How to steal 220 pounds of gold

[Liar]

Apparenlty by walking in, picking it up and walking out. Danny Ocean's got nothing on these guys.


No other point to this thread than to share you this little sillier-than-fiction story.


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Gold theft in a Japanese museum

Three masked men have stolen a massive block of gold bullion on display in a museum in Japan.

The gold bar, valued at $1.71m (1.27m euro; £0.87m), weighed about 220 pounds (100kg) and was kept in an open safe.

The museum, in the central city of Takayama, said the gold was not protected by sensors as they wanted visitors to be able to touch it.

But the group of thieves went one step further, helping themselves to the precious metal and dragging it away.

The gold was lugged past an employee alerted by the noise, down a staircase and out of the museum where the three men were driven away by a fourth accomplice.

"The gold was exhibited on the second floor, which was monitored by a security camera from the first floor," said 59-year-old Hisao Nakahagi, the owner of the gold.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

The museum, in the central city of Takayama, said the gold was not protected by sensors as they wanted visitors to be able to touch it.

That must have seemed like a good idea to somebody.

You'd think there would at least be a switch under it incase it was moved.

 

[only_more_so]

The thing to remember about gold is how dense it is. A solid cube of gold weighing 220 lbs, is just under 7 inches on a side which really isn't that big. So it is very hard to lift, especially when you consider that you can only get about 2 people grabbing hold of the thing. So I can understand not thinking it needs to be locked up.

As a kid, I went to a gold mine and they had one of those big gold bars on display. The kind you see in movies. They had it lying on a pedestal and people were allowed to try to take it, but no one could lift it. It didn't help that the sides were sloped.

 

[R. Richard]

There is a story from out of the old West. The owner of a mine was having gold shipments robbed by bandits. He could hire more guards, but then the bandits could get more men. Once the bandits stole the gold, they would divide it up on the spot and then ride away separately.

The mine owner came up with a clever solution. He delayed shipping the gold until he had a lot of it. Then he would cast the gold into one big ingot. Then, instead of guards, he had riders watch the progress of the gold wagon from the mine to the railhead. If the bandits struck, the watchers would gather riders from the mine and the railhead town and chase down the bandits who had to use the wagon that normally transported the gold, since it was too heavy for a man on a horse to carry.

 

[only_more_so]

There is a story from out of the old West. The owner of a mine was having gold shipments robbed by bandits. He could hire more guards, but then the bandits could get more men. Once the bandits stole the gold, they would divide it up on the spot and then ride away separately.

The mine owner came up with a clever solution. He delayed shipping the gold until he had a lot of it. Then he would cast the gold into one big ingot. Then, instead of guards, he had riders watch the progress of the gold wagon from the mine to the railhead. If the bandits struck, the watchers would gather riders from the mine and the railhead town and chase down the bandits who had to use the wagon that normally transported the gold, since it was too heavy for a man on a horse to carry.

Exactly. I once heard the question asked, "What is the largest cube of gold that people can move without tools?"

If you think about it, it is only a few hundred pounds, about what two people can carry. Because when you get it heavy enough for three people to have to carry it, there is no room for the third person to grip it.