Interesting Diamond Heist

[stdismas]

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/magazine/17-04/ff_diamonds?currentPage=all

If you ignore all the media-hype junk and "cool" nicknames in the article, there's a lot of good B&E info gleaned there. They used amateur-level tricks to jumper the alarms, block motion detectors and stuff to defeat a supposedly impenetrable vault.

[graphite]

I read this a couple weeks ago when I got my magazine. It was a very good read but lacked most of those pictures. That kind of put it into perspective. Thanks.

[eardor]

that's what's shocking. Millions in security equipment and guards and everything and yet a $4 can of hairspray, a $40 shield and a ladder beat it. Mark one up for the good guys.

[313]

Wow its incredible to think that such a small mistake can completely fuck you over. This is such a cool story though, these guys are really smart except for the huge flaw of bringing the guy who spazzes all the time. Really cool though i especially liked the magnetic plates thing hack thats INGENIUS!!!

[samguy700]

i dont buy the ceiling thing there would have been a delay before the signal was sent back that is so easyly hackable i simpy dont buy it i mean comeon the theives placed a shaped peice of wire to cross the conection and the police thought they were gonna cut the wires lol bullshit.
the metal magnetic plates thing is interesting though i think the plates would be glued to the door.
basicaly it was shit security extensive but xtensively flawed

[stdismas]

Not everybody keeps their security entirely up to date, though. Just because some modern alarms can detect jumpering when it takes a different amount of time for electricity to flow through the circuit doesn't mean they all do. If they didn't leave the jumper wire behind, it's logical that the cops might have looked at that and thought they were about to cut them, then chickened out.

Just like the time I used some hanging cables to help me climb onto the roof of a store I used to work at, wanting to see if there was a trapdoor up there. The next day my manager pointed out the lower-hanging cables to me and said he thought some thieves had tried to tear down the wires, thinking they were for the alarm.

I'm mostly fascinated by the polyester motion detector shield...I wonder if it was just polyester fabric, or layers of something else?

[Bender]

Ahh, yes this was on the series Masterminds. I watched this and was very impressed. One of my favorite heists.

[samguy700]

Not everybody keeps their security entirely up to date, though. Just because some modern alarms can detect jumpering when it takes a different amount of time for electricity to flow through the circuit doesn't mean they all do. If they didn't leave the jumper wire behind, it's logical that the cops might have looked at that and thought they were about to cut them, then chickened out.

Just like the time I used some hanging cables to help me climb onto the roof of a store I used to work at, wanting to see if there was a trapdoor up there. The next day my manager pointed out the lower-hanging cables to me and said he thought some thieves had tried to tear down the wires, thinking they were for the alarm.

I'm mostly fascinated by the polyester motion detector shield...I wonder if it was just polyester fabric, or layers of something else?

basicaly it was thoughrough but floored security i was intruged too they used polystyrene foam for the vault but dident mention the terrace on so i doubt it was polystyrene foam i dont know how many types of polyester there are andwhat forms it comes in so i m no help

[samguy700]

Ahh, yes this was on the series Masterminds. I watched this and was very impressed. One of my favorite heists.



it wasent a very good hiest it was just very good at taking advantage of bad scurity
the only mastermind type things were the camera above the light and the firextinguisher and the key duplicate the rest was pretty basic

[stdismas]

Ohhh...I *thought* polyester sounded weird. I couldn't figure out how fabric would block temperature. The article writer must've meant polystyrene. :)

[light~]

Ohhh...I *thought* polyester sounded weird. I couldn't figure out how fabric would block temperature. The article writer must've meant polystyrene. :)

Don't mean to revive an old thread, but I did want to make a response for the ones who had doubts or confused about how the shield worked:

I'll start off by saying that polystyrene by itself will not bypass the detector on it's own.
Two materials are needed in order for this method to work, you need a material that acts as an Insulator, as well as a material that acts as a Reflective.

Polystyrene (Insulator) was used to lock some of the heat your body generates, trapping it inside the polystyrene's air bubbles (Key: *bypassing any kind of Convection or Heat transfer* (the detectors are built and programmed to look for this)). However, the issue is that even though it helps "trap off" the heat, your body still emits Thermal Radiation (Detectors look for this too), which Polystyrene can't get rid of by itself.
Therefor, another step is still needed in order to make it work, which was not mentioned in the article and probably never mentioned by the thief;

Although Polystyrene was used as the Insulator, they still needed to use an element that would reflect the thermal radiation,

So my guess is that, based on the cheap materials they used to bypass everything (hairspray, mini camera, etc.), more than likely they used a cheap reflective material. The cheapest reflective material you can get off the shelf would be Aluminum Foil.
The aluminum is then used to reflect light and Thermal Radiation (or what most people call, "Infrared").
Which concluded the two puzzles they needed,
Heat between your body and the detector and Thermal Radiation.
With those out of the way, the detector won't know the difference between you and a table or a chair.

From there on, they just put it all together and of course tested it until it all worked.

Sum:
To make the shield, use Polystyrene and Aluminum. Both items can easily be obtained.
Tip: Alot of surf boards (especially older ones) are made of Polystyrene and then coated with Polyester resin. You can use that as the main base or shape, working around it.

This has been done and works. It's not exactly Oceans 11, but its pretty basic science and it works when you do it right. Just make sure you always test it.

Big security doesn't always require big tools. Cleverness is all you need, and that's what this group was.

No matter how long a fighter has trained, How strong he is, how fast, how big and how good, kicking him hard enough in the balls will always drop him.

[TheBlackDalia]

Don't mean to revive an old thread, but I did want to make a response for the ones who had doubts or confused about how the shield worked:

I'll start off by saying that polystyrene by itself will not bypass the detector on it's own.
Two materials are needed in order for this method to work, you need a material that acts as an Insulator, as well as a material that acts as a Reflective.

Polystyrene (Insulator) was used to lock some of the heat your body generates, trapping it inside the polystyrene's air bubbles (Key: *bypassing any kind of Convection or Heat transfer* (the detectors are built and programmed to look for this)). However, the issue is that even though it helps "trap off" the heat, your body still emits Thermal Radiation (Detectors look for this too), which Polystyrene can't get rid of by itself.
Therefor, another step is still needed in order to make it work, which was not mentioned in the article and probably never mentioned by the thief;

Although Polystyrene was used as the Insulator, they still needed to use an element that would reflect the thermal radiation,

So my guess is that, based on the cheap materials they used to bypass everything (hairspray, mini camera, etc.), more than likely they used a cheap reflective material. The cheapest reflective material you can get off the shelf would be Aluminum Foil.
The aluminum is then used to reflect light and Thermal Radiation (or what most people call, "Infrared").
Which concluded the two puzzles they needed,
Heat between your body and the detector and Thermal Radiation.
With those out of the way, the detector won't know the difference between you and a table or a chair.

From there on, they just put it all together and of course tested it until it all worked.

Sum:
To make the shield, use Polystyrene and Aluminum. Both items can easily be obtained.
Tip: Alot of surf boards (especially older ones) are made of Polystyrene and then coated with Polyester resin. You can use that as the main base or shape, working around it.

This has been done and works. It's not exactly Oceans 11, but its pretty basic science and it works when you do it right. Just make sure you always test it.

Big security doesn't always require big tools. Cleverness is all you need, and that's what this group was.

No matter how long a fighter has trained, How strong he is, how fast, how big and how good, kicking him hard enough in the balls will always drop him.


I'd like to see some photos or designs of the idea o the polyester thing that you're talking about if you have them, that would be great. Those motion detectors are everywhere and I was curious to see how thieves would bypass them. Do you think by putting up a mirror in front of one would work?

[paulbras]

that was a great read. Thanks!