Heist or theft?

When does a robbery become a heist? BBC news today (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4749980.stm) refers to “Two more arrests after £50m heist.”

It used to appear that “heists” were only robberiesthat took part in movies, but this odd word is obviously spilling out into news reports. Is there a bottom level value after which an ordinary theft becomes a heist? One hundred pounds stolen clearly does not constitute a heist.  A million?  Pretty likely to be a heist. What about 5,000? 10,000? Can one person pull off a heist, or does it have to involve an illicitly-skilled Ocean’s Eleven-style team?

Maybe there is a special police unit that classifies crimes into robberies or heists.


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