Is This the World's 'Luckiest' Thief? Watch as Man Disappears With Huge Pot of Gold in Broad Daylight (Video)

Video 7 years ago

Is This the World's 'Luckiest' Thief? Watch as Man Disappears With Huge Pot of Gold in Broad Daylight (Video)

This is the moment an opportunistic thief was caught on camera stealing a bucket of gold flakes.

The man stole the gold flakes worth $1.6m (£1.2m) from the back of an armoured vehicle in New York.

A newly-released CCTV footage shows the moment the wanted suspect calmly walked off with the the bucket of gold in Manhattan on September 29.

“An armoured truck company making a pick-up discovered that a 5 gallon aluminum pail weighing 86 pounds containing gold flakes (valued at 1.6 million dollars) was stolen from the rear of their armoured truck,” the New York Police Department (NYPD) said in a statement.

“The unidentified individual is then seen lifting the 5 gallon pail from the truck and fleeing East bound on West 48 Street toward Third Avenue.”

Police say the gold flakes were swiped when a guard briefly went to retrieve his mobile phone from the front of the vehicle.

“I think he just saw an opportunity, took the pail and walked off,” said NYPD Detective Martin Pastor.

He told NBC New York : “I think when the lucky charm opened up the bucket, he seen the rainbow and seen the gold.”

In the clip, the man appears to struggle with the weight of the bucket before getting into a white van.

The suspect is believed to be hiding out in Florida, Reuters reports.

Watch the video below: