this is the story of the greatest car heist of all time the car is worth 25 million dollars and in 1997 someone stole it the car has been missing for 25 years until now this is what happened to james bond’s stolen aston martin db5 welcome to explained our mystery begins in the early hours of the 19th of june 1997 at the boca raton airport in florida 200 acres of land with multiple aircraft hangars was left in the hands of just one security guard at the far end of the airport one of the hangars contained the iconic aston martin db5 the airport was completely vulnerable that’s when it happened the car was stolen leaving behind nothing but tire marks on the floor but what went down that night there are a few theories of how the heist played out theory one goes something like this the robbery had been carefully planned and everything timed to the last second a large truck with headlights turned off pulls up at the far end of the airfield and three men wait patiently inside the clock strikes 3 am and the guard on judy is back in his cabin after his rounds someone had been watching him for weeks learning his routine two men jump out of the truck and cut through the chain mail fence with a pair of bolt cutters the truck slowly makes its way across the airfield passing dozens of hangers but the men know exactly which one it’s in there it is the hanger they’d been stalking first they skillfully disabled the alarm system then they cut off the rubber molding on the hangar door and break open the padlock and there she is the jackpot the aston martin db5 chassis number dp2161 without wasting any time the thieves load the car into the truck handbrake still on they leave the scene with no evidence of a robbery except the tyre marks on the floor and before anyone knows it the car is whisked away before we get to theory two let’s understand the motive of the crime what makes this aston martin special like with any investigation we have to start at the beginning the year is 1964. the movie goldfinger had just released and people were amazed to see a james bond car filled with spy gear being the very first gadget car the db5 became an iconic piece of hollywood history and the very same car that disappeared from a locked hangar in florida theory two on a rainy night in florida a large plane emerges out of the clouds over boca raton with no control tower at the airport the plane’s low altitude triggers the automatic runway lights to help it land but this isn’t just any aircraft this is a cargo plane large enough to fit a tank inside of it like the c-130 hercules and given the airport’s history as a world war ii base the airstrip comfortably accommodates the giant the night security doesn’t hear the beast land with the clatter of the rain it’s all just white noise the thieves unload a tow truck from the plane and begin their mission they pass by dozens of hangers ignoring them their instructions are clear target just the one finally they’re outside the hangar 20 minutes on the clock the thieves snip the wires of the alarm system on the south side of the hangar then they strip off the rubber molding saw off the lock and raise the door with absolutely no security cameras around the coast is clear they hook the silver birch db5 onto the tow truck and drag it back to the plane within minutes the car is loaded onto the plane and simply takes off disappearing with the car into the dark skies so how did a famous movie car even end up at the boca raton airport why was it there in 1968 the studio sold the gadget car for an undisclosed amount and after changing ownership multiple times it was bought at sotheby’s new york auction in 1986 by this man anthony palisi iii polizzi owned the db5 for over a decade and kept it in a private hangar where he thought it was safe but someone knew exactly where he was storing it and how priceless it was so who did it this leads us to suspect number one anthony polizzi himself polizzi insured the car for 4.2 million dollars well above what the car was worth at the time according to experts and when the car went missing the insurance company paid him the car’s full insured amount this made people think he was behind the robbery all along many people suggested that after paying someone to steal his car police had it dumped in the atlantic ocean so no one would ever find it but police he defended himself saying that if he needed money he could have just sold the car and after an investigation he was ruled out the second theory of the heist suggests a suspect too is someone from the criminal underworld with access to an illegal cargo carrier the boca raton airport didn’t have a control tower until the year 2000 and it was in uncontrolled airspace well known by criminals so with no one monitoring the landing and the taking off of aircraft it would have been easier than you think to fly in and steal the car now this is kind of where things get crazy here’s a third theory and this theory is straight out of a science fiction book imagine this a strange green light brightens up the skies over boca raton and a saucer shaped object descends out of the clouds over the airport the roof of the hangar rips open and a white beam lights up the dark interiors the db5 is effortlessly sucked into the spaceship and at light speed the spaceship disappears into the sky without a trace but that brings us to the big question where is the car now christopher marinello the ceo of art recovery international has been on the hunt for the missing db5 for the last decade in december 2021 news broke that the car was spotted in a private setting somewhere in the middle east and the witness was able to match the exact chassis number to the vehicle however marinello believes the collector didn’t know the car was stolen at the time it was bought and is hopeful that he or she will come forward willingly 2022 is the 60th birthday of the james bond films and amongst all the excitement who knows maybe marinello will finally find the car and will be able to celebrate the return of the most famous car in the world [Music] you Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1MEDtVdgPM
