Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief

From the Prologue The challenge of planning a caper is to anticipate as much as possible and prepare accordingly. In addition to things like escape routes and contingencies in case you trip an alarm, you have to decide what kinds of tools you're likely to need and what backup items make the most sense to drag along as well. I had a pretty good feel for what I was likely to be up against in the Hammer apartment, but I was also starting to come to grips with the fact that there was no choice but to navigate that sliver of a ledge and go in through a window. The door was just too risky. But with my back literally to the wall and the tips of my shoes sticking out over the edge, there wouldn't be any way to carry a whole load of tools with me. And if I ended up tripping an alarm before I even reached the unit, it would be tough enough moving quickly along that ledge without being further encumbered by a lot of weighty gear strapped to my body and not easily undone and dropped. The answer, when it came to me, was so simple I kicked myself for not having thought of it sooner: I could carry all the tools I wanted up to the guest apartment and stash them there before I went out on the ledge. Once I was inside the Hammer place, all I had to do was go out their door and across the hall to the guest unit, pick up all my stuff and carry it right back. All I really needed to have with me out on the ledge were some glass-cutting tools. If the Hammer patio door was locked and I suspected it was armed, I could cut a hole in it big enough to crawl through and then disable the alarm system from inside. This was in the days before ultrasonic motion detectors, so once I was in, there'd be nothing further to trip. Best of all, I wouldn't have to get back out on that hairy ledge to leave once I was done. I could just go down the stairs, same way I got up. This was looking better and better. It further occurred to me that if I found I was missing a tool, I could simply leave the building altogetherusing the stairs and the grappling hookgo get what I needed and come back. Again, no second outing on the ledge. My escape route in case I somehow tripped a silent alarm in the guest apartment was looking good, too. I'd have such a good view from that ledge I'd be able to see flashing lights from miles away, with plenty of time to get inside and hide in almost any unoccupied unit with a cheap lock. By the time I was ready to do the job, I'd identified three such apartments and knew how to open the doors on all of them. As long as I didn't have to cut through the glass in the patio door, there would be no trace of my having been in the building at all, and it would be treated as a false alarm. I could then come back after things had settled down and try a different tack. The ideal time for a job like this would normally have been when the Hammers were planning to go to some fancy do, which I'd be able to know in advance from the society pages. But that would probably be on a Friday or Saturday evening, and the beach area those afternoons would be teeming with people who could spot me easily. If I hit the place when they weren't in the process of getting ready for some event, though, there might not be anything worth stealing. It was certainly possible that they kept the baubles in a safety-deposit box and took out what Mrs. Hammer needed only when she needed it. So one time when I knew they were scheduled to attend a particularly fancy gala, I followed the Mrs. around for two days to see if she went to the bank, and she didn't. That told me they had a safe up there, and I included on my list of tools the stuff I'd need to get into that. More important, though, all that surveillance and analysis led me to a truly unpleasant conclusion: As if that ledge wouldnMason, Bill is the author of 'Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief', published 2004 under ISBN 9780375508394 and ISBN 0375508392.