Take a look at the update about the massive gold heist at Canada's biggest airport. Police in Canada are probing one of the country's largest goldheists after more than C$20 million ($15 million; £12 million) in gold and other valuables were stolen from Toronto's airport this week.

However, this is not the first theft of its kind in Canada, nor is it the first involving an airport.

This week, a "high-value container" was stolen while being delivered to a cargo holding facility near Canada's main airport.

The burglars, according to authorities, got access to the public side of a facility near Toronto Pearson International Airport that was unmanned by airport security.

The theft, which is still being investigated, was an isolated and "very rare" incident, according to authorities. While a heist of that magnitude is unusual, a look at Canadian history reveals that it is not the first.

A Strange Gold Bullion Robbery That Has Yet To Be Solved

The Toronto Pearson International Airport has frequently been utilized as a hub for gold mining in the province of Ontario, and it was the site of a strange robbery in September 1952.

Massive gold heist at Canada's biggest airport | GMA

Pearson Airport was known as Malton Airport back then. It is where criminals stole approximately C$215,000 in gold bars (worth approximately C$2.5 million today).

The gold was kept in a steel mesh wire cage before being placed onto a plane heading for Montreal. It was then scheduled to be shipped to the United Kingdom.

However, when the plane arrived in Montreal, only four of the ten boxes of gold bullion were there.

The burglars were never apprehended, according to articles in the Toronto Star at the time. Since the robbery 70 years ago, no suspect has been officially identified.

A police officer told reporters at the time that the gold "just seemed to vanish."

"Theft happens all the time at airports," says Stacey Porter, an independent security consultant who performs airport security risk assessments.

Airports are enormous facilities with numerous potential security vulnerabilities, particularly in places where luggage and cargo are stored, he claims.

Cameras record every time that passengers spend inside airports, but luggage - both commercial airline cargo and larger shipments supplied by enterprises - is frequently stored in shadowy warehouses with limited video surveillance.

A Winnipeg Flying Bandit And An Ottawa Stopwatch Gang

Ken Leishman's daring robbery of C$385,000 in gold (worth C$3.3 million today) from Winnipeg airport in 1966 earned him the distinction of "Biggest Gold Heist" in Canadian history.

Leishman, a bandit known as the Flying Bandit, learned that Winnipeg was a transit city for gold mined in northeastern Ontario, which was subsequently carried to Ottawa.

Leishman assembled a team of crooks to masquerade as gold salespeople and airline employees in order to discover the schedule of an imminent cargo and infiltrate airport security.

Leishman and his associates were able to obtain the shipment with the use of forged documents and successfully flee the tarmac with the gold.

They were apprehended a few days later, and Leishman was imprisoned.

Notably, Leishman changed his life. After his release from prison, the trained pilot carried patients from distant places to big hospitals before dying in a plane crash in 1979.

Mr. Porter believes it is not surprising to see robbers assisted by an insider.

Detectives will be looking closely at any staff who had security access to the areas where valuables were kept as the investigation into the Toronto gold robbery proceeds, he says.

He claims that for a fee of C$20 million, even the captain of the jet might be investigated.

In 1974, eight years after the Winnipeg crime, an even greater gold heist occurred, this time at Ottawa International Airport.

The Stopwatch Gang, a trio of crooks who conducted bank robberies in both the United States and Canada, took six unrefined gold bars worth C$750,000 (C$4,3m today).

The group threatened a lone security guard with a revolver in the middle of the night before handcuffing him to a pipe and stealing the gold from a cage at a freight terminal protected by a little padlock.

The trio was finally apprehended, only to escape from prison and commit other crimes throughout the United States before being apprehended by FBI investigators.

The Crime Of The Century

While Canada has a long history of gold heists, none compare to the "Crime of the Century" in the United Kingdom, which involved the theft of gold bullion estimated at £26 million in November 1983.

In today's money, such a sum is worth roughly £112 million, or C$188 million in Canadian dollars.

Six armed men broke into the Brink's-Mat depot near London's Heathrow Airport, with the assistance of one of the security guards who were complicit in the crime.

They expected to uncover substantial amounts of foreign currency. Instead, they discovered valuable gold, jewels, and cash.

The heist prompted authorities to conduct a lengthy search for all those involved, as the thieves solicited the assistance of others to convert the gold into cash.

Many killings and suicides have been tied back to robbery throughout the years. Much of the gold was never found, and four of the initial six robbers were never prosecuted.

The heist was one of the biggest in world history at the time, and it left an indelible impression on both the British public and the police. According to a BBC TV drama depicting the crime and its aftermath: