![]() ![]() Both occupy offices with fireplaces and filing cabinets next to their desks inside the Palais de Justice de Paris. Although tall and fit, Fourré also shares traits with Chief Inspector Dreyfus, Clouseau’s boss in the Pink Panther films. With his elegant, side-parted silvery coif and classic trench coat, which he wears with the collar popped, he resembles a detective from a nouvelle vague film. Just as criminals imitate films, so can law enforcement. There are often cinematic elements to the Pink Panthers’ stickups, such as To Catch a Thief-style speedboat getaways on the Côte d’Azur. It felt like a nod to the 1955 French film noir Rififi, in which villains use extinguishers to silence a high-end jewelry store’s alarm. Fire extinguishers had been emptied all over the stairwell to erase traces, as the group had spent the night there. THE FRENCH MEDIA CALLED THE SECOND ROBBERY LE CASSE DU SIÈCLE: “THEĪfter helping the Paris store’s team to their feet, gendarmes found the service stairway covered in blue-green powder. Otherwise it could only have been les Pinks.” “Given the preparations involved, it looked like the work of hard-core gangsters from the banlieues”-or low-income suburbs-“outside Paris. “To hit high jewelers in the heart of Paris requires a level of systematic planning and experience: an organization, in short,” explains avocat général Pascal Fourré, an attorney general who prosecutes organized crime at the Paris Court of Appeal. But despite the lack of evidence, there were suspects. The only other words staff could remember them uttering were “Zarca” and “Ac.”īeyond that, the criminals left almost no clues behind. Wiping their eyes, employees told police that, apart from the name Farid, they’d also overheard a fellow gang member being called Voldemort-a Harry Potter reference that, in the midst of a Harry Winston break-in, telegraphed a measure of clever self-awareness. Photograph by Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images. ![]() Jewelry and cash from the robberies, which yielded loot valued at more than $110 million. There was no reason to think, given the sophisticated alarm system in place-and the police station a few doors down the block-that the entirety of the shop’s glittering contents could be stolen, especially in the Right Bank daylight. The guard dropped off the keys at his workstation, then headed to the bathroom, passing glass display cases of ruby earrings, sapphire cluster bracelets, and platinum watches frosted with brilliants. Harry’s grand salon smelled the way it always does: a faint fragrance of white orchids. They passed through the safety vestibule, and he turned off the general alarm. It began at 9:50 a.m., when import-export director Anne-Marie Capdeville arrived, authorizing the security guard to open the side entrance. It would soon vanish, along with all the other rocks in the store. One emerald necklace at Harry Winston that Saturday cost nearly $3 million. The Paris retail outlet occupies a neoclassical château on Avenue Montaigne in the luxe Golden Triangle district of the Champs-Élysées, set among such haute couture flagships as Dior, Gucci, and Valentino. Harry Winston is famous for selling, as its motto puts it, Rare Jewels of the World. ![]() Employees aren’t permitted to enter the premises alone, nor may they leave with the keys. Following protocol, the guard then waited outside the building for the staff to arrive. The keys, which are kept off-site each night by a protective services company, were delivered as usual to Harry Winston’s security guard at 9:30 a.m. Four hooded thieves were already inside Harry Winston Paris-along with $36,683,281 in well-defended jewels-when the boutique opened on October 6, 2007. ![]()
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