Burglaries | 60 Minutes Full Episodes
In a Nutshell
The video profiles three major burglary operations: the Dinner Set Gang, who stole tens of millions in jewelry from wealthy homeowners during dinner; the unsolved $200 million Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist; and a nationwide heavy equipment theft ring that moves $250 million annually through Houston alone. These operations succeed due to predictable victim routines, lack of registration/identification systems, and minimal law enforcement resources. The core message is that sophisticated, non-violent theft of high-value items continues largely unchecked because current security and regulatory systems are inadequate.
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In the hierarchy of the underworld, no criminals are more romanticized than cat burglars. They are thinking man's thieves who rely on stealth and surprise instead of violence, using planning and imagination to separate valuable baubles from unsympathetic victims, meaning the super rich and their insurance companies. That's the movie version. Despite technological advances in burglar alarms and motion detectors and the proliferation of security firms, more than a hundred cat burglars are thought to be operating just in the state of Florida. The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office says many of them have adopted their techniques from two of the very best, who were called the Dinner Set Gang.
Peter Serno claimed he was the best jewel thief. He was indisposed, serving time in a Miami prison not for stealing jewels, but for illegally distributing oxycontin, a painkiller he was taking to ease occupational backache from decades of climbing up the sides of buildings and breaking into bedrooms. His longtime accomplice, lookout, and logistics man was his brother-in-law, Dominic Latella. Latella estimated their total hold over all those years was in the tens of millions.
Their salad days were in the late 60s and 70s when they preyed on the super rich who wintered in Palm Beach, where diamonds seemed to drip from every neck and earlobe, and pearls were something worn to play tennis. Serno and Latella revolutionized society burglaries. Instead of robbing the rich while they were out on the town wearing their best pieces, they cleaned them out at home while they were eating dinner. This is why the police dubbed them the Dinner Set Gang. The wealthy don't eat dinner like most Americans. They dress for it, usually invite guests, and are summoned to the dining room by butlers and maids to savor multi-course meals and polite conversations that can go on for hours. It's considered impolite to get up from the table, so if you're a burglar watching through a window, the ritual becomes very predictable.
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