$50 Million Jewelry Heist at Brussels Airport

Summary of Article: Organized and highly professional robbers seized an estimated $50-$400 million in diamonds in an airport robbery on Monday. No one was hurt in the heist. Click here for article.

Map: Where is Brussels, Belgium? 

Click here for news video report

Discussion Outline for Kids:

• What are diamonds? What do they look like? Diamonds are a type of stone that comes from the earth. Most are found in Africa, then sent around the world to be polished and cut for jewelry. One of the biggest centers for diamonds is Belgium in Europe (80% of the world's rough diamond trade). 
• On Monday in Belgium, diamonds were being loaded onto an airplane to be sent to Switzerland. There were five minutes between when the truck with the diamonds drove up to the plane and when they were to be put onto the plane. In those 5 minutes, a police car with lights flashing broke through a nearby fence, drove up to the plane, showed guns (but didn't fire them), stole all of the diamonds and drove away. The robbers dressed as policemen and had used a police car. The passengers sitting on the plane never knew what happened. 
• How were the robbers able to steal all of the diamonds? (Talk about insider knowledge, highly prepared, organized, etc.)
• What will happen now to the diamonds? The robbers have to sell it before the police find it. What do you think they will do with it? (It will probably be sold into the general market, a lot of it sent to India. They are basically untraceable and probably lost forever).
• The owners of the diamonds: what can they do to get their diamonds or money back? (Work with police; file insurance claims--talk about what it means to work with insurance companies; how the insurance companies will try to avoid paying the claim, etc.)
• If you were the airport that got robbed, what changes would you now make to the airport? (Stronger security fence, better security at the tarmac, not just where passengers are, etc.)