10 Most Genius Robberies in History Robberies nowadays don’t only involve pointing a gun at someone and asking them for money. Although that still happens, if you are a smart robber and want a large payoff, quite a bit of thinking and meticulous planning will be needed, and its these well planned heists that we will be talking about today. From someone who stole a billion dollars using a note, to the largest digital robbery to date, here are the 10 most genius robberies in history. Number 10. Saddam Hussein’s Billion Dollar Heist The current generation probably doesn’t understand the control that deposed dictator Saddam Hussein had on his country of Iraq. Heck, some of you probably don’t even know the guy. But for the entirety of the 90s, he had such an iron grip on power, no one was able to depose him for over a decade, that is until the US stepped in and invaded Iraq. And this is actually when our story starts. When Saddam Hussein found out that US cruise missiles will be knocking on his doors the following day, he decided that he would enact the biggest bank heist in history by walking away with a billion Us dollars taken from the Central Bank of Iraq, and he did it by using a hand written note. Ok, technically, he didn’t use just the note, he basically had his son and head of Iraqi security forces Qusay deliver the note to the bank’s governor, and he was backed up by a ton of Iraqi soldiers. The money was loaded onto trucks and would have disappeared from the face of the earth if the deposed Iraqi leader was just good at hiding. Of course, Saddam was found hiding in a hole, and the money was soon found. Number 9. Walk In Heist On the night of Saturday, August 27, precisely at 11:50 p.m., 12 men entered one of São Paulo's most highly secured buildings, the Banco Itaú's bank branch located on Paulista Avenue, the very financial and business heart of Brazil's biggest metropolis. Without firing a single shot, they spent the following 10 hours breaking into some 170 private strongboxes belonging to at least 120 of the bank’s wealthiest clients. The following morning, the thieves left with cash, luxury watches, gold bars, sapphires, emeralds, rubies and diamonds that had the combined worth pf $58.5 million. I know what you’re thinking right now, how could a group of man just walk away after robbing a bank? The answer is perfect planning. The thieves passed through the security check at the bank's underground parkade by identifying themselves as furnishing workers – a perfect disguise, since the branch was under renovations and the guards at the building had been previously warned about people coming in that night. No one was hurt during the robbery, and only two security guards were disarmed, one during the night of the robbery, and the other when he came in for his shift the following morning. Number 8. Unwilling Accomplice The most ingenious of bank heists involve someone from the inside working on the robber’s behalf. It’s called an inside job and many robberies have worked just by using this time tested method. But what if you can’t get an inside man to work for you? Simple. You force one. I mean, if you’re going to try and pull of the biggest bank heist in British history, you wouldn’t shy away from doing a bit of kidnapping and grave threats, would you? And that’s exactly what a gang did when on February 21st, 2006, they abducted Securitas Cash Depot manager Colin Dixon while disguised as police officers. Not only that, other members of the gang also abducted Dixon’s wife and child, also posing as security officers. With Dixon in tow, and a couple of insurance policies, the heavily armed men walked into the bank and walked out with £35 million, money that still hasn’t been found to this day. Number 7. The Great Jewel Heist To this day, the Great Diamond Heist is considered to be the largest gem heists in the British history. The robbery happened on august 2009, when two men disguised as customers took home $65 million worth of gems and jewels from the Graff Diamond store in London. They used handguns to threaten the store staff, making it easy for them to get away with the loot.