Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed... He was a good fisherman. He won

tournaments. He turned the boat around to get that fish. He had to get it.

Hunt is an expert fisherman, angling for big money and reeling them in hook,

line, and sun.

He wanted anything in the thousands.

Literally, people are throwing money at this guy.

And you always get paid until the day you didn't get paid, and then that was

end of the game.

And later, a daring art heist that pays off big.

It was probably the worst experience of our lives.

Thieves steal four million dollars in art.

And American Greed has behind -the -scenes footage from inside the crime

Who would steal these paintings? Is it someone that covets them and wants to

them?

Coastal New Hampshire, where old money meets small -town charm.

Well, it's a very nice, upscaled neighborhood.

An upscaled neighborhood peopled with upstanding citizens, like Dr.

John Riddell.

That's Barry Hunt's house right there.

Barry Hunt is a larger -than -life local character.

He owns a thriving fishing supply business. He travels the world in search

largemouth bass.

And he's always quick with a fishing story.

Barry, I met soon after I moved here in 1983.

Nice enough fellow, soft -spoken, seemed knowledgeable about general items of

conversation of the day, and I kind of liked him.

In the fall of 1983, Barry Hunt tells Dr. Riddell about a hot new startup.

He had come across, as I recall, a person who was going out of business who

a number of electronic... triangulation devices, fish finders, and things of

that nature. He was going out of business, needed money, wanted to unload

and Barry had already, through his contacts in the fishing world, had a

online in another state.

So it was just a matter of putting together a little cash, and profit would

quickly and at a very good percentage.

For whatever the figure was, $2 ,500, I decided to take the chance. And in six

weeks, I had my investment and some profit back.

We're crossing the Exeter River here. Dr. Riddell is hooked, and so are many

others in Exeter. They're doctors, lawyers, business owners.

Certainly the first time I'm aware of Barry Hunt is in a regular Wednesday

poker game.

Ron Willett is an accountant in Exeter. In 1986,

Barry Hunt joins his poker group.

Before long, Hunt has established a ritual.

Every few weeks, he hands some of the guys in the group a manila envelope

stuffed with cash.

So, of course, when you see a great number of $100 bills changing hands, you

can't help but ask, say, oh, what's going on? Hunt tells Ouellette that he

a company called Sports Liquidation. After hearing the pitch about buying

distressed marine supplies, Ouellette decides to take the plunge.

I think in part, having seen other people already get paid a couple of

made me a little less anxious about it. But I decided to take a chance, and so I

did a small deal.

I'm going to go low. Ouellette gets out his checkbook and cuts a check to Barry

Hunt. You've got to put money in, though. Exactly six weeks later, Hunt

the goods.

And the money was always in cash, and the cash would be, here's your $800

here's a $10 ,000 check.

Or would you like to re -up for another deal?

Quantum cards in play.

Willette re -ups, and eventually he's on the line for $20 ,000.

He was a good fisherman. He won tournaments.

Carl Woofter is a salesman of fishing equipment who makes regular calls on

Hunt. Over time, he becomes increasingly curious about Hunt's company, Sports

Liquidation. I don't think he ever pitched it. I think that after you sat

office or you hang around, you kind of knew something was going on, and it

looked like there was money being made.

And, of course, there were papers laying around, and there were numbers on

papers, and not that you would sit there and try to look at them, but they were

right in front of you.

So I don't know if I asked the question or he asked the question. I think

probably I said, what's going on?

And with that, the fishing supply salesman puts himself on the hook.

Christmas came every 60 days.

And as you made money, of course, you were more willing to part with more

Before long, Woofter is in for more than $100 ,000.

All told, more than 50 people have invested in sports liquidation to the

about $2 million.

Everyone was doing it. It was fun.

I guess maybe kids going to Disneyland, you know, you're wide -eyed. Well, this

is a whole bunch of cash, and $100 bills just light up anybody's eyes.

It seemed to be quite a reliable operation, and so one thing led to

of course they grew in value.

I thought I was an entrepreneur.

All along, when I would talk to people, we'd say, this is too good to be true,

so someday it's got to go bad.

Some investors, like Carl Woofter, have their doubts and occasionally put Hunt

to the test.

I would go to him and say, you know, I need that money. I need $30 ,000

tomorrow. I've got to have it for something else.

He'd always get it.

Somewhere along the way, we nicknamed Barry Slippery.

Ron Willett also begins to get an uneasy feeling about Barry Hunt.

The nickname really had to do with how he was playing poker. He would very

make a mistake in how much money he would put in the pot.

The mistake was always too few chips.

Maybe I didn't want to find a floor.

Meanwhile, other investors are now betting more chips than ever on sports

liquidation. The total figure that I thought I had invested with him was

$140 ,000.

And while that money should have gone into a retirement fund and for college

funds for my kids, I also felt maybe I can make a little bit more money on this

and investing it in something that seems pretty secure and do better for

them.

In the spring of 1989,

Hunt tells investors he's lined up a spectacular deal, but he needs an

extraordinary amount of capital to make it all work.

I guess his final go -around with a lot of people was to just present them with

such an outrageous deal that they had to come up with every cent they could come

up with.

Ron Roulette smells a rat and decides to pull the majority of his money out of

the pot.

Maybe I'm just feeling the right vibes and probably just being a little lucky.

Other investors will not be so lucky.

When it was detected that there may be a problem with the accounts, when the

accounts were closed, the account was short a million dollars or more.

In Exeter, New Hampshire, the halo around local businessman Barry Hunt has

some of its luster.

Hunt's firm, Sports Liquidation, has been giving its investors huge profits,

the dividend checks have arrived like clockwork.

Now those checks are bouncing.

I think the check that was returned was probably in the $300 ,000 range, which

certainly is going to get everybody's attention.

Bank East Vice President Peter Anderson takes a closer look at Barry Hunt's

checking account.

He doesn't like what he sees.

Checks coming in, we're coming from one or two sources in large amounts.

Checks going out, we're going out to one or two places in large amounts, and

that's just a big red flag for a kite.

Barry Hunt has been passing bad checks.

and covering those checks with more bad checks, and an elaborate kiting scheme

involving two local banks.

It's like musical chairs. The music stops, and somebody doesn't have a chair

sit on. In this case, Bank East didn't have a chair to sit on, and it was a

disappointing, shocking situation.

Back in Exeter, the word is out.

Barry Hunt's paper is no good, and investors are livid. My concern is,

my money?

Ron Moulette and his friends catch up with Hunt at a local clam shack.

You know, we're pressing Barry, why haven't we been paid? Why haven't we

from you? Why? Oh, why?

And Barry engages me in small talk, and I let him know, Barry, they're getting

concerned. I mean, this could get uncomfortable.

And Barry, for the first time I've ever seen him bragging.

It reaches in his pocket, takes out a very small pistol, and while I think I'm

warning him that it could become uncomfortable for him, he's letting me

you guys were the ones that most in harm's way, not me.

A few days after this meeting, Barry Hunt disappears, and investors call the

cops. They explained to me how they would give this person, in most cases,

Detective Lally believes Hunt ran a Ponzi scheme, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

and financing the dividend checks with the money from new investors.

And because they do so well at the beginning, more people want to be

it. I mean, literally people are throwing money at this guy. And

had invested millions of dollars.

FBI agent Thomas Ryan.

You know, in these Ponzi schemes, usually at some point they just become

to, it's just too difficult to maintain.

And it only takes, you know, one slip -up and...

The scheme's over with. Ryan begins his investigation by sifting through the

wreckage of Barry Hunt's bogus paper trail.

When it was detected that there may be a problem with the accounts, when the

accounts were closed, the account was short a million dollars or more.

Over time, investigators believe that Hunt may have funneled some of that

back to investors to keep the scam afloat. The rest, however, has already

spent by the con man, or left town when he did.

What are you going to do?

You knew all along you were taking a chance.

Many investors, like Carl Woofter, were always wary of a day of reckoning, but

figured they'd be smart enough to get out before then.

You know, you want to make the money so you think it's down the road where

you'll be out of it, but then who would ever jump out if you're making 10 % even

on money in 60 days?

And you always get paid until the day you didn't get paid, and then that was

That was the end of the game.

Ron Moulette was one of the lucky ones.

When all gets said and done, I was in there for $5 ,000.

A bad feeling about Hunt compelled this veteran poker player to pull most of his

chips out of the game before the con man's house of cards collapsed.

I think all of us were aware the deal was too good to be true.

And yet we saw that we were getting money.

We knew the money we were getting was real.

The story had some aspects of it that sounded real.

And so you convince yourself it's okay to do this.

For others, the situation is far more sobering.

This is my daughter, Christina.

She's the youngest. She's 17.

And she's the one who's about to go to college.

Dr. John Riedel lost his daughter's college fund.

That tuition would have been in the bank had it not been for Barry, and now

we're going to have to find it somewhere.

Riddell has socialized and fished with Hunt.

Now he realizes Hunt was actually fishing for him.

But I think he's pathologic in a sense, and it all extends back to his

personality as a professional bass fisherman, I think.

If he saw a bass on a nest and that fish didn't take his lure,

He'd have to go back. He turned the boat around to get that fish. He had to get

it. There was something in him. He didn't want that fish to get away.

And I think he was doing the same thing with people. He had become a fisher of

men in an evil way.

So where is the fisherman con artist?

Investigators are short on clues and long on speculation.

I think the trail went cold pretty quickly because as well as a lot of

thought they knew him, in the final analysis, they really...

Didn't know much about him. Well, yeah, some people thought somebody caught up

with him and finished him off, or that he was in South America, maybe died of

malaria hiding in the jungles.

We knew that he had gone out of the country a lot for these fishing

I guess he went to Costa Rica quite a bit. And so there was some speculation

that he might have gone down there to hide out.

But Barry Hunt has not been bumped off by the mob, nor is he in Costa Rica.

He's alive and well and fishing in a new pond.

It seems to be every day we learn of a new victim, a new victim, a new victim.

For more information and special web exclusives, log on to AmericanGreed

.com.

Reno, Nevada.

The bright lights beckon, promising quick, easy money.

Jim Helgett is at the center of the action.

From this perch, the dealer gets a real -world education into the art and

science of gambling. When to hold them, when to fold them, and when to put some

money on a long shot.

He owned a company, or he said he owned a company called Tool Search.

He is Jonathan Firestone.

a poker player who the dealer met through some mutual friends.

When a truck overturns or a train goes off the rails, Firestone's company, Tool

Search, swoops down, salvages the cargo, and resells the goods for a big profit.

He had a good pitch, and it sounded like he had more business than he knew what

to do with.

All right, showtime, guys.

Helget's friends are already making money investing in Tool Search.

And so the dealer decides to get in the game.

Aces win.

He buys $5 ,000 worth of chips and puts them all on tool search.

For me, it was, gosh, it was working out for all these guys that had a lot of

money, and I felt like, you know, hey, I'm just a small guy, but I'm playing

with the big guys and making money.

But the gamblers have no idea that Jonathan Firestone is actually the

Barry Richard Hunt.

A man with a joker up his sleeve and scores of defrauded investors in his

pocket. I mean, it wasn't like he was one of these flashy, suave kind of

Patricia Patton is a massage therapist who met Firestone at a poker tournament.

He said, I could let you come in for a small amount.

He said, you know, I know, I realize you probably don't have much to invest,

but, you know, I like to help out. I like to be able to help out people.

Patton is starting a new business, and money is tight.

She decides to give what little she has to invest in tool search.

Oh, I think it started out with like $3 ,000.

I made about, what, $300?

And, you know, he said, you know, do you want your principal back or do you want

me to roll it over? And I was like, oh, let's roll it over.

And, I mean, I did it for a while, and when it kept working really good, you

know, I mentioned it to a couple of friends.

Word of tool search success is spreading in Reno, and Jonathan Firestone is

becoming a very popular man.

Well, the first time I actually spoke to Jonathan, he had just bought his BMW,

and he said it was for his 50th birthday present to himself.

And I said it was a pretty car, and that's how we started talking.

Elaine Nelson lived with Jonathan Firestone.

She invested $15 ,000 in his company and introduced him to her friends and

family. He always wanted to know more people.

He always questioned me about other people I might know that were interested

doing the same thing that I had done.

He could always talk, you know, kind of connect with a lot of people.

Suzette is a friend of Elaine's and fellow stakeholder in Tool Search.

It was kind of like, well, okay, you know, for the first time.

It was just kind of, okay, we can try it and see, because we kind of trusted

John.

Suzette eventually invested $36 ,000, and for a time, it seemed like money

spent. In the short run, it was good. It seemed like it was good.

I mean, we always got a good percentage back. It was always a quick turnaround.

You know, it seemed like it was good, and it was nice.

And life is very good for Tool Search CEO Jonathan Firestone.

He lives on a golf course, drives a BMW.

and travels the world flying first class.

For Elaine, the life of luxury comes with one string attached.

Firestone insists that she not ask about his business.

I didn't question.

He would tell me that money was coming in, so we were living a great life.

The house payment was being paid, you know.

I did my own thing. He did his. That was our relationship.

Everybody check. But every now and again, an investor decides to put

in the hot seat.

Okay, you bet two or you fold.

In the fall of 2002, Jim Helgut contacts Firestone and asks for all his money

back. Check. I did it to test him. I told him that, hey, you know, it's tax

and I really need some money. Two bucks.

Probably in a very short time. Actually, it was probably two weeks.

I had all my money out.

Helgut is now more satisfied than ever.

That tool search is on the up and up.

He jumps back into the game to get in on Firestone's next big deal.

Yeah, it's supposed to be a really quick deal. We're supposed to get a higher

turnaround.

Other investors are getting similar calls.

A big deal is in the works.

And Firestone says he just needs a little more capital to grease the

The last time it was like, this will be, you know, at least 15%, maybe more.

The house of cards fell down.

On April 5, 2003, Elaine Nelson comes home to find Firestone frantically

his bags.

He said, I've got to get out of here.

I remember him holding his chest, being very nervous. It was pretty much chaos.

And then he was gone. It was a total shock.

The word travels quickly among tool search investors.

Firestone is gone, and so is their money.

You feel like you've been hit in the stomach, I'd say.

I mean, there was an actual physical feeling.

Yeah, we were all just sick to our stomach that we had lost that money. We

kind of knew that we'd probably never see it again.

If the deal seems too good to be true, it's too good to be legal.

Jay Brown is a detective who hunts con men and fraudsters.

On April 8th, Brown gets a phone call from a tool search investor near and

to his own nest egg, his stockbroker.

He knew he'd been scammed, and he said that Mr. Firestone had cleaned out all

his personal effects and loaded them into a BMW and was gone.

In Reno, the heat's on Jonathan Firestone, the mastermind behind a

calls Tool Search.

Firestone's dividends are overdue, and investors are antsy.

Under pressure, the mastermind packs his bags and skips town.

He was gone. Loaded everything into a BMW and headed south.

Detective Jay Brown begins the hunt for Firestone with a search warrant for the

con man's home and his computer hard drive.

Everything that was generated, all the paperwork that he generated was in that

computer. He had spreadsheets with victims and how much they paid and when

next check was due.

And everything was fraudulent. Every piece of paper that was generated over

five -year period was all generated in his loft by him to perpetuate his crime.

The tool search documents tell the story of a classic Ponzi scheme.

There is no business, no products, no sales.

Nothing but money shifting from one investor to the next.

His whole life was a lie.

FBI Special Agent Marcus Knutson joins the hunt for Firestone.

Well, Jay and I were kind of behind the eight ball for a little bit because we

didn't get involved with this until after he fled.

This is a typical picture of him right here. Look at that big bass. Those are

great. As investigators search for Jonathan Ross Firestone, they come to

discover they are chasing a shadow.

Big fish.

Big fish.

The investigation reveals that there's no such person.

Police are unaware that Firestone is actually Barry Richard Hunt, a man who

New Hampshire under similar circumstances in 1989.

At that point, we're dealing with, okay, we got this guy named Jonathan

Firestone, but we don't know who he is. We have photos of him, but we have no

clue who this guy is, and that obviously made our hunt for him even more

difficult.

He decided to plaster Firestone's face on the FBI's most wanted website.

We were hoping that someone would see that photo and either recognize him from

the past or recognize him that he's now living next door to me.

You know, we had no idea who this guy was, and we were hoping that somehow

be able to figure out who he was.

But the master con man in the wind, his victims are left to cope with the

fallout of his crime.

Even though it's a white -collar crime, you know, it just tears people up.

Suzette invested $36 ,000 in tool search.

It really rips a lot of things out of people's lives, even though it's money.

But, you know, that's a lot of people's stability.

You know, my retirement is what I'm able to make of it, plus the security.

Patricia Patton lost $15 ,000.

Being self -employed, you've got to keep money, you know, back up in case you

get sick.

And, you know, it took a major...

I took a major, you know, cushion out of my life.

The whole thing beat me up pretty badly.

Perhaps no one lost more than Elaine Nelson.

The con man's girlfriend invested $15 ,000 and her heart.

You don't trust anybody anymore, and I was scared that I would never be able to

find anybody that loved me again, and it was a lonely existence for a little

while there, yeah.

For a year and a half, Firestone's location remains a mystery.

Then, in the fall of 2004, the FBI gets the phone call they were hoping for.

We get contacted by a woman on the East Coast who said that she had queried

Google for a friend that she had met during the summer who was renting a home

near her.

The woman lives in a small town on the Jersey Shore.

She tells the agents about a man she knows who seems to be hiding from

Yeah, she thought something was weird about him. He would park with his car

backed in. He would do weird stuff, stuff that normal human beings would not

So she had this, you know, this little tingling on the back of her neck that

this guy may not be as legitimate as he claims to be. But the fugitive is

growing careless, referring to himself as Ross Firestone one day, then Jonathan

the next. So she Googles Jonathan Ross Firestone. Boom. The FBI.

Web page shows up. And up popped his wanted poster.

And she positively identified him as the individual she had contacted.

The woman tells police that Firestone has moved on. But she does give them a

number of valuable leads, including the con man's cell phone number.

Those ten digits are all the FBI needs to zero in on the master scammer. Yeah,

we're learning that he is somewhere near Jacksonville, Florida, in a small town

called Ocala.

Two days later, an FBI arrest team moves on Firestone at a gym. They find him on

a leg machine.

The man who has spent 15 years on the run is working on his quadriceps.

He was grateful. From what I got, the feedback I got back, he was grateful

he'd finally got caught.

Because one of the first things he said to these FBI agents was, now I can call

my mom.

You know, it's kind of sweet, you know.

Firestone goes quietly into custody, but he does toss out one final bombshell.

That his real name was Barry Richard Hunt and that he was wanted by the FBI

New Hampshire.

The fugitive is extradited back to Reno, Nevada to face trial.

On July 8, 2005, Barry Hunt pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and

count of bank fraud. He's sentenced to six years in prison.

As part of the plea deal, Hunt agrees to pay $2 .9 million in restitution to his

victims. If we ever see anything, we'll be shocked.

Barry Hunt claims he's broke, and police believe him.

They think he blew it all.

And at the federal prison near El Paso, where he does his time, Hunt makes a

whopping 69 cents an hour.

You know, unless he got out and somebody was following him and he has money

stashed offshore somewhere, there's no chance.

Unless maybe he hit the lottery.

Hunt's capture also closes the books on the scam he pulled in Exeter, New

Hampshire, where it all started.

Perhaps surprisingly, most of Hunt's victims here were unaware of his arrest

conviction until American Greed came calling.

Well, I was fairly excited to know that I knew where he was now.

You know, you always want some closure to the deal.

And knowing that I can go out to Texas and see him is pretty good closure.

He certainly had a knack.

My charity doesn't go as far as labeling him as a genius, though he may be.

But everyone knows what human nature is.

It's no secret. It's a matter of whether you take advantage of it.

A word he used a lot was greed.

He blamed it all on greed.

And I never was sure whether he was referring to my greed, the greed of the

investors, or his own greed, whether he was saying something in code.

But greed was what he felt underlay this whole mess that had developed.

Not that he was right.

And up next, it's an art heist like you've never seen before.

They were obviously professionals.

Thieves make off with two paintings worth $4 million.

It's such a stab to anyone who loves art.

When we return, American Greed goes into the gallery and inside the crime.

It's a daring heist, pulled off by trained professionals, like a scene that

made for the movie.

But this time, it's for real.

It was probably the worst experience of our lives.

In July of 2002, burglars break into a gallery in West Hollywood, California,

and make a clean getaway with two paintings by famed American artist

Parrish, valued at $4 million.

It's like, you know, a 007 movie.

You know, cutting the roof and breaching the security system, shorting out

wires, how they removed the paintings, how they got out, and how they went

undetected by doing all this.

The West Hollywood heist has made its way onto the FBI's top ten list of art

crimes. But it all started 1 ,500 miles away with an art collector in Houston,

Texas.

All these paintings down this wall are Texas artists.

J .P. Bryan is a Texas oil man with a penchant for fine art. And there's a man

right there that won the Battle of San Jacinto, Sam Houston, the Sword of San

Jacinto, as they like to call it.

Over the past 25 years, Bryan has amassed a collection of more than 10

pieces, mostly art and artifacts from the Old West.

I love Western art. I love the action that's implied in it. I love the subject

matter. And to me, the most fascinating part of the settlement of these United

States is the Western part of it.

That's Andy Warhol, Custer, Annie Oakley, and Geronimo there.

Today, his office appears to be as much an art museum as it is the corporate

headquarters of a thriving energy company.

My favorite one was this one right behind my desk.

The Longhorn, and there he is taking the long look, which is what the West is

all about.

It's about the long view.

Art is obviously a central focus of the collection, but there's also an

interesting assemblage of spurs, saddles, bridles. And what we tried to

just not get a gun or a saddle or a bridle, but get something with an

interesting provenance.

In May of 1999,

J .P. Bryan came across a set of paintings by Maxfield Parrish, a premier

American artist.

A friend of mine one day called me and he said, I've got some Maxfield

that could be for sale. Would you be interested in buying them? I said, no,

really, because I don't collect Parrish. It's just outside my collecting venue.

Although not a collector of Parrish, Bryan saw an opportunity to buy the

paintings and turn a quick profit.

You know, Maxfield Parish, along with Norman Rockwell, the two greatest

illustrators. And I saw the paintings. I thought they were magnificent.

Maxfield Parish has an impressive following in the U .S. and is one of the

reproduced artists of all time.

During the 20s, one out of every five American homes had a Parish print.

Perhaps no one knows this better than Alma Gilbert Smith, the leading broker

the sale of original Parish paintings.

Look at that sense of light.

It's called The Land of Make -Believe.

The author of 12 books on Parrish, Gilbert lives in the Parrish home and

a museum dedicated to his work.

I can still almost feel his energy in the paintings.

And that's why, you know, at the age of 70, I'm still, you know, maintaining,

you know, a museum and doing the tours and things when I have no business doing

that at the age of 70. But, you know.

I'm there because I love it. I'm there because I get a high every time I see

somebody who's seen a parish painting for the first time and say, oh, my God.

The parish art that was up for sale was part of a set of seven oil paintings

commissioned by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in the early 1900s. She wanted

something in a mural form that would be very, very special for her home. And she

wanted to show young people all dressed up having a wonderful time, like a

party.

This is the north wall panel.

The north wall of the reception room held one panel measuring 18 feet.

And the three surrounding walls each held two paintings that measured 8 1⁄2

1⁄2 feet.

Together, they depict a continuous scene of a party.

And they would be connected. So, you know, it was surround sound with Whitney

murals. This is the longest single work that Parrish ever did.

In June of 1999, the North Wall panel goes on display in Alma Gilbert's

And J .P. Bryan purchases the six remaining murals.

I love the historical connection because they were done for Ms. Vanderbilt

Whitney. who was at the time arguably the greatest collector of American

paintings of anybody during that period.

Bryan consigns the six paintings to Edenhurst, a fine art gallery in

California, where interest in Maxfield Parish runs high.

There's a number of people in the entertainment community that are

with Maxfield Parish works, and so obviously many of those people,

are in California.

I think art is the ultimate collectible. It's certainly the most valuable

collectible. Tom Gianetto is the co -owner of Edenhurst Gallery, the man who

spent three decades studying and dealing in fine art.

Maxwell Parrish is a very important American painter.

To have these very large canvases was a privilege and an honor, and wonderful to

have them around. We had people coming in from all over the world.

For 12 months, the paintings hang here.

at Edenhurst's West Hollywood location, where they are shown daily to potential

buyers.

The asking price was $15 million for the six paintings.

There seemed to be a lot of interest.

As a matter of fact, we had, I think, Edenhurst would know better, but my

recollection is they had several offers.

I almost felt I was like an emcee for that year that they were there. I mean,

entertained a lot of people.

And while some come perhaps to buy, many more come just to look.

We had all kinds of people. We had students, we had art collectors, we had

curious dabblers.

Most people had never even seen a parish in person, certainly had never seen

such large parishes. So we had every kind of person.

What Gianetto doesn't realize is that some of those faces in the crowd could

quietly casing his gallery, waiting for the perfect moment to make off with the

prized paintings.

We felt protected in every way because we had everything in place as far as

security goes. As much as you think you are protected, you really aren't because

if someone wants something, they can go to extreme measures to get what they

want. In this case, someone really wanted those works of art.

July 29, 2002.

Just another Monday morning in L .A.

But for gallery owner Tom Gianetto, today will be the worst day of his life.

I first got the news via cell phone call on my way to the gallery.

The parishes are gone. The two parishes are missing.

The two parishes are paintings by the famed American artist Maxfield Parrish,

valued at $4 million.

I arrived to see that they had actually been cut from their stretcher bars.

It's just an emotional meltdown.

Your mind races, and you think of all the thefts of all the great works of

and you realize that here it is happening to you.

I was working out of West Hollywood Station, primarily crimes against

Scott Petz is a detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

And so we were sent over there right away because we heard it was a high

loss. And there's the gallery with the two missing pieces right there.

Two massive frames hang on the wall, empty. The treasured artwork carefully

sliced out.

You can see there was little portions in the corner of the painting that was

left behind. So that's some of the paint that just had flaked off during the

cut.

Detective Petz looks for clues, but finds the gallery relatively

wasn't damaged. There wasn't things thrown about or strewn about.

But we did notice right away that there was a ladder in the kitchen area.

From the kitchen, Petz discovers the spot where the thieves came and went.

This is the drop ceiling. You can see if you look up through there, there's the

hole in the roof that's actually cut out.

They gained access by cutting out a four -by -four section of the roof. The weak

point in virtually any commercial structure right there, it's plywood

covered with a composite material and some tar.

And it's generally not covered by alarms or by extra security, so it's a common

place for them to enter.

So what they did is they cut through the roof, got down to the drop ceiling.

Inside the drop ceiling, the thieves had access to the alarm system and the

skill to defuse it.

They went in into the electrical panel up in the subroof. They stripped the

wires, and they shorted out that keypad.

The intruders intentionally tripped the alarm, then sat back to watch as police

responded eight separate times. With each call, police and security found no

signs of a break -in. They soon began to suspect that the alarm system itself

was faulty. So the alarm was set off late Saturday evening. The following day

4 o 'clock, the pings are still in place.

By Sunday morning, everyone had concluded that the alarm was broken.

and simply stop responding.

People's reaction tends to wane because they feel that it's a false alarm. And

that's what the owners believed.

That's what the deputies began to believe. And I'm sure the security

themselves started to believe that, yeah, we have a bad security alarm.

And with that, the thieves went to work, slipping through the hole in the roof

and into the dark gallery.

They sliced the canvases from their frames, rolled them up, and made a clean

getaway. with $4 million of art in tow. They were obviously professional.

Professionals who went in specifically to take two of the Maxfield Parish

canvases. Although they had other very valuable pieces there, there was nothing

else. In fact, there were very valuable pieces sitting very nearby on the floor

because they were ready to be hung. There were paintings worth millions of

dollars as well in the near vicinity.

Which told you that these items were targeted.

And why those two when they were six, we don't know.

Detective Petz works the case for four months, but finds very little in the way

of leads.

We didn't have any eyewitnesses.

and no physical evidence other than a one -foot impression print that we had.

That was only partial and wasn't able to yield a size or a particular type of

shoe. So, no, we never got any traction on it at all. We never had any suspect

or even a person of interest.

Well, it's like a death of a friend.

The news hits hard for J .P. Bryan, the owner of the stolen paintings.

They sort of walk away from you gradually in your memory.

It's the same thing with art.

You feel very angered and unhappy about it initially, but then over time you

finally adjust to the circumstances.

So when it's finished, this will be mapping Texas and the West.

J .P. Bryan doesn't expect to see the paintings returned in his lifetime.

No. I think whoever got them was very specific in

their desires to own those.

particular panels, and until they die, I don't think they'll ever emerge again.

Unfortunately, Brian is not alone.

Art theft is a growing trend worldwide.

It's big business, accounting for nearly $6 billion in losses each year.

It's definitely a rising crime problem in the world, and it's really a global

problem. Chris Calarco is one of 12 in the FBI's art crime team.

Special agents who investigate and recover stolen art, artifacts, and

antiquities. I kind of approach my art cases like I would approach any other

major theft type of case. It's like, you know, you look at, you know, who are

the thieves who could pull this particular thing off? You know, who are

known thieves that you know about? You know, we have informants that are out

giving us information all the time about people who are doing particular crimes.

And these are a couple pieces.

of the art that we recovered.

Since its inception in 2004, the team has recovered 850 items worth more than

$65 million, including a Rembrandt self -portrait worth $36 million and Norman

Rockwell's Russian schoolroom valued at $700 ,000.

These are photographs of the stolen murals.

In March 2005, Calarco picks up the case of the stolen Maxfield Parish paintings

and turns to the media for help.

With a case like this, we try to get the story out in the media again, try to

breathe some new life into it.

And this case was, or this particular art theft was put on the FBI's top ten

crimes. When the FBI releases a list of the top ten art crimes in the world, the

Maxfield Parish canvases are number eight.

The list generates numerous tips, but nothing that takes Calarco to the

paintings. For now, the case remains open and active.

that somewhere out there somebody is going to see the art or hear about it in

the news and say, you know what, I saw that piece. So -and -so has that piece

their house or they heard someone talking about it at a cocktail party.

I'm going to call the FBI.

And hopefully that will be the type of tip that breaks the case open for me.

If you have any information about the Maxfield Parish murals, please contact

FBI at 310 -477 -6565.

Or leave a tip at AmericanGreed .CNBC .com.

In an upcoming episode of American Greed.

Nobody had heard from him nor seen him. So I decided to call the police.

A patient ends up dead.

I found him dead in his kitchen laying on the floor with Dr. Barnes'

prescription in his hand.

Was it the illness or was it the doctor?