Harry Winston hit for $100M in jewelry heist

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Harry Winston hit for $100M in jewelry heist

December 05, 2008

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Paris--A group of armed robbers made off with millions of dollars worth of jewelry during a brazen late-afternoon robbery at a Harry Winston store in Paris, according to various news sources.

Reports state that three to four suspects entered the store, located on the fashionable Avenue Montaigne near Paris' iconic Champs-Elysees and right around the corner from a police station, drew their guns and ordered staff to empty jewels from secret hiding places and the safe.

They overturned display cases, grabbing an estimated $102 million in rings, necklaces and luxury watches, emptying the shop of nearly all of its stock.

Police said at least two of the thieves were men dressed as women, they spoke a foreign language and knew the employees' names.

This same Harry Winston store was robbed little more than a year ago, with the thieves that time making off with $25 million in jewelry, taking pieces worth between $2,500-$4 million.

While French police work to solve the Harry Winston robbery, Italian police took nine suspects into custody for the February James Bond-like heist of a Damani jewelry store in Milan, Italy.

According to The Associated Press, the suspects were picked up in Milan and Sicily earlier this week, though police are still searching for the jewels.

In that robbery, the four thieves, according to news reports, had spent more than a month digging a tunnel into the jewelry showroom from a next-door basement that was not in use.

They made off with up to $15 million in jewels during the robbery, which took place while the store's owners were in Los Angeles hosting an Oscar party.

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