It took less than ten minutes for four people in work vests to pull off what sounds like a daring theft that would have been one of the Ocean’s Eleven crew’s easier heists, which is wild considering it was a theft of jewels from the Louvre that happened in broad daylight.
French authorities say that they’ve finally nabbed some of the culprits in the $100 million jewel heist that made the world’s most famous museum look like a bunch of Paul Blart-like mall cops were courting it.
The crew casually strolled up to Paris’s most visited landmark with a truck-mounted lift. They artfully sliced through a second-floor window of the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery and smashed into display cases without a hint of subtlety.
Even crazier, they did all of this in full view of museum patrons. In under 10 minutes, they were in and out with eight pieces of royal jewelry dating back to the Napoleonic era, which included gem-studded TRS, necklaces, and 19th-century earrings.
They sped off on scooters, which is maybe the funniest detail in a story full of humorous ones.
Several Arrested in Connection With Louvre Crown Jewels Heist
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau confirmed that arrests were made Saturday night, including one man caught at Charles de Gaulle Airport minutes before he could board a flight to Algeria.
The suspects, both in their 30s and with a history of jewelry thefts, had been tailed for days after their DNA was found on abandoned gloves, tools, and a can of gasoline left behind at the scene.
Police are still hunting the remaining thieves and, of course, the jewels themselves. Experts fear they could be dismantled or melted down, though some say the thieves might hang onto them as bargaining chips.
Meanwhile, the Louvre’s museum director Laurence des Cars admitted to the French Senate that one of the few cameras near the break-in point was pointed in the wrong direction. C’mon, man.
France’s interior minister insists the police did their part, arriving within 3 minutes of being notified, but the thieves were long gone by then. A massive $93 million security overhaul is now set to begin next year, which now seems like too little, too late.
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