Police Recover Jewels Stolen in Monte-Carlo Cartier Store Heist
ROCK SOLID: Police have recovered almost all of the jewels stolen in an armed robbery at a Cartier jewelry store on Monte-Carlo’s Casino Square Saturday afternoon, the Monaco prosecutor’s office said Monday.
According to local reports, the last bag of missing jewels in a haul estimated to represent several million euros was found in France on Monday, just across the border of the Mediterranean principality, in a street where a suspect was also detained. The thieves reportedly dropped two bags of loot in the street as police arrived on the scene following the robbery which took place in broad daylight.
A total of five suspects were involved in the case: three robbers, a driver and an accomplice who was probably there to help get the driver out, according to a statement sharing the details of a press conference held by the prosecutor’s office Monday. Four of them were arrested less than seven hours after the robbery. One of the robbers is still on the run, according to reports.
The suspects reportedly came from Vallauris, a town on France’s Cote d’Azur near Cannes. They had no previous record for robbery.
Cartier declined to comment on the case, saying it was still under investigation.
No one was harmed during the heist, with no hostages taken, but shoppers had to take refuge in stores and cafés during the dramatic intervention after police cordoned off the area around the store. The last big wave of robberies in Monaco dates back to the Aughts, when a Serbian gang, known to authorities as the Pink Panthers, carried out more than 100 heists, many of them on the French Riviera.
Related stories
Armed Robbers Raid Cartier Store in Monte Carlo
Watch Trend: Dark Dial Watches
Kering Joins Forces With Richemont on Cartier Eyewear
Get more from WWD: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
