The term cat burglars evokes the images of handsome, daring men whisking great riches away from millionaires’ homes. These aren’t the typical burglars you know. Taking a television while nobody’s home isn’t what cat burglars want. Cat burglars are always after the thrill and excitement of doing something difficult or risky which is going after fine jewelry or expensive pieces of art. They also like climbing a 2-storey building just to pick the lock downstairs or tackle some sophisticated alarm systems just to show that they can enter a house even if the occupants are home. Following is a list of 10 famous cat burglars in history.
10 Bill Mason
He was an archetypal cat burglar who only steals from the famous and rich people avoiding arrest through stealth and cunning and carrying out different schemes to fence every item he stole.
9 Blane David Nordahl
Called ‘the silver thief’, he actually made his living pilfering costly silver items from the fancy homes around the East Coast areas of America. He’s believed to gain three million dollars in about 150 burglary cases throughout his life as a cat burglar.
8 Doris Payne
She was an African American woman who was born in West Virginia in 1930, and became one of the most prolific jewel thieves in the world for about sixty years; she had been to every city around the globe.
7 Hillside Gang
This nickname is given by policemen to master thieves who targeted celebrity mansions in the area of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles. The victims were often musicians, sports stars, actors, and movie directors.
6 Alan Golder
He started young as a cat burglar and became renowned as Dinnertime Bandit during 1970s while he was in his 20s. Like every good cat burglar, he was good at climbing walls, drain pipes, trellises and he did it even when the occupants were having dinner.
5 Madhukar Mohandas Prabhakar
He’s a successful and wealthy thief living in Pune, India. He stole a lot of money over 40 years and now is a millionaire. He also owns 4 plush Bungalows and has a hotel business he manages with the assistance of his son. In spite of getting arrested for many times, the police failed to stop him and did not succeed at putting him behind bars due to lack of evidence.
4 Charles Peace
He started his career as a criminal since his late teenage age and continued untill he finally caught up and hanged at the age of 47. He’s a small man with a limp yet was fit and agile; the qualities he depended on to avoid getting caught.
3 Anthony Spilotro
Anthony Spilotro was a cunning and clever gangster who operated during 1970s in Las Vegas. Originally ordered to pay attention with The Skim used by a lot of Mafia crime families to take money from Casino counting rooms they owned to get rid of taxes. But, Spilotro became wanted and impatient to earn extra cash and initiated a gang to steal money from high profile heists.
2 Hajime Karasuyama
He is a Japanese gentleman cat burglar who is capable of picking locks at will, and get through the windows silently using a glass cutter; of course he also knows where cash and jewelry are stored.
1 Colton Harris-Moore
He is a renowned burglar of recent times who got the nickname Barefoot Bandit after committing different burglaries without his shoes! He is not what most would consider as professional burglar due to his infamous reputation.
