence and without hate the question raised here is how the robbers got in and out the Vault that was so obvious for the detectives that were there there was a hole opened up to a tunnel that led to the city's underground
sewer system and the equipment used by the robbers to break into the Vault was left there everything was left behind shows that this was a big operation there were 27 gas cylinders that had been used to fuel blow torches and there was ventilation equipment that bring fresh air into the tunnel plus almost half mile of electrical cable they must have planned this massive operation for months in advance which is worth the award that they have taken at the end burglars had stolen money jewelry and precious metals worth about 10 million dollars it was the biggest
bank robbery in world history and was described as the heist of the century and most International media used that as their headline the bank offered a quarter million dollar reward for anyone who got information leading to the arrest of the thieves it was not only the biggest bank robbery but the biggest investigation to high-ranking detectives have been brought from all over France and they began interviewing thousands of people Bank employees customers that they had boxes in the vault even workmen and people who were living around the bank had been interviewed too were evidences proved that
a well-known big gang called the sewer rats were accomplice in this robbery it is a gang that used sewer system in most their crimes after a long period of Investigation the detectives found suspects and they were almost sure that they are members of the sewer rats but they felt that none of the suspects up to this point had the ability to plan this operation so they made the decision to keep them under constant surveillance because they were chasing the Mastermind the one who put together this operation a hint on the robbers came on the first
days of October when two men who were under surveillance went to a local bank and tried to sell gold ingots the bank employee tracked the Ingot cereal and saw they matched those stolen from the bank the bank staff alerted the police and the two men were immediately taken into custody authorities had solid proof that those men belonged to the gang and would become more proximate to other members if they were pushed into speaking and confessing to the identity of the operations Mastermind the police in France were informed that they may accuse their relatives of crimes
that they aren't even aware of and that they had the authority to hold any suspect in prison and use any method to compel a confession even if it's illegal after all this a name came out one of the two men gave the police a name of a photographer called Albert he said that he is the one who planned for this operation the police went immediately to the photographer and told him all what they got the man was so shocked he told them that he knew nothing about that and the cops felt despair because he did
not fit the profile either and he certainly sounded innocent and when they asked about him many people claimed that he lived a simple life as a photographer and they knew him as a Charming romantic who was above all loyal especially to his wife the couple preferred living in the countryside far away from City's noise so a simple man like him planned for a bank robbery seemed weird to the cops but he had been taken into custody though detectives started over investigating him and the man kept claiming that he is innocent the investigation had last for
hours and hours the cops tried all the tricks they know to get a confession the legal and the illegal ones but the photographer remained calm while Albert was being interviewed the police raided the cottage that he shared with his wife illegal weapons and bombs were found which gave the police the upper hand in the interrogation a said before the police had no problem using illegal ways to get the confession they want they have threatened him that they will accuse his wife for the possession of firearms and put her in prison for many years because they
are pretty sure that Albert loves his wife so much and he won't let them arrest her at this moment Albert was forced to reveal the truth to the police in order to save her wife he confessed that he was The Mastermind of this operation and gave them a well-detailed speech on how he planned for it he said that the idea came to his mind two years ago when one of his neighbors who was working at the bank told him that the Vault had no alarm system Albert went to the bank and rented a safe box
the bank used to give the safe box holders the right to enter the Vault without guards in order to give them some kind of privacy while putting their stuff in their boxes he entered the Vault with his camera and started photographing Each corner of the Vault and made extensive notes thousands of safe boxes were inside the Vault so he needed a plan that allows him to stay for a long time inside without being noticed so that he could break all or most of the locks he fought again and again and he realized that the best
option he got to get into the is through the underground sewer system nice city has a huge underground sewer system but it wasn't under the buildings so Albert thought that he may dig a tunnel from the closest point to get under the Bank building of course this is hard to achieve it took a lot of effort and search he decided to go under the sewer system for weeks trying to find a line that led directly to the bank and to figure out the appropriate digging starting point this was way too difficult the sewer system was
too musty that he couldn't bear the smell he smoked a Cuban cigar to combat the odor finally realize that this was an impossible mission pretending to be a contractor he went to the city hall and get a map of the city sewer system which made things much easier for him finally he found the closest sewer Branch to the bank he spotted the right digging starting point from the closest point to the Vault a 30 feet tunnel should be dug it is not a big distance right but what made it difficult is that the digging was
under one of the biggest Avenues known by the traffic jam and it's going to be heard from the street above Albert now had the plan but not the means nor the men to achieve it so he traveled to marsil and met with some gains leaders including the sewer rats gang they really loved the plan and got excited for it they agreed to help him in return for a big cut of the cake they'd provide him with Manpower and all the equipment required to start the operation firstly Albert placed a group of guys on the digging
Zone with radios to notify the others if cops appeared unexpectedly he took all the precautions to ensure that the operation wouldn't fail the digging itself was so exhausting because they were working with traditional equipment so as not to be heard by others Edition the space was tight hot and poorly ventilated which was very difficult for the diggers one day one of the men couldn't persist such conditions and passed out and here Albert found himself obliged to divide them into teams each team would work for 10 minutes then rest for another 10. even a doctor was
available for emergencies they needed fresh air and light to keep working so they brought ventilation tube and half mile electrical cable and they took electricity from a nearby garage to run ventilators and Light this made the working conditions better Albert believed that the plan's success depends on workers comfort so he did his best to make them at ease nine weeks later on the first days of July they finally reached the vault's wall everyone was happy but Albert he knew that a lot of hard work was yet to do they still had to break through a
12-inch reinforced concrete wall this wasn't difficult but they needed jackhammers and drills to break through Albert was afraid that digging with such equipment could be heard so he went above the digging Zone and asked them to start digging his fears proved groundless he completely couldn't hear nothing they were able to break halfway through the Vault wall that night and decided to continue the rest of the wall the night they entered the vault D-Day had come Saturday 17th of July they chose that day because it's the first day of weekend and the bank would be empty
and they would have enough time to complete what they had started that night they got into the tunnel and start digging what left from the concrete wall they still had six inches of reinforced concrete to break through the drilling took far longer than Albert had planned it two o'clock AM Sunday morning when the rats finally entered the Vault welding the steel door to its frame was their first task this way Albert and his gang would have time to escape if someone attempted to access the Vault space then they started breaking the safe boxes one by
one and they were astonished by what they found jewelry gold money everything they dreamed about they celebrated their win by having dinner inside the Vault like kings on gold-plated found in one of the safe boxes that night armed couriers had come to make a night deposit it's a usual operation an armed van brought a suitcase full of money and throw it through a small hole that led directly to the Vault without being opened that was like a bonus a gift from heaven for them sewer rats kept breaking the other safe boxes they spent almost 27
hours inside the Vault though they were just able to open 400 boxes out of four thousand but it was more than enough for them Monday morning at five o'clock AM Albert stated that it was time to leave less than four hours later the bank will open but before leaving Albert took a paint spray and write the famous quote on the wall without weapons without violence without hate this quote made the detectives was rage at the people who were laughing and applauding at the crime who went around talking to each other and instead of saying hello
and goodbye they would say without weapons without violence without hate at the end Albert was ultimately arrested alongside the rest of the sewer rat gang then he cited all the details that we have previously said to the detectives and expressed his desire to cooperate in return for keeping his wife away from all of this Albert was in police's custody until a final judgment is issued against him during this period Albert along with his lawyer used to meet the judge every Thursday in his office the judge wanted to evaluate his State and see to what extent
he is ready to cooperate this situation lasted for several weeks Albert went to the judge's office and spent half an hour with him he was very cooperative and everyone expected that he would receive a reduced sentence in the last meeting before his trial Albert went to the judge's office as usual he started talking about the robbery and gave the judge three pieces of paper with drawings of the my sewer system and began to explain what had happened how he planned for the operation and where they had started digging but the judge seemed confused and Albert
offered his assistance taking advantage of the judge's confusion Albert calmly got up from his place stood behind the judge's chair and began to explain to the judge more precisely we started from here and we did this this and that and finally arrived there the judge was focused on Albert's words while looking at the map then all of a sudden he turned his body towards the window behind the judge's desk and jumped through it and left the judge and lawyer in astonishment unable to comprehend what had happened the judge's office was on the first floor making
it easier for Albert to jump on the roof of a car that was parked under the window as soon as he jumped his friend was waiting for him on a motorcycle and then ran away since that day Albert had disappeared the police couldn't find neither him nor the loop that was stolen because he did not reveal any information that would lead them to it during the period of the investigation however they said that he sent six hundred dollars in cash to the owner of the car whose roof he landed on Albert spent the rest of
his life sending provocative photos and messages to investigators through the Media newspapers and magazines sadly his wife whom he loved so much decided not to share his life of Escape she remained in nice where she continued to work as a nurse The Mastermind of the Century's biggest robbery passed away in 1989 from lung cancer here we come to the end of our story if you like it do not forget to like And subscribe and activate the Bell button so that you can receive new videos
