PARIS — Wearing a scarf to mask his face, the gunman held up
at least three security guards and then fled the luxury Cannes hotel roughly a
minute later with $136 million in diamond jewelry, more than twice the initial
estimated worth of the loot.
The simple, speedy theft is the biggest jewelry heist in
years.
Police had previously said Sunday’s theft at the Carlton
Intercontinental Hotel had netted (euro) 40 million ($53 million) worth of
treasure — even at that level a major haul.
Reached by The Associated Press,
Philippe Vique, an assistant prosecutor in the Riviera town of Grasse, said the
Dubai-based organizer of the diamond show had since raised the value based on a
more complete inventory.
Vique described a canny, but quick and logistically simple,
break-in.
The suspect somehow got in through the hotel’s locked French doors,
which open onto Cannes’ famed Croisette promenade, then held up the
participants of the show with a handgun and fled on foot.
The hold-up itself
took about a minute, all with three private security guards, two vendors and a
manager of the sale-exhibit on hand, he said.
No customers were present at the time.
“He took a bag containing a briefcase and a small box, and
then fled by another French door on the inside,” Vique said. “He left on foot
... it was very fast.”
The bag contained rings, earrings and pendants, Vique said.
As the suspect began his getaway, a few jewels spilled out of the bag of loot
and were quickly recovered.
“I wouldn’t say it was easily done — opening a locked
door...” Vique said. “He found a way to open it. Why was he able to open this
door?”
The jewelry was part of a display centering on the
prestigious Leviev diamond house, which is owned by Israeli billionaire Lev
Leviev. It was to run until the end of August.
A Leviev spokesman declined to comment. A day earlier, the
company issued a statement saying its officials were cooperating with
authorities and were relieved that no one was injured in the robbery.
The hotel, in a statement, confirmed the robbery and said
none of its employees or guests “were involved in or affected by the incident.
”
The Carlton said it was cooperating with police and would not comment further
on the criminal investigation.
Jonathan Sazonoff, U.S. editor for the Museum Security
Network website and an authority on high-value crime, told the AP on Sunday
that police were likely to probe whether the heist was linked to recent jail
escapes by alleged members of the Pink Panther jewel thief gang.
Vique said authorities were pursuing all possible leads and
reviewing surveillance video footage, notably from cameras put in place by
Cannes municipal authorities. But he said there was no indication so far that
the suspect had links to any organized crime group.
The luxury hotel featured prominently in Alfred Hitchcock’s
“To Catch a Thief,” starring Cary Grant as a reformed burglar chasing a jewel
thief.
Beyond the fiction, the Carlton has already been hit by a jewelry theft:
In 1994, machine-gun-toting thieves stole $45 million in gems from the hotel —
an ornate, opulent fixture of the city’s most-renowned boulevard.
Stars throng
the hotel each year for the Cannes Film Festival, and tourists rich and
middle-class alike are common.
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