Bollywood heist movies…written in Canada?

You’ve seen the movie- a young tech-wiz becomes a thief and a master of disguises, and then goes around the world with his attractive female accomplice to steal notable pieces of jewely, artwork and ATMs. He uses 13 identities and lots more disguises. He uses infra-red cameras, breaks free easily from police lockups and sometimes steals and hides precious jewelery just for the thrill. Police catch him only through a lucky break.

This could be the Dhoom series. It could, however, be all too real.

It would come as no surprise to you, then, that I almost fell off my comfy red chair when I came across n article in this month’s Wired Magazine. In fact, after I read the article, I went online to confirm if this wasn’t an April Fool hoax perpetrated by the magazine. If this is a hoax, it’s been in the works for about 4 years (since I could find online articles/news clips dating that far back).

Here is the original article

Here is a photo of the jewel that was stolen, and kept hidden, by Gerard Blanchard. It was too famous to sell and, in any case, he stole it for the thrill, not the money!

The stolen necklace

What’s even more interesting is that the Canadian cops who nailed the thief had called their operation “Project Kite“. More articles here.

I wonder if there’s a dood sitting in Bombay whose day job is reading police blotters from across the world!