Daring Crimes
Source: Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
Armed men in wigs pull off £70m robbery at top Paris jewellery store
• Haul believed to be one of the world's biggest
• Gang said to have detailed knowledge of shop
French police yesterday ordered a Europe-wide hunt for a band of audacious armed robbers who disguised themselves as women in order to pull off one of the world's biggest jewellery robberies.Four men, some wearing wigs and female clothing, made a rapid getaway from the exclusive Harry Winston store in Paris after stealing almost every piece of jewellery on display and emptying two backdoor storage cases.
Police put the estimated total value of the haul at €80m (£70m), making it by far the largest jewel robbery carried out in France. "This is certainly a record," said Doron Levy, a spokesman for the French union of jewellers. "It exceeds anything we've seen here going back years."
The group burst into the upmarket jewellers at around 5.30pm on Thursday, eluding security guards with their unusual disguises and swiftly producing handguns from their pockets. Speaking a mixture of French and a foreign language not recognised by witnesses, some of the men began herding employees and customers into a corner, threatening them at gunpoint if they did not cooperate. No shots were fired but several members of staff were reported to have been assaulted.
The other robbers then carried out a quick tour of the boutique, stuffing diamond rings, necklaces, broaches and luxury watches into bags. Appearing to have detailed knowledge of the store, they knew the location of supposedly top-secret storage boxes and referred to staff by their first names. Within minutes, the shop was almost empty, and the robbers had sped off.
Police from France's organised crime unit have been charged with the investigation of what French media have dubbed the "steal of the century". Yesterday they admitted it bore all the signs of having been meticulously planned by highly experienced criminals. "We're dealing with real pros here," said one source.
Situated on the Avenue Montaigne, playground of Paris's rich and famous, Harry Winston was an obvious choice for a gang looking to pull off a high-profile and lucrative robbery. Specialists in so-called "ultra-luxe" jewellery, the American store is a staple for international celebrities and, according to Levy, has a reputation for precious stones almost unrivalled in the world.
"This could have been a reason [for the robbery] because there is an enormous amount of interest in [stones] right now," he said.
Yesterday the gilt doors of the Paris branch were shut to customers, and three of its five grey velvet display cases were empty of jewellery. A statement from Winston's New York headquarters said they were "cooperating with the authorities in their investigation".
The area around Avenue Montaigne is familiar with such incidents, though not on this scale. Last week the local Cartier store was robbed by a couple who fled with diamonds, and the Harry Winston branch itself was attacked last October, when thieves stormed through the doors in broad daylight and made off with €20m in gems.
The area's ease of access - with the fast-moving traffic of the Champs-Elysées on one side and the main roads lining the Seine on the other - makes it ideal for criminals. "In five minutes they are at the périphérique [Paris ring road]; in 20 minutes they are kilometres away," said Levy.
However, industry experts said the thieves would find it difficult to sell any of the Winston jewellery in western Europe - at least without dismantling it. The possibility that they had links to eastern Europe, which has become a thriving market for high-end stolen goods, has not been ruled out by police.
Record Raids
Belgium holds the record for the world's biggest jewellery heist when diamonds worth €100m or more were stolen on February 14 2003. A team raided more than 120 vaults at a heavily guarded diamond exchange in Antwerp. At the time it was labelled the heist of the century.
Later that year, a Serbian gang of armed thieves known as the Pink Panthers stole £23m worth of jewellery, including rare yellow diamonds, from Graff in Japan, spending just three minutes in the shop.
In the only attempt on the Crown Jewels, in 1671, a thief named Colonel Blood gained entry to the Tower of London, dressed in the robes of a priest. He escaped with the crown, orb and sceptre, though he only made it to the east gate of the Tower.
In 1994 three men firing machine guns burst into the Carlton hotel in Cannes, and robbed the hotel's shop, making off with jewels worth £30m.
In 2004 two diamonds worth €11.5m were stolen at an antiques show at the Louvre in Paris. The gems were taken from a display case.
And in October 2007 jewels were stolen in an armed robbery from the same Harry Winston jewellery store in Paris that was raided yesterday. The spoils were worth more than €10m.
Do you know of any other amazing crimes?
Comments
Yes. I remember other amazing crime which was called the steal of the century. It was near Inverness. It was “the assault to Glasgow´s postal train”. I remember very well because it was about 1965 when I was young. New papers said that it was the perfect raid because authors had planned the stole with all details and because the heist was worth a lot of the millions of pounds. I think that authors were English people and it is said that they were very smart.
The train left from Glasgow to London and it carried so many packets with so much money. It was at night. Robbers stopped the train in a bridge, after they manipulated a traffic light, they loaded all packets with money in a lorry and they fled with their spoils. Police of England caught them and they went to prison. They got escape after several years in prison, but I don´t remember if they come back to prison.
There are a lot of movies, books and songs about this raid.
See you.
The Great Train Robbers were violent criminals yet were admired by many. The robbery happened long before my time :-D but it is still talked about today.
One of the pluses about living in Inverness is that serious crimes are a rarity here.
Yes. I remember another amazing crime which was called the robbery of the century. It was near Inverness. It was “the assault on Glasgow´s postal train”. I remember it very well because it was about 1965 when I was young. Newspapers said that it was the perfect raid because the authors had planned every detail of the robbery and because the heist was worth many millions of pounds. I think that the authors were English and it is said that they were very smart.
The train left Glasgow for London and it was carrying many packets which contained a huge amount of money. It was at night. Robbers stopped the train on a bridge,by manipulating a rail signal, they loaded all the packets with money in a lorry and they fled with their spoils. The English police caught them and they went to prison. They managed to escape after several years in prison, but I don´t remember if they went back to prison.
There are a lot of movies, books and songs about this raid.