1972 didn't come in with a bang for New York City law enforcement or for some of the

city's richest residents and visitors. It came in more like a smash and grab. Two professional

thieves, Bobby Comfort and Sammy Nalo had spent nearly two years planning the mother of all

hotel heists. But then they had had plenty of practice runs too. The pair was suspected of

committing as many as 25 hotel robberies in the two years leading up to the Pierre Heist. And they

weren't knocking over holiday ends or remadas. They were hitting high-end Manhattan hotels like the

Regency, the Sherry Netherlands, the Plaza and many others. Some were only a couple blocks away from

the Pierre Hotel on the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 61st Street overlooking Central Park.

Their modus Apparandaid was fairly predictable. They either worked together as a two-man team

or for larger jobs. They hired a couple extra guys to serve as lookouts or drive their getaway

car. But Bobby and Sammy were always the frontman. They dressed in suits and carried suitcases into

the lobby looking like respectable businessmen who were about to check in. They entered late at night

or early in the morning when hotel staff was at a minimum and most guests were still asleep.

After drawing their guns and announcing the reason for their visit, they restrained hotel employees

with rope or duct tape. Then Bobby manned the front desk and Sammy broke into the hotel's safe

deposit boxes where lots of guests kept their valuables. In rooms, safes were not a thing in those days.

So if you wanted a safeguard, expensive jewelry or lots of cash, the hotel's safe deposit boxes were

your best bet, at least in theory. But not all hotel guests would choose to use the hotel's safe

deposit boxes. Bobby and Sammy learned that the hard way when they robbed the swanky Regency

Hotel in August of 1970. It was a disappointing robbery all around because their haul was nothing

like what they had expected from such a fashionable park avenue hotel. Little did they know they were

within striking distance of a fortune in jewels. When the robbery was reported in the news the next day,

...