Hong Kong diamond heist: the day safe crackers stole gems worth millions of dollars from a room used by the Israeli consulate
- Safe crackers stole almost 2,500 carats of diamonds from an office used by the Israeli consulate in Alexandra House in the Central business district in 1971
- A large reward was offered for information, but a month after the heist the Post reported that the gems ‘are believed to have been smuggled into Argentina’
“Police mounted a massive dragnet over the Colony yesterday after safe-crackers escaped with $3 million worth of diamonds,” the South China Morning Post reported on August 25, 1971. The heist occurred in “Room 425 of Alexandra House, which is also used as the Israeli consulate […] staff found a number of locks and a safe broken when they arrived for work”.
The paper stated that “the Diamond Importers Association held an emergency meeting last night”, and a spokesman “issued an urgent warning to its members to report anyone not known in the diamond trade offering diamonds for sale”.
On August 26, the Post reported that “police said yesterday the total quantity of diamonds stolen […] was 2,458.03 carats and valued at nearly $3.4 million”.
On August 28, the Post confirmed that “a reward of $300,000 has been offered for information leading to the recovery of $3.3 million worth of diamonds […] advertised yesterday by an internationally-known insurance firm of loss adjusters, Graham Miller and Company (Far East) in Hongkong”, an organisation that had “played a major role in cracking a series of diamond robberies in South Africa”.
A Miller and Company partner was quoted by the newspaper as saying that “a full staff of surveyors and investigators had been mobilised for the job” and “we have notified our control office in London and branch offices in other parts of the world of the burglary […] Police said last night no arrest had yet been made in connection with the haul”.
A month later, the Post reported that the diamonds “are believed to have been smuggled into Argentina”, and “Interpol has alerted the Argentinian police to keep a sharp lookout […]”.
No further reports on the stolen diamonds were published.
