Armed robbers stole diamonds valued at ¤85 million ($108 million) from the Paris branch of jeweler Harry Winston, the city prosecutors’ office said.
Four armed men entered the store on Avenue Montaigne near the Champs-Elysees shortly before its 5:30 pm closing time on Saturday, prosecutors’ spokeswoman Isabelle Montagne said. They took almost all the jewels on display and forced the staff to give them diamonds from storage. No shots were fired, she said.
“We are clearly dealing with well-organised, ruthless criminals,” Montagne said. Police investigators removed forensic evidence from the store, she said.
The branch was closed on Sunday, with a sole security guard outside saying he knew nothing about what happened on Saturday. Three of the window displays were empty, while a diamond pendant and two jewel-encrusted watches were in the other two.
“We are cooperating with the authorities in their investigation,” Toronto-based Harry Winston Diamond Corp. said in a statement. “Our first concern is the well-being of our employees.”
At least two of the thieves wore wigs and women’s clothing and addressed some of the store’s staff by name, the International Herald Tribune said on its website, quoting Doron Levy, a spokesman for the Union of French Jewelers in Paris.
Harry Winston fell 62 cents, or 14 per cent, to C$3.97 at 4:10 pm in Toronto Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have dropped 88 per cent this year.
Television news cameras and curious tourists gathered on the street.“How on earth are they going to fence all that?” asked Richard Conacher, a 39-year-old pub worker from Melbourne.The same store was held up a year ago, when robbers took about ¤10 million of jewels.
In April, Harry Winston’s fiscal fourth-quarter financial results included a pretax gain of $13.5 million from settlement of its insurance claim on the October 2007 Paris robbery.
