http://time.com/5098222/paris-ritz-jewelry-heist/
Thieves Make Off With Millions of Dollars in Jewels in an Armed Heist at Paris' Famed Ritz Hotel
Mute
Current Time 0:09
/
Duration Time 0:31
By Elaine Ganley and Angela Charlton / AP
8:59 PM EST
(PARIS) — Armed thieves entered the luxury Ritz Hotel and stole valuable jewels and other goods from a hotel boutique Wednesday, carrying out an unusually brazen heist in one of the world’s most prestigious neighborhoods.
Three suspects were quickly arrested near the chic Place Vendome in central Paris, but at least two others got away, a police official said. No one was injured.
None of the jewels or other items had been recovered so far, said an official familiar with the investigation. Both officials were not authorized to be publicly named.
French media estimated the stolen merchandise as worth at least 4.5 million euros ($5.4 million). Police could not confirm the sum.
One official said some of the thieves apparently had guns, but could not confirm reports that they used hatchets to smash the glass.
The thieves appeared to have entered through a side street entrance on rue Cambon, smashed display cases in the Reza jewelry store and possibly others and took valuables, one of the officials told The Associated Press. Reza is among several elite shops in the five-star Hotel Ritz, where rooms start at 1,000 euros ($1,200) a night.
Two people were inside the store at the time and alerted police, the official said.
A woman leaving the Ritz after the robbery described drinking a cocktail in the hotel’s Hemingway Bar when “total panic” broke out.
“I saw hooded men with guns, and then my only aim was getting out of there. So I left through the bar. I escaped. I ran and ran. I found myself in the basement of the Ritz and then I continued to run without knowing how to get around. I didn’t know what had happened. I thought it was an attack,” said the woman, who gave only her first name, Jennifer.
Several high-end Paris jewelry stores have been targets of dramatic robberies in recent years, including Cartier, Harry Winston and Chopard. Kim Kardashian West said she lost millions of dollars’ worth of jewelry when she was robbed at gunpoint in a Paris apartment in October 2016.
The Ritz was an especially luxurious target. The 19th century hotel, which reopened in 2016 after an extensive four-year renovation, has housed such famous names as Ernest Hemingway and Coco Chanel. It was the last place Princess Diana stayed before her fatal car crash in a Paris tunnel, and hosts elite guests from around the world who prize the refined neighborhood.
The area of the city is considered well-secured, with police routinely patrolling the Place Vendome, which is home to the Justice Ministry and luxury stores in addition to the Ritz.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...bers-spectacular-4m-jewelry-heist-paris-ritz/
Paris Ritz robbery: 'Axe-wielding' raiders steal jewellery worth millions in spectacular heist
A police car outside the Ritz luxury hotel in Paris after the raid Credit: THOMAS SAMSON/AFP
Police arrested three men and were hunting for two more after a spectacular jewellery heist at the Ritz Hotel in Paris in which a reported four million euros of precious stones were robbed.
Five men burst into the fabled hotel at around 6.30pm local time on Wednesday evening and smashed display cases in a jewellery shop inside the premises, according to police who did not initially confirm media reports that they were armed with guns and axes. Various witnesses claim to have heard gunfire during the raid.
The robbers made their escape from the Place Vendome, on which the hotel is located, on scooters but soon ran into a police patrol.
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Officers managed to arrest three of them but two more escaped. A huge police operation was under way to find the remaining two suspects.
"We heard a loud noise and lots of racket in the street," one hotel employee told AFP. "Passers-by took refuge in the hotel. We didn't know what was going on until someone told us there had been a robbery."
Pictures from inside the hotel show bullet holes
Another employee said he saw a motorbike speed along a road at the back of the hotel after the break-in.
The Place Vendome area was shut down as police set up a huge security perimeter in the chic district whose streets are lined with high-end fashion and jewellery stores that are often the target of armed robberies.
There was no official confirmation of the value of the goods that were taken, but local media reports, citing police sources, said that as much as 4.5 million euros worth of jewellery had been taken.
It was not clear if any of the stolen goods were recovered when police arrested three of the suspected robbers.
Interior minister Gerard Collomb praised officers' "professionalism", saying they had "done our police force credit".
Police arrested two men and were hunting for two more after the robbery
No injuries were reported in the incident, although some reports on Twitter said that the robbers burst into the Hemingway bar in the hotel and fired their weapons.
A woman leaving the Ritz after the robbery described drinking a cocktail in the bar when "total panic" broke out.
"I saw hooded men with guns, and then my only aim was getting out of there. So I left through the bar. I escaped. I ran and ran. I found myself in the basement of the Ritz and then I continued to run without knowing how to get around. I didn't know what had happened. I thought it was an attack," the woman, who gave only her first name, Jennifer, told AP.
The hotel, owned by Mohamed Al Fayed, reopened last year after four years of refurbishment work. It is storied as the lodging of choice of Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway, who has a small bar named after him.
Several daring raids have been carried out near the Ritz in Paris in the last few years
More recently, the Ritz was the last building Princess Diana and Mr al Fayed's son, Dodi, left before their car journey that ended in tragedy under the Pont de l'Alma on 31 August 1997. The driver, Henri Paul, was the hotel's deputy head of security.
The 18th century private mansion was opened as a hotel in 1889 by the Swiss hotelier César Ritz, whose obsession with style and luxury led to the creation of a new English word, "ritzy".
Security had already been boosted in the area, which also houses France's justice ministry, in 2014 after several daring armed raids on Place Vendome in which jewels worth between 420,000 and two million euros were seized.
Police stand in rue Cambon at the back entrance of the Ritz luxury hotel in Paris Credit: AFP
But thieves struck again in March 2016, when an estimated six million euros worth of jewels were stolen from luxury fashion brand Chopard by robbers who threatened employees with a gun and grenade. Three men were charged in connection with that heist.
The French capital's most high-profile recent jewellery theft was carried out in October 2016 against US reality television star Kim Kardashian.
Five men, some wearing jackets with police insignia, held Kardashian at gunpoint, making off with several pieces of gold and diamond jewellery as well as a ring - a total estimated worth of nine million euros.
One of the robbers, fleeing the scene on a bicycle, dropped a diamond-encrusted cross worth 30,000 euros, which was found by a passer-by a few hours later.
It remains the only piece to be recovered from the heist.
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Thieves Make Off With Millions of Dollars in Jewels in an Armed Heist at Paris' Famed Ritz Hotel
Mute
Current Time 0:09
/
Duration Time 0:31
By Elaine Ganley and Angela Charlton / AP
8:59 PM EST
(PARIS) — Armed thieves entered the luxury Ritz Hotel and stole valuable jewels and other goods from a hotel boutique Wednesday, carrying out an unusually brazen heist in one of the world’s most prestigious neighborhoods.
Three suspects were quickly arrested near the chic Place Vendome in central Paris, but at least two others got away, a police official said. No one was injured.
None of the jewels or other items had been recovered so far, said an official familiar with the investigation. Both officials were not authorized to be publicly named.
French media estimated the stolen merchandise as worth at least 4.5 million euros ($5.4 million). Police could not confirm the sum.
One official said some of the thieves apparently had guns, but could not confirm reports that they used hatchets to smash the glass.
The thieves appeared to have entered through a side street entrance on rue Cambon, smashed display cases in the Reza jewelry store and possibly others and took valuables, one of the officials told The Associated Press. Reza is among several elite shops in the five-star Hotel Ritz, where rooms start at 1,000 euros ($1,200) a night.
Two people were inside the store at the time and alerted police, the official said.
A woman leaving the Ritz after the robbery described drinking a cocktail in the hotel’s Hemingway Bar when “total panic” broke out.
“I saw hooded men with guns, and then my only aim was getting out of there. So I left through the bar. I escaped. I ran and ran. I found myself in the basement of the Ritz and then I continued to run without knowing how to get around. I didn’t know what had happened. I thought it was an attack,” said the woman, who gave only her first name, Jennifer.
Several high-end Paris jewelry stores have been targets of dramatic robberies in recent years, including Cartier, Harry Winston and Chopard. Kim Kardashian West said she lost millions of dollars’ worth of jewelry when she was robbed at gunpoint in a Paris apartment in October 2016.
The Ritz was an especially luxurious target. The 19th century hotel, which reopened in 2016 after an extensive four-year renovation, has housed such famous names as Ernest Hemingway and Coco Chanel. It was the last place Princess Diana stayed before her fatal car crash in a Paris tunnel, and hosts elite guests from around the world who prize the refined neighborhood.
The area of the city is considered well-secured, with police routinely patrolling the Place Vendome, which is home to the Justice Ministry and luxury stores in addition to the Ritz.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...bers-spectacular-4m-jewelry-heist-paris-ritz/
Paris Ritz robbery: 'Axe-wielding' raiders steal jewellery worth millions in spectacular heist
A police car outside the Ritz luxury hotel in Paris after the raid Credit: THOMAS SAMSON/AFP
- Rory Mulholland, Paris
Police arrested three men and were hunting for two more after a spectacular jewellery heist at the Ritz Hotel in Paris in which a reported four million euros of precious stones were robbed.
Five men burst into the fabled hotel at around 6.30pm local time on Wednesday evening and smashed display cases in a jewellery shop inside the premises, according to police who did not initially confirm media reports that they were armed with guns and axes. Various witnesses claim to have heard gunfire during the raid.
The robbers made their escape from the Place Vendome, on which the hotel is located, on scooters but soon ran into a police patrol.
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Officers managed to arrest three of them but two more escaped. A huge police operation was under way to find the remaining two suspects.
"We heard a loud noise and lots of racket in the street," one hotel employee told AFP. "Passers-by took refuge in the hotel. We didn't know what was going on until someone told us there had been a robbery."
Pictures from inside the hotel show bullet holes
Another employee said he saw a motorbike speed along a road at the back of the hotel after the break-in.
The Place Vendome area was shut down as police set up a huge security perimeter in the chic district whose streets are lined with high-end fashion and jewellery stores that are often the target of armed robberies.
There was no official confirmation of the value of the goods that were taken, but local media reports, citing police sources, said that as much as 4.5 million euros worth of jewellery had been taken.
It was not clear if any of the stolen goods were recovered when police arrested three of the suspected robbers.
Interior minister Gerard Collomb praised officers' "professionalism", saying they had "done our police force credit".
Police arrested two men and were hunting for two more after the robbery
No injuries were reported in the incident, although some reports on Twitter said that the robbers burst into the Hemingway bar in the hotel and fired their weapons.
A woman leaving the Ritz after the robbery described drinking a cocktail in the bar when "total panic" broke out.
"I saw hooded men with guns, and then my only aim was getting out of there. So I left through the bar. I escaped. I ran and ran. I found myself in the basement of the Ritz and then I continued to run without knowing how to get around. I didn't know what had happened. I thought it was an attack," the woman, who gave only her first name, Jennifer, told AP.
The hotel, owned by Mohamed Al Fayed, reopened last year after four years of refurbishment work. It is storied as the lodging of choice of Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel and Ernest Hemingway, who has a small bar named after him.
Several daring raids have been carried out near the Ritz in Paris in the last few years
More recently, the Ritz was the last building Princess Diana and Mr al Fayed's son, Dodi, left before their car journey that ended in tragedy under the Pont de l'Alma on 31 August 1997. The driver, Henri Paul, was the hotel's deputy head of security.
The 18th century private mansion was opened as a hotel in 1889 by the Swiss hotelier César Ritz, whose obsession with style and luxury led to the creation of a new English word, "ritzy".
Security had already been boosted in the area, which also houses France's justice ministry, in 2014 after several daring armed raids on Place Vendome in which jewels worth between 420,000 and two million euros were seized.
Police stand in rue Cambon at the back entrance of the Ritz luxury hotel in Paris Credit: AFP
But thieves struck again in March 2016, when an estimated six million euros worth of jewels were stolen from luxury fashion brand Chopard by robbers who threatened employees with a gun and grenade. Three men were charged in connection with that heist.
The French capital's most high-profile recent jewellery theft was carried out in October 2016 against US reality television star Kim Kardashian.
Five men, some wearing jackets with police insignia, held Kardashian at gunpoint, making off with several pieces of gold and diamond jewellery as well as a ring - a total estimated worth of nine million euros.
One of the robbers, fleeing the scene on a bicycle, dropped a diamond-encrusted cross worth 30,000 euros, which was found by a passer-by a few hours later.
It remains the only piece to be recovered from the heist.
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