Speaker 1: Already and this this is the Daily.
Speaker 2: This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 1: Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
Speaker 2: the twenty fourth of October. I'm Billy fitz Simons.
Speaker 1: I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 2: One hundred and fifty seven million Australian dollars. That's the
Speaker 2: value of the jewelry stolen from the world's most visited museum,
Speaker 2: the Louver in Paris last Sunday. All up, the heist
Speaker 2: took less than ten minutes, and it was all done
Speaker 2: in broad daylight with visitors in the museum, in a
Speaker 2: story that resembles a Hollywood movie. Today we're breaking down
Speaker 2: what really happened and how thieves pulled off a heist
Speaker 2: that's left authorities stunned and raised serious questions about security
Speaker 2: at the Louver.
Speaker 1: Billy, I am so excited that we are talking about
Speaker 1: this story. As you said, reads like the plot of
Speaker 1: a Hollywood movie. Think Ocean's Eleven Oceans eight, The Italian Job,
Speaker 1: Mission Impossible. Every highst movie in the world in history
Speaker 1: is a screenplay for what has actually happened in real
Speaker 1: life in Paris this week. It feels almost unbelievable. That
Speaker 1: it's twenty twenty five and something like this is making headlines.
Speaker 1: But where do we even begin? Where do you want
Speaker 1: to begin with this story?
Speaker 2: I think what's amazing is that it does sound like
Speaker 2: it's from a Hollywood movie, but significantly like lower tech,
Speaker 2: Like it's not. They're not coming out of ceilings. This
Speaker 2: whole story starts with a ladder, just a normal ladder
Speaker 2: that you would find.
Speaker 1: On a street.
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable picture this. It's nine thirty am on Sunday
Speaker 2: morning in Paris. The doors to the Louver have been
Speaker 2: open to the public for about thirty minutes at this stage,
Speaker 2: the public of air to see things like the Mona Lisa,
Speaker 2: the most famous painting in the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is one of the most iconic and instantly
Speaker 1: recognizable museums in the entire world. Yes, a Sunday morning
Speaker 1: at this time of year in Paris, at this museum,
Speaker 1: it must have been heaving.
Speaker 2: Yes, so many tourists.
Speaker 1: Anyone who has been to the Louver who's listening will know,
Speaker 1: any time of day, any time of year, it is
Speaker 1: absolutely packed.
Speaker 2: I was actually just there a month ago, but we
Speaker 2: don't have time for that. Back to this story, so
Speaker 2: where were you on the surturday? At ninth Okay, so
Speaker 2: it's nine point thirty am. A truck pulls up about
Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty meters away from the main entrance.
Speaker 2: That truck has some mechanical ladders which it mounts, which
Speaker 2: the thieves mount to one of the windows on the
Speaker 2: second floor. Now at this stage, no one has noticed
Speaker 2: anything out of the ordinary as far as we know.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's business as usual.
Speaker 2: Business as usual. Those kinds of ladders that they mounted
Speaker 2: are quite common in Paris to be able to get
Speaker 2: bigger items into small apartments in Paris, especially ones that
Speaker 2: aren't on the first floor. I guess it just it
Speaker 2: really blended in Okay.
Speaker 1: So I'm kind of imagining almost like a bit of
Speaker 1: a construction site or people just walking past thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: that must be a maintenance guy.
Speaker 2: Yes, And so they use this ladder to get access
Speaker 2: to the window on the second floor. They climb up
Speaker 2: the ladder two men. That's two men who are climbing
Speaker 2: up this ladder. We know at least one of the
Speaker 2: men were wearing high vizves, which tells us that they
Speaker 2: were probably trying to look like they were construction workers, okay,
Speaker 2: and they used power tools to break into the window
Speaker 2: and gain access to the gallery.
Speaker 1: It's interesting comparing this to the Hollywood Hihst films where
Speaker 1: you're thinking, you know, Balaclava's black turtlenecks. But it's kind
Speaker 1: of almost I guess ingenius. Obviously we're not endorsing crime,
Speaker 1: but if I walked past people in high viers, I
Speaker 1: guess I would not have cause to question. No. So
Speaker 1: we've used these to scale to the second floor, open
Speaker 1: the windows with power tools. How long has that taken?
Speaker 1: And then what happens?
Speaker 2: So it's about four minutes it takes for the truck
Speaker 2: to roll up, the ladder to be mounted, and for
Speaker 2: them to climb up it. One thing to note is
Speaker 2: that the French authorities have confirmed that the galley's windows
Speaker 2: are not reinforced. Now you might be thinking, what does
Speaker 2: that mean. I've never heard of windows being reinforced. What
Speaker 2: I have now learned is that reinforced windows just mean
Speaker 2: that windows have been strengthened with something like metal inserts
Speaker 2: to be more durable and more resistant to breaking. Now,
Speaker 2: these windows were not that they did not have that
Speaker 2: level of security.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm really surprised to hear that because of the
Speaker 1: aforementioned notoriety of this museum and all the valuables it contains,
Speaker 1: that they wouldn't even at least have like a thickened
Speaker 1: type of glass. Also, I'm really struck by the fact
Speaker 1: you said that we're at nine point thirty four now,
Speaker 1: essentially in less than the time it's taken for us
Speaker 1: to get to this point of the podcast. These guys
Speaker 1: are in the building.
Speaker 2: They are in the building.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: What is interesting is you might presume that there would
Speaker 2: be security guards inside the building. You are correct in
Speaker 2: thinking that, But what we have learned is that museum
Speaker 2: protocol is that if there are intruders, security guards who
Speaker 2: are unarmed, so they don't have any guns on them
Speaker 2: or anything like that. Yeah, those security guards have been
Speaker 2: told that they should evacuate the room and usher visitors
Speaker 2: to safety. And so that's exactly what happened. Once the
Speaker 2: security guards saw the intruders, they left the room. Wow.
Speaker 1: Okay, so the process at the loover is intruder spotted.
Speaker 1: Security guards are ordered to prioritize the safety of the.
Speaker 2: Visitors exactly because they don't have anything on them to
Speaker 2: protect themselves and to protect visitors, and they also don't
Speaker 2: know if the intruders have weapons on them.
Speaker 1: Okay, I wonder if the thieves knew that, if they
Speaker 1: were kind of clued into the protocol for security guards.
Speaker 2: Most likely. I think everything that I've read is that
Speaker 2: authorities believe that these were very experienced criminal members.
Speaker 1: So we have scaled the building, we're in the room.
Speaker 1: The security guards have cleared out, which also takes care
Speaker 1: of the tourists and visitors looking at the art and
Speaker 1: objects in the room. Where do the thieves go next?
Speaker 2: So the thieves then go straight to the metal cabinets
Speaker 2: where the jewels are being held. They use angle grinders. Again,
Speaker 2: I didn't know what those were.
Speaker 1: Do you classic construction site instrument. If you don't know
Speaker 1: what an angle grinder looks like, you certainly know what
Speaker 1: it sounds like.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's an electrical tool that they basically use to
Speaker 2: just slice through the cabinet. The thieves went through two cabinets,
Speaker 2: they grabbed nine jewels, and then they left. Now, the
Speaker 2: breaking into the cabinets also triggered some alarms. One thing
Speaker 2: to mention, which is kind of a side note, and
Speaker 2: we don't really have too many details about this, But
Speaker 2: we know that the alarms at the louver were recently
Speaker 2: broken and we think they were fixed, but there could
Speaker 2: have been some issues. We don't know how widely the
Speaker 2: alarms were heard when they did go off, but they
Speaker 2: are investigating that because there could have been an issue
Speaker 2: with the alarms.
Speaker 1: Okay, so everything you've told me so far does not
Speaker 1: exactly paint a picture of a maximum security environment. It
Speaker 1: feels like a couple of things lined up almost perfectly
Speaker 1: for this robbery.
Speaker 2: Yes, and it has led to many questions about the
Speaker 2: security at literally the world's most famous museum and how
Speaker 2: this possibly could have happened like this. Another thing to
Speaker 2: note is that the security guards actually refuse to work
Speaker 2: the next day after this happened because they were so
Speaker 2: concerned about their own security and they said to the
Speaker 2: museum that you have to tell us what you're doing
Speaker 2: to reinforce our own security during this.
Speaker 1: And I guess, with this story capturing international attention in
Speaker 1: the way that it has, it was highly publicized, you
Speaker 1: could be concerned if you worked there that that was
Speaker 1: going to maybe inspire copycat behavior or attempts at threatening
Speaker 1: the safety of visitors and stuff at Axum Okay, but
Speaker 1: at this stage in the heist, the thieves have the jewels.
Speaker 1: That's all happened very quickly. I do want to quickly
Speaker 1: just mention the jewels that they have taken are the
Speaker 1: French Crown jewels. They come from a collection that dates
Speaker 1: back to the Napoleon era. Priceless, priceless gems. You might
Speaker 1: have seen some of the images, you know, a beautiful
Speaker 1: necklace dripping in huge emeralds, exactly the kind of storybook
Speaker 1: royal family jewelry that you're probably imagining. So they've stashed
Speaker 1: all of that, and that's happened quickly, and then they
Speaker 1: get out.
Speaker 2: Then they get out. The whole thing takes three minutes
Speaker 2: and fifty seven seconds, so there's no faffing about. They
Speaker 2: get the jewels and they leave. Once the thieves leave,
Speaker 2: they actually tried to light their ladder and their truck
Speaker 2: on fire, but at this point the security guards had
Speaker 2: returned and chased them away, and so they didn't have
Speaker 2: time to do that. They tried, but it didn't work.
Speaker 1: What comes next you will have to wait and find out.
Speaker 1: After a quick word from today's sponsor. Okay, Billy, the
Speaker 1: thieves have the precious priceless jewels. But their getaway plan
Speaker 1: has been foiled because by the time they get out
Speaker 1: of their obviously the alarm has been well and truly raised.
Speaker 1: The heaters on the security are pursuing them. So how
Speaker 1: did they actually get away if the plan with the
Speaker 1: truck filed.
Speaker 2: Yes, so at this point they are on the ground
Speaker 2: now and they have two high powered scooters waiting for them,
Speaker 2: two other people helping them assisting them. They are on
Speaker 2: the scooters. These two men with the jewels get on
Speaker 2: the back of the scooters and they leave.
Speaker 1: Like vesper scooters.
Speaker 2: Yes, but think more high powers.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is literally the Italian.
Speaker 2: Job, Yes, which is a movie I just recently watched.
Speaker 1: Ago. They're not helping with your alibi, Bili, Okay, so
Speaker 1: they get away.
Speaker 2: They get away. However, they did drop one of the jewels,
Speaker 2: which was a crown made of golden emeralds with more
Speaker 2: than one three hundred diamonds. So in the hurry of
Speaker 2: getting away, they dropped that and security guards found the
Speaker 2: crown broken outside the museum. That alone is worth several
Speaker 2: tens of millions of euros.
Speaker 1: I can't believe they dropped it. I can't believe it broke.
Speaker 2: Yes, So this whole thing didn't go down perfectly, you know,
Speaker 2: between not being able to light the ladder on fire
Speaker 2: to dropping this jewel, it didn't go exactly perfectly. Another
Speaker 2: thing that is intro is the thieves left behind one
Speaker 2: diamond worth sixty million US dollars, and authorities have been
Speaker 2: really confused by that. They don't know why they left
Speaker 2: behind this particular diamond. It's a massive, massive diamond. But
Speaker 2: all the ones they did take, which like you said,
Speaker 2: they are from the nineteenth century, they are worn by
Speaker 2: French royalty, they have huge historical value, but they also
Speaker 2: of course have huge financial value. It just came out
Speaker 2: yesterday that everything they did take is worth all together
Speaker 2: and estimated eighty eight million euros, which is about one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty seven million Australian dollars.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of money. I think it's really interesting
Speaker 1: they left that one iconic Regent diamond behind. I have
Speaker 1: heard experts suggesting that the thieves were not interested really
Speaker 1: in the historical value of these pieces. It would be
Speaker 1: incredibly hard for them to sell them in their current
Speaker 1: state because they are so recognized.
Speaker 2: Well, that's another thing that is really interesting and why
Speaker 2: authorities really have a race against time now because they're
Speaker 2: not expecting that the thieves will now just resell, or
Speaker 2: not resell, but will now go on to sell any
Speaker 2: of these jewels. They believe that they will melt the
Speaker 2: gold and silver down and then recut them, which will
Speaker 2: of course get rid of the historical value, but will
Speaker 2: mean that they can resell the jewelry and you won't
Speaker 2: be able to recognize that it is these ones that
Speaker 2: were stolen from the loof.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And if you look at the size of some
Speaker 1: of the stones in this collection, one of them alone
Speaker 1: could be cut down into tens, if not hundreds of
Speaker 1: other smaller pieces, like you know, take one big sapphire,
Speaker 1: turn it into fifty odd rings. And for people in
Speaker 1: this field, even the highest experts in this kind of
Speaker 1: collection could not recognize a nineteenth century Napoleonic gem in
Speaker 1: a different form like they suggest these thieves are interested
Speaker 1: in doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, authorities do hope that they will be able to
Speaker 2: find the criminals in time to be able to get
Speaker 2: them before anything like that happens. French President Manuel Macron
Speaker 2: has vowed authorities will recover the works, but I think
Speaker 2: a lot of people and a lot of experts are
Speaker 2: doubtful that they will ever see these jewels again.
Speaker 1: Do you know, belie if investigators have any lead, how
Speaker 1: are they approaching this task now?
Speaker 2: We have no information about that. As far as we know,
Speaker 2: they don't have any leads. Perhaps they do when they're
Speaker 2: just not telling the public and the media. Officials have
Speaker 2: said that there are sixty investigators working on this case.
Speaker 2: They are questioning witnesses, going through all the footage from
Speaker 2: surveillance cameras, but they have no idea as far as
Speaker 2: we know where they fled to. They do believe, as
Speaker 2: you can imagine, that this was a very experienced team
Speaker 2: of criminals. Yep, but that's kind of.
Speaker 1: All we know. And I heard has been closed ever
Speaker 1: since this happened. Is that true?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the time of recording, it still has not
Speaker 2: opened again and we don't know when it will open again.
Speaker 1: Wow. This is a fascinating story, so many repercussions. I'm
Speaker 1: sure the internal security at the LOUVER will be reviewing
Speaker 1: things with enormous interest, and I'm sure, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: there'll be more questions to come about funding, etc. How
Speaker 1: the museum is being managed more broadly and maybe the
Speaker 1: government will have more to say on that in the
Speaker 1: days or weeks to come.
Speaker 2: I'm sure they will.
Speaker 1: Billy, thank you so much for taking us through that
Speaker 1: fascinating story. I look forward to the Netflix dramatization in
Speaker 1: the years to come, and thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: today's episode. We'll be back a little bit later on
Speaker 1: in the day with your afternoon news headlines, but until then,
Speaker 1: have a good one.
Speaker 2: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 2: Bungelung Caalcultin woman from Gadigal country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 2: Gadigal people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest
Speaker 2: Rate island and nations.
Speaker 1: We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
Speaker 1: both past and present.