Phantom robber steals $11million in jewels
Pastor Dale Morgan
Phantom robber steals $11million in jewels
Where is Inspector Clouseau when you need Him!
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From correspondents in Paris, France
Agence France-Presse
May 31, 2009 07:03am
A Phantom robber armed with a handgun got away with jewellery worth
around €6.6 million ($11.73 million) in a hold-up at the exclusive
Chopard store in central Paris, police said.
The man, in his 50s, dressed in a suit and wearing a Borsalino-style
hat, passed himself off as a customer to get in through the security
door on Saturday before drawing his weapon, police spokesman Olivier
Lebon said.
He ordered staff to give him jewels from the window display.
They did as they were told and the man got away on foot, the whole
robbery having taken two minutes, said police.
"A man on his own, well dressed, who could have been a potential client,
came into the jewellers, his faced unmasked, at one o'clock," said
another source working on the case.
He pulled out a handgun and got staff to give him 12 jewels, said the
source. "It happened very quickly," said the source. He did not take the
whole contents of the shop window."
Staff in nearby stores in the Place Vendome said they had noticed
nothing out of the ordinary at the time.
The theft happened at around 1pm at the premises, which are near the
Ritz Hotel.
Later Saturday, only a few leather handbags could be seen in the shop's
window.
The robbery took place over the Pentecost weekend, when the city centre
was packed with shoppers and tourists. The Place Vendome hosts some of
the world's most prestigious jewellery shops.
Chopard makes watches and jewels for the stars and has branches in most
of the world's capitals. It also manufactures the distinctive Palme d'Or
trophy for the Cannes film festival.
In December thieves staged a record $US100 million ($127.53 million)
jewel heist at the Harry Winston boutique in the posh Avenue Montaigne
of the Champs-Elysees.
Suspicion fell on the international gang known as the Pink Panthers.
On May 13 two Serbian alleged members of the gang of jewel thieves were
arrested in Paris on suspicion of carrying out armed smash-and-grab
raids on stores in Monaco, Switzerland and Germany.
On Thursday, a Montenegrin former soldier, believed to be a member of
the Pink Panther gang was sentenced to 15 years in jail for a
Saint-Tropez heist.
Dusko Martinovic was also fined $US150,000 ($A266,620) for the robbery
in which he and accomplices stole €2 million ($3.55 million) worth of
goods from a jewellers in the chic French Riviera resort.
The network of Balkan robbers is blamed for the theft of goods worth
€110 million ($A195.52 million) in the past decade.
French police have described the group's crimes as "lightning fast
hold-ups: daring, but carefully planned down to the smallest detail".