Thinking Out of the Box to Steal $128 Million

What do you do when someone wants to pay $10,000 in cash for your car?

 

A friend of mine was in this situation a few years ago. You don’t want to hand over title to your car if the money is counterfeit.

 

He met the buyer at a grocery store, where the seller showed up with a stack of $100 bills (hummm- what do you do for a living?). The customer service counter had a device that detects whether or not bills are counterfeit, as the US Treasury explains here:

 

“Hold the note to light to see an embedded thread running vertically to the left of the portrait. The thread is imprinted with the letters USA and the numeral 100 in an alternating pattern and is visible from both sides of the note. The thread glows pink when illuminated by ultraviolet light.”

 

My friend scanned each $100 bill before handing over the title.

 

That’s thinking outside of the box.

 

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I had the same thought when I got my haircut at Great Clips last week (who pays more than $20 to get a haircut? I mean, who am I trying to impress?)

 

A Dad played a kid’s movie on a cell phone while his four-year old son got a haircut. The boy never moved a muscle- which is rare for a four-year old boy.

 

I’m a huge fan of Peep Laja, a marketing expert who frequently talks about the “world of sameness” that we live in. If you don’t think outside the box in business, you won’t be seen as different- and you’ll drown in a sea of sameness.

 

If you’re going to commit a crime, out of the box thinking is particularly important.

 

The Body Heat Lesson

 

“Anytime you try a decent crime, you got 50 ways you can f*ck up. If you can think of 25 of them you’re a genius… and you ain’t no genius.”

 

This quote is from the movie Body Heat, a murder mystery from 1981. You’ll find a number of great actors in the movie. William Hurt is a defense attorney, and Mickey Rourke is a former client with a criminal record. The tables have turned, and Hurt’s character is asking the criminal to help him commit a crime. You’ll find the quote in this video link, about 1:50 into the clip.

 

High risk can pay off with a high reward, which is why some people still try to pull off big robberies, including jewelry heists.

 

The Dresden Green Vault Robbery

 

In November of 2019, a group of robbers stole 21 diamond-studded artifacts from the Green Vault museum in Dresden, Germany. The theft included more than 4,300 diamonds, with a value of at least $128 million.

 

This robbery required out of the box thinking.

 

Cutting window bars- in advance

 

Cut the bars on a window- but glue the bars in place until the robbery:

 

“A few days before the heist, the bars across the window where the thieves entered the vault were cut, according to authorities. Removing the metal grille completely might have raised the suspicion of passers-by, so the suspects covered their tracks by temporarily sticking the bars back in place with glue, police said.

 

The window was in a blind spot, so it wasn’t visible on security cameras and the whole area was in complete darkness”

 

Cover your footprints

 

“But before they made their escape, the robbers sprayed the room with a powder fire extinguisher to cover their tracks, the police said.

 

“Footmarks are very often used to identify the footwear used in by criminals,” said Ramm. “Fairly often, they’ll get rid of gloves and all sorts of other things but forget to get rid of their shoes. So, anything that disrupts the forensic trail is — I hesitate to say it — useful.”

 

After a massive manhunt, the gang members were eventually caught- I guess Mickey Rourke was right.

 

But these creative ways of thinking also apply to business.

 

What does ESPN mean?

 

ESPN stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. Seems like an odd name for a cable network. So why use the name?

 

Tim Ferriss interviewed Bill Rasmussen, the founder of ESPN. Rasmussen explains that Connecticut Natural Gas had a spinning video graphic for an Energy Saving Program (ESP). Rasmussen liked the logo, and hired the advertising executive who created the logo- with the understanding that ESPN could use the logo. The “N” was added to the logo, and ESPN was born.

 

Not Valuing Innovation

 

I watch CNBC each day, usually when I’m getting ready in the morning. I’m particularly interested when company earnings are announced, and guest analysts talk about a company’s future prospects.

 

An analyst said that he expected Apple to underperform the broad market over the next 10 years, in part because so many people worldwide already own an iPhone- over 1 billion active phones in use.

 

The other analysts disagreed. This narrow view doesn’t value all the innovation that Apple could roll out over the next decade. Their ability to innovate differentiates Apple for the competition- and they stand out.

 

I’ll always own an iPhone and use a MacBook- why would I ever change?

 

I’ve differentiated away from just writing about accounting and finance in order to attract a larger audience. There’s so much accounting and finance content out there- my writing didn’t look much different from everything else.

 

Think outside the box to build your business. Good luck!

 

Ken