Although there have been several bank robbers to have been made famous for the amount of money stolen during various robberies, the largest bank heist in history was a theft from the Central Bank of Iraq which occurred soon after the United States began bombing Baghdad in 2003. It's likely that the thieves did not require rudimentary tools like lockpicks or disguises to keep their identities a secret because the money was loaded into trucks in a fairly extensive five hour operation. Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq who had recently become disposed, had ordered that the money be taken.