-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,744586,00.html
}}}>Begin
New breed of thief sacks French jewellery institute
Uninsured gems worth millions vanish in latest audacious robbery
Jon Henley in Paris
Thursday June 27, 2002
The Guardian
A spectacular multi-million pound wave of Paris jewellery thefts reached a new
highpoint this weekend when unknown intruders broke in to the French state
gemological institute and walked off with the entire contents of its safe, police said
yesterday.
"It was a highly professional operation, perfectly planned and immaculately
executed," a Paris CID officer said.
"We're dealing with a new breed of criminal here. Even the best-protected places
are no longer safe."
The thieves got away with a haul worth "probably millions of pounds", the officer
said. It could be weeks before the precise value would be known, since only about
20% of gems are insured during their brief passage through the institute, which
examines and authenticates precious stones from around the world.
The robbery was the latest in a series of increasingly daring thefts, which has seen
half a dozen prestigious Paris jewellers lose some £7m-worth of gem-encrusted
rings, bracelets and necklaces over the past few weeks.
The thieves are ingenious, as well as well prepared.
Earlier this month, two well-dressed men walked into the luxury jewellers Fred on
the manicured Place Vendome, opposite the Ritz hotel, carrying a large bunch of
roses.
While one sprayed the security staff with teargas from a canister concealed in the
flowers, the other attacked a display case with a hammer hidden under his jacket.
They rushed to a waiting getaway car with six necklaces, two bracelets and a ring
worth a total of £4m.
A week later, a middle-aged couple strolled into the equally upmarket Anshindo
jewellers on the nearby rue de la Paix, pulled out a submachine gun and escaped
by motorbike with £300,000-worth of watches.
At a third shop, Boucheron, in the same area, the robbers used a thermic lance to
cut through a window and made off with more than £1m-worth of jewellery.
Police suspect that the gemology institute gang was behind a mysterious fire alert
last Friday which activated the sprinkler system of the building in central Paris,
flooding parts of the laboratory and putting its video- surveillance and alarm circuits
out of action for the weekend.
Faced with 72 robberies around the country in the past six months - a 15% increase
on last year's figure, which itself was a record - the French jewellers association has
written to the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy.
They say that their insurance premiums now amount to three months' profit a year,
and they are demanding extra police surveillance and a special tax break.
They have rejected the Paris police chief's suggestion that they copy banks in
installing electronically operated dual-door entry systems, saying they do not want to
put potential customers off by turning their shops into unwelcoming bunkers.
Police say it is often impossible to recover extremely valuable stolen jewellery.
"Pieces are either stolen to order for clients abroad, in which case they leave the
country within hours, or are taken to underground workshops where the stones are
removed and the gold melted down," the Paris CID officer said.
"Banks have become high-risk, low-return bets for serious criminals. Jewellers, so
far, are not."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
End<{{{
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