The World's most Ingenious Thief

You have to give the guy credit. Arrested, he escapes into the ceiling tiles, steals a uniform, and walks out the front door. Arrested by a frackin SWAT team, he <i>steals the squad car he's placed in</i> and makes a run for it? Hats off, ladies and gentlemen; we have a winner.

If you liked this story, you might also enjoy the Silver Thief.<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1020547" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1020547</a>

I'm wondering if this parachuting story has got any corroboration. I searched in German but found nothing. It's a good tale, the stuff of legends, but for all we know he just hid behind a curtain in one of those 1000 rooms until after closing time.

Single page:<p><a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/03/ff_masterthief_blanchard/all/1" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/03/ff_masterthief_blancha...</a>

Wiki page of Gerald Blanchard <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Blanchard" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Blanchard</a>

Wow, I rarely read non-technical stories online. I usually just skim and move on but this one I read every word. What is it about this type of story that is so intriguing? I guess I just figured this type of thing only happens in movies.

I have to wonder if the guy actually wants to turn his life around. If you look at it rationally, he got off pretty easy - 2 years imprisonment, and some probation - and there's no way to be sure that he actually told them about everything or gave back all of the money. With the kind of stuff he did, he could easily have had enough money stored away to pay reasonable 'restitution' and still have plenty left over in offshore accounts. The video recordings suggest he probably wasn't that cautious, but it's possible.<p>It'd be a happy ending to the story if the guy ended up as a hard-working security consultant trying to stop the bad guys, but based on how he's depicted in this article - a patient, methodical crook with a knack for manipulation - he could easily just be waiting patiently until he can go back to what he was doing before. If he actually does work as a security consultant for banks, that would be an easy way to stay in the loop on new security improvements and procedures.<p>Hopefully law enforcement keeps a close eye on him.

I wonder how much of the story is true and how much is fabricated by the ego of this guy. It would be all the more believable to the cops interviewing him, they want to believe that they caught the ultimate criminal mastermind.<p>Of course bits of it must be true, the bits with solid corroborating evidence, but I wonder if the truth is quite so cool and impressive?

That was a great read.

Somehow, I can't stop thinking of him as the guy from Ocean's 12 Francois toulour <a href="http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2973145088/ch0002220" rel="nofollow">http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2973145088/ch0002220</a>

That is <i>hacking.</i>

I wonder why he never tried to sell the Star of Empress Sisi. Seems he had enough connections that someone could find a buyer on the black market no?

A bit like Frank Abignale Jr... Great story!

There is an awesome show that aired on A&#38;E (I think) called "Masterminds", it only ran for a couple of years, but you can still catch re-runs of it.<p>Most of the criminals they profile are like Blanchard - they steal <i>a lot</i> of money and get away with it for a long time. About half they criminals they profile never even get caught. It is a really good show, I highly recommend it.<p>One thing I learned from the show: Crime pays. As long as you're not using weapons to steal the goods, you'll very rarely get more than a few more years in prison, even if you're stealing hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars.

This dovetails almost exactly into that "psychopaths among us" piece on here about a week ago.<p>This is a guy that needs to stay in jail.

I am simply amazed. The fellow, all morality aside, is simply Mr. BadAss himself.<p>Two years in jail for all that! I know of people who have participated in the sale of $10,000 US worth of Cocaine (a pittance, all things considered) and have gotten life sentences.

And to think the guy is actually a geek if I ever saw one . . . I love this! There are Mafia/Gang Baboons who commit violent crimes and prey on the weak who can't DREAM of as much money as this guy made.<p>What do you know? Our very own geek criminal mastermind :-)