Some of the Biggest Things Ever Stolen

When most of us think "elaborate heist" we think of The Thomas Crown Affair or Ocean's 11, with money or art being stolen - the kind of thing you can walk out the door with, put in your car, and just drive off with. Some thieves, however, think bigger, and by bigger I mean they steal items that probably require a forklift and a big rig truck to get away with. How big are we talking? Well...

In 2007, visitors to a Jamaican beach noticed a lack of sand at what was a usually sandy area. Roughly half a mile of beach had up and disappeared - that's about 500 dump trucks worth of sand that was there one day and gone the next. Officials checked to make sure that it wasn't a natural occurrence such as the ocean taking out the sand, but in the end it was confirmed that somebody stole the sand, which was never recovered.

In Russia, a 38 foot long bridge built for automobiles was taken in the space of one night. Yes, you read that correctly - a 38 foot long STEEL bridge was stolen in the middle of the night. While probably taken to sell the steel as scrap, this wasn't the only bridge taken that year and you'd think that eventually the Russian police would start making inquiries at places buying scrap metal.

The one that really takes the cake though was a fully loaded oil tanker that was stolen. I'm not talking about Somali pirates hijacking and ransoming back a tanker, I'm talking about it being stolen and never recovered, which is impressive when you consider that you can't exactly hide an oil tanker in your garage and hope nobody walks in.

The MV Asterious was being guarded by the Nigerian Navy while moored at an oil field in Ghana and while details are sketchy, it is known that therd have never been any leads or suspects to aid in the recovery of the ship. Oh, and the crew of the tanker? Russians. Gotta love it.

Now I'm not advocating that you go out and steal something huge to make it on a list like this, but I think everybody can agree that these "heists" are impressive if nothing else and you have to admire the ingenuity that goes into pulling something like this off since you can't exactly fit an oil tanker or bridge in your pocket and just walk away.
About this Author

Steve Falco is a trucker that specializes in shipping hazardous materials and oversized loads. To learn more about shipping visit: OversizedShipping.com.