The team that executed the Louvre jewelry heist, had an really brilliant plan put together to accomplish this amazing feet. Unlike the Golden Toilet heist, which happened in the middle of the night, the Paris team chose an early Sunday morning.
Because Sunday mornings in Paris are much quieter with many having a slow start to their day, they knew there would be less traffic. In addition their choice of get away vehicles, motorbikes, improved get away chances. With the robbers being in and out in four minutes with over $104 million worth of jewelry, this is the heist of the century.
What made the Louvre Jewelry Heist Possible?
Heist interest me because they take meticulous planning often spending months to years of planning. The idea most likely blossomed when the Louvre decided to switch the jewelry’s security cases. Previously the jewelry was sitting behind a case where the glass had a drop-down mechanism, that would drop them into a safe if someone attempted to break the glass.
The new security cases were less ornate and had no such emergency safe.
Without the automatic emergency safe below the jewelry, it became possible to steal the crown jewels.
Was the Louvre jewelry heist an inside job?
Considering Apollo Gallery is open to the public it is hard to tell. The Louvre museum, is a world attraction that brings thousands of people to visit because of all the other pieces. The high foot traffic of the museum makes it easy for intelligence gathering.
The robbers could have easily spent months casing the Apollo Gallery collecting information on the window they broke in from and CCTV placements. Then even easier inspecting the security cases holding all the crown jewels. All of this intelligence gather under the guise of being another tourist.
With all of this information they figured out the exact tools needed to execute the heist. From the approach to the window with a crane (frequently seen in Paris), to the power tools used to break in through the window and cut the glass from the jewelry cases.
These were professionals and from my perspective, it’s very unlikely an inside job.
What do you do with stolen priceless jewelry?
Unlike the $30 million dollar LA heist, the Paris robbers have priceless well known jewelry. This means that the robbers were likely hired for the job because this jewelry has too much attention on it.
There’s probably a billionaire out there with a weird obsession with collecting priceless art pieces. He’s probably going to hide the jewelry away behind a giant safe for 100 years or at least until the statue of limitation is reached.