It’s the stuff of movies. Thieves cut through a hole in a security fence at Brussels' international airport, drove down the tarmac and stole $50 million worth of diamonds that were stored on a plane headed for Switzerland.
Police say the eight armed and masked men used two vehicles to conduct the heist and flee, according to an Associated Press report. They are now focusing their investigation on one burnt-out vehicle abandoned near the airport, AP reports.
“What we are talking about is obviously a gigantic sum,” said Caroline De Wolf, of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, in the AP reports.
The heist was bold; one airport spokesman said the thieves approached the plane, flashed their guns and simply stole the diamonds and left, AP reports.
The incident only lasted a few minutes, according to AP.
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Cheryl Chumley is a continuous news writer for The Washington Times. Previously, she was part of the start-up team for The Washington Times’ digital aggregation product, Times247. She’s also a 2008-2009 Robert Novak journalism fellow with The Phillips Foundation. She can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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