I want to thank the people involved in the theft and its aftermath who trusted me with their stories. I hope they, and the others, feel this book treats them fairly. I also want to thank the investigators and prosecutors who shared their experiences.
Other people worth mentioning, for all sorts of positive reasons, include my fantastic editor Stephanie Bowen of Sourcebooks; my resourceful agent Agnes Birnbaum; Steve Kirk and Carolyn Sakowski of John F. Blair, Publisher; Michaela Hamilton; Philip Gerard; Noell Tin; James Gronquist; Chris Fialko; Ashley Tillman; James Dunbar; Scott Huseby; Cheryl Nuccio; Kevin Ellis; Dr. Philip and Julie Weiss; Judy and David Taylor of Advanced Bonded Warehousing; Steve Gladden; Harold Bender; Joel Bartow; Jackie Taylor; Michael McGee; Tim Hass; Gary Boyd; the Gaston County court clerks; the court clerks at the federal courthouse in Charlotte; Larry Wiley; current and former Charlotte Observer reporters and editors including Joe DePriest, Chip Wilson, Carolyn Murray, Cheryl Carpenter, Anna Griffin, and Aileen Soper. I also want to thank the officials at the Mecklenburg County Jail and at the federal prisons in Butner, North Carolina; Alderson, West Virginia; and Estill, South Carolina. Lastly, I want to thank my parents, my brother Eric, and especially my first editor, Stephanie Platzman-Diamant, to whom this book is dedicated.