Knightsbridge Security Deposit robbery

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The Knightsbridge Security Deposit robbery took place on 12 July 1987 in Knightsbridge, England, part of the City of Westminster in London. This robbery, the Banco Central robbery at Fortaleza, and the $900 million stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq in 2003 are said to be the largest bank robberies in history.

Two men entered the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre and requested to rent a Safe deposit box. After being shown into the vault, they produced hand guns and subdued the manager and security guards.

The thieves then hung a sign on the street level door explaining that the Safe Deposit Centre was temporarily closed, whilst letting in further accomplices. They broke open many of the safe deposit boxes and left with a hoard estimated to be worth £60 million^[1] (equivalent to roughly US $98 million at the 1987 exchange rate; the inflation-adjusted value would be £105 million ($174 million) as of 2006). (However, the true value of the haul was only estimated, as those renting the boxes would have, for various reasons, not correctly reported the contents.)

One hour after the robbers departed the shift changed and the new staff saw and alerted the police of the occurrence.

Police forensic investigators at the crime scene recovered a blood fingerprint that was traced to the Italian Valerio Viccei. After a period of surveillance, several of his accomplices were arrested during a series of coordinated raids on 12 August 1987 and later convicted of the crime. Viccei however, fled to Latin America for sometime. Later, on return to England to retrieve and ship his beloved Ferrari to Latin America, police arrested him.

Viccei later out on a day release from prison was shot to death by police. He was shot because of another large robbery he was planning to go through with. A mystery still remains: where did he hide more than $1 million dollars in loot?