Does Crime Pay?

From a purely practical standpoint, committing a crime is a gamble that either pays off handsomely or results in some pretty serious punishment. A criminal has to be willing to gamble years of his or her life being wasted in prison against the possibility of a big payoff. Of course, this view of crime avoids any issues of conscience or ethical dilemmas associated with committing a crime. In this infographic, the results of five of the biggest heists in the last hundred and two years are considered in light of the question as to whether crime pays.

Two art thefts are included in the biggest heists. The first art theft is the earliest crime on the list, committed in 1911 by Vicenzo Perrugia. Perrugia stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, presumably intended to return it to his native Italy. The painting was recovered, and Perrugia was sentenced to a year and fifteen days in jail. The second art theft went off a little better for the criminals, in that they have never been caught. A $5 million dollar reward is still posted for information leading to the apprehension of the two thieves who stole 13 paintings from the Gardner Museum in 1990.

Cash thefts make up the other three crimes on the list. All three were robberies, including one Securitas depot in Great Britain, the Dunbar Armored facility in Los Angeles and the Central Bank of Iraq. Saddam Hussein, ex-dictator of Iraq, stole $1 billion dollars from the country’s bank and later paid for it with his life. The thieves in the other two robberies were all caught and sentenced to between 20 years and life in prison.