World’s Biggest Heist?

The British Columbia Securities Building is located at 402 West Pender. Built in 1911-12, it was representative of prosperous times and unprecedented development within the city. Elaborate ornamentation, vaulted ceilings, and considerable opulence are showcased in the two-storey foyer, as well as the eighth and ninth floors, which held a spectacular view to the north.Just one year later, Vancouver, along with many other cities nationally and internationally, suffered a massive economic downturn, followed by the First World War.

 

Being a banking and securities institution, the building contained a private vault which included 5000 steel safety deposit boxes. This was the home of Vancouver Safety Deposit Vaults.

 

In early January 1977, four men from Montreal and one from Surrey entered the building through a window near a second-floor fire escape. Opening a door on the alley-level, they loaded large equipment and acetylene tanks inside. Moving to the basement boiler room, they drilled through two feet of concrete, using diamond-core drills, and burned through four inches of armour plating with a thermal lance. There was no alarm or monitoring service.

Once inside the vault, they “methodically” ransacked over 2000 boxes. They only took the most valuable items, leaving behind two-and-a-half tons of coins on the floor. It was estimated that the thieves made away with nine suitcases full of gold bars, coins, diamonds, jewellery, and cash, valued between $2.5 million and “tens of millions.” The vault company had no insurance.

The men fled the scene and went directly to the airport. It was a suspicious baggage handler who triggered the alarm, when one of the bags was so heavy, he could not lift it off the ground. Two were arrested at the airport waiting to board a flight and another had already boarded a flight to Montreal. The remaining two suspects were enroute to Toronto, but were unable to land due to weather, thus the flight turned back for Winnipeg. This tallied five suspects altogether.

Vancouver Safety Deposit Vaults had not yet discovered the break-in.

 

 

 

 

Although numerous “ads” were placed trying to find the legitimate owners, many did not come forward. It was speculated that these people did not wish to be scrutinized by Revenue Canada for the contents and how they were obtained. Other victims of the theft were considering a class-action suit against VSDV.

It was also considered that there was a mastermind behind this entire operation who had not been captured.

In November 1977, four of the men pled guilty to possession of approximately $2.5 million in stolen property. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to eight years. The fifth man skipped bail, and was believed to have gone to Rio de Janeiro with half a million dollars.

The details of the break-in and who was possibly behind this dramatic operation were never explored publicly in court, due to the guilty pleas.

 

 

This heist was the inspiration behind the book Loot for the Taking, a tale of criminal fiction by Don Levers. According to Levers, one of the men involved in the 1977 theft was arrested again in 2015 (Montreal) as a suspect in several armoured car robberies.