{"id":5144,"date":"2010-03-30T03:00:05","date_gmt":"2010-03-30T08:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/?p=5144"},"modified":"2010-03-30T03:00:05","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T08:00:05","slug":"the-art-of-the-steal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/archives\/5144","title":{"rendered":"The Art of the Steal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/magazine\/2010\/03\/ff_masterthief_blanchard\/all\/1\">Art of the Steal: On the Trail of World\u2019s Most Ingenious Thief<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The most ingenious one they&#8217;ve caught, anyway.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Blanchard wasn\u2019t listening. He was noting the motion sensors in the corner, the type of screws on the case, the large windows nearby. To hear Blanchard tell it, he has a savantlike ability to assess security flaws, like a criminal Rain Man who involuntarily sees risk probabilities at every turn. And the numbers came up good for the star. Blanchard knew he couldn\u2019t fence the piece, which he did hear the guide say was worth $2 million. Still, he found the thing mesmerizing and the challenge irresistible.<\/p>\n<p>He began to work immediately, videotaping every detail of the star\u2019s chamber. (He even coyly shot the \u201cNo Cameras\u201d sign near the jewel case.) He surreptitiously used a key to loosen the screws when the staff moved on to the next room, unlocked the windows, and determined that the motion sensors would allow him to move \u2014 albeit very slowly \u2014 inside the castle. He stopped at the souvenir shop and bought a replica of the Sisi Star to get a feel for its size. He also noted the armed guards stationed at every entrance and patrolling the halls.<\/p>\n<p>But the roof was unguarded, and it so happened that one of the skills Blanchard had picked up in his already long criminal career was skydiving. He had also recently befriended a German pilot who was game for a mercenary sortie and would help Blanchard procure a parachute. Just one night after his visit to the star, Blanchard was making his descent to the roof.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Art of the Steal: On the Trail of World\u2019s Most Ingenious Thief The most ingenious one they&#8217;ve caught, anyway. Blanchard wasn\u2019t listening. He was noting the motion sensors in the corner, the type of screws on the case, the large &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/archives\/5144\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/swansont\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}