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  • So here's a question to ask yourself:

  • If you could get away with just one crime, which would be the one that you would commit?

  • If you're smart, then you'd answer: Committing a heist of this building right here in New York City,

  • the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

  • Why this building in particular?

  • Because it's home to the largest amount of gold stored in a single place in the world,

  • about 250 billion dollars worth of it.

  • Unfortunately for you though, you wouldn't have any chance of getting away with stealing any of this gold

  • because the vault inside this building that stores all of it is arguably

  • the most difficult place in the entire world to break in to.

  • And they don't care about my stupid hypothetical rules.

  • You see, the Fed operates twelve regional banks across the United States

  • that together decide monetary policy for the United States

  • and serve as the banker of the U.S. government.

  • The Fed in New York City, however, which covers all of New York State

  • plus several counties in New Jersey, Connecticut,

  • and all of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands,

  • is by far the most influential of the twelve regional banks.

  • It controls the largest amounts of assets and conducts the most activity,

  • and is located right here on 33 Liberty St. in New York in Lower Manhattan.

  • This bank is where US monetary policy is actually implemented,

  • and the vault the bank controls is home to the greatest treasure on Earth:

  • 7000 tons of gold bricks that together are worth 250 billion dollars.

  • An amount so enormous, it could instantly pay off the national debt of Saudi Arabia.

  • Very little of this gold is actually owned by the United States, however.

  • Nearly all of it is owned by a number of foreign central banks

  • and international organizations.

  • Private individuals and companies are not allowed to store gold inside.

  • The bank charges no fees for storing gold inside the vault

  • and acts as the gold's guardian.

  • Fees are only charged when gold is transported to or out

  • of the vault or between accounts inside of the vault.

  • So now that you know what's inside, what makes it

  • the most difficult place in the world to break in to?

  • Well first of all, the vault that contains all the gold

  • is located in a basement 24 meters beneath street level.

  • The building itself is staffed with armed security 24 hours a day

  • and surveillance cameras monitor the building and the outside perimeter

  • outside perimeter at all times as well. If you somehow snuck past all of this,

  • and got down to the basement you would find that

  • there is only one entrance into the vault.

  • But a steel cylinder nearly 3 meter tall weighs ninety tons.

  • surrounded by an additional 140 ton steel and concrete frame

  • this cylinder is usually moved 90 degrees

  • to completely shut off this

  • only entrance. Then four steal rods are inserted into

  • holes that cannot be taken out by anybody until the next business

  • day. When the cylinder is closed like this, it creates an air tight

  • and water tight seal that is so extreme that

  • if you were caught inside of it you would run out of air and suffocate

  • within 3 days. If you managed to get through the cylinder and

  • into the vault you'll then discover that the inside

  • is also monitored 24 hours a day by both

  • surveillance cameras and motion sensors.

  • The vault has 122 compartments inside where the gold

  • is stored where each is a different account holder at the bank.

  • Each compartments is lock by a padlock, two different combination locks

  • and an auditor seal.

  • Anytime gold is transported to or from the vault or in between

  • these compartments, a minimum of three different authorized people

  • are required to be present:

  • Two members of the New York Fed Gold Staff and one member from the New York Fed Internal Audit Staff.

  • No one person knows all the combinations required

  • to access these compartments.

  • It requires all three members to come together to open any of them.

  • If you miraculously avoided all the security up to this point,

  • then there are STILL more problems that face you.

  • First, there's approximately 508,000 gold bars located inside

  • and each single bar is worth over $600,000 dollars.

  • The problem is that each bar also weighs 27 pounds.

  • So you've better have brought a wheelbarrow or something.

  • If you're inside though,

  • the only exit possible is the same way you came in through,

  • which could be dangerous.

  • The cylinder could have been rotated 90 degrees

  • which would trap you inside, or the Federal Reserve Police could be waiting for you out on the other side.

  • Let's be honest though.

  • If you broke into this and it got found out,

  • the ENTIRE New York Police Department would probably be swarming you

  • like you had five stars in Grand Theft Auto.

  • If you're thinking you can dig into the vault from above,

  • then forget about it.

  • Like the cylinder, the vault is encased in a massive and thick steel and concrete shell,

  • and the security forces inside specifically look for ground vibrations around it.

  • Plus, you'd be drilling in the middle of Downtown Manhattan,

  • which would be more than a little suspicious.

  • To date, not a single physical break-in has ever been attempted in the New York Fed

  • and for good reason.

  • The security prison is extremely intimidating, and practically guarantees that any attempt would immediately fail,

  • but breaking into the bank digitally is apparently a lot easier.

  • Back in 2016

  • an unknown group of hackers broke into to the central bank of Bangladesh, and sent

  • fake payment orders to the fed in New York. They requested

  • 951 million dollars to be sent

  • to their bank accounts in Sri Lanka and The Philippines. And the

  • fed jsut gave 101 million dollars of that amount

  • before their security realized what was happening

  • If the most inpenetrable bank in the world can lose

  • over 100 million dollars to hackers on the other side of the world

  • then you can lose a lot too.

  • You should be limiting the amount of information that you're posting about yourself online.

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  • is dangerous to yourself. And if you go the safe route

  • and make a long and complicated password, you'll probably never remember it.

  • I used to use the same password across my personal

  • and RealLifeLore accounts until i fell

  • for a phishing scam last month, where a hacker was able to

  • briefly access my YouTube account.

  • Learn a lesson from me, and use different passwords for everything.

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  • ???

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