A Lone Bandit and the Mystery of France's Greatest Diamond Heist

A gunman stole $136 million of jewelry from an exhibition at the Intercontinental Carlton Cannes hotel in July. Investigators and gem experts are still wondering how it happened. The terrace doors of the opulent Intercontinental Carlton Cannes hotel on the French Riviera were supposed to be locked.

But before lunchtime on the last Sunday of July, a thief—whose face was obscured with a bandanna and a motorcycle helmet—managed to slip through them and directly into an exhibition room loaded with millions of dollars worth of Leviev diamonds, "the world's most extraordinary." Armed with an automatic pistol and an uncanny familiarity with the setting, the mystery bandit began his heist.

“...and three unarmed private security guards, according to the Associated Press. But the threat of the firearm was evidently enough to hold them off.”

Just what exactly were these 3 unarmed security guards going to do if someone attempted to steal the jewels?

Oh...wait...they were going to do just what they did: nothing.

Sigh.

Of course the security guards can’t be hired as useless, b/c it is illegal to fire anyone in Europe....They can’t do their job, they can’t be fired....

I was fascinated by the story's description of the current "Pink Panther" gang. In part:

The identities of the bandit and his potential accomplices are still unknown. But theories about a link to the jewel-snatching syndicate the Pink Panthers, a organized crime group with hundreds of members and roots in the former Yugoslavia, began surfacing in the press almost immediately after the heist.

They certainly have the audacity to pull something like this off. The band of thieves and its contractors—many of whom are thought to have received paramilitary training during the Balkans conflict of the 1990s—have stormed into and held up hundreds of pricey jewelry boutiques in 35 countries. The organization has made off with more than $430 million worth of jewels since 1999, according to INTERPOL, which has an entire project devoted to helping the law enforcement agencies exchange intelligence to track and catch the perpetrators.

They've been known to break down doors, spray mace in the faces of store clerks, fire automatic weapons guns for intimidation, don bizarre Elvis wigs, and even make getaways in speedboats while wearing "flower-print shirts." In 2007, they slammed two Audi A8s through the glass entrance of Wafi City mall in Dubai and drove right through the corridor up to a House of Graff jewelry store. After grabbing diamonds worth nearly $4 million, they sped off.

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