They acted in cold blood, without opening fire. Four helmeted and masked criminals, at least one of whom was carrying an assault rifle, robbed a Chanel luxury watch and jewelry store on Thursday afternoon, near Place Vendôme, in the heart of Paris.
The four people fled on a scooter and a motorcycle, a police source told AFP, adding that there were no injuries. The luxury boutique is located rue de la Paix, not far from Place Vendôme, known for its renowned jewelers. The amount of the loot was not communicated at the end of the afternoon.
The banditry repression brigade (BRB), seized of the investigation, went on the spot, according to the Paris police headquarters. The investigation was opened for “armed robbery” and the investigations entrusted to the BRB and the 1st Judicial Police Discrict (DPJ), the Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP.
The robbery was filmed by a neighborhood employee, who posted his video on social networks: we see four people dressed in black, helmets and hooded. Three come out of the shop, while the fourth, on the motorcycle, carries an assault rifle slung over her shoulder. Two set off on a large-displacement black scooter, the other two on the motorbike, also black.
No haste on their part, except when they flee: the passenger of the scooter then makes a gesture of the hand, meaning to leave quickly. The one who “was on watch” near the motorcycle, “was very calm, very composed. He was not aggressive”, told AFP Jean Laville, 48, from the restaurant “La petite régalade” nearby. “I took a photo of his motorcycle, he saw me. He was not at all aggressive. People were filming in front of him, at no time did he take his Kalashnikov to dissuade them, scare them “.
Not rushed by the watch
According to Jean Laville, the robbery lasted “seven to eight minutes”. “It was quite surprising, he said, to see this person, in the crossroads, very calm, not at all worried about what was to come”. But, he adds immediately, “in the neighborhood, it’s not very surprising that sort of thing, with all the jewelers we have!”
Shortly after the events, the rue de la Paix was cordoned off by a security cordon and police officers were stationed in front of the shop with the metal shutter down, noted an AFP journalist. Anastasia Martino, 26, a saleswoman in a costume shop across the street, says it was just after 3:00 p.m. when the robbery took place. “I was smoking a cigarette before my lunch when I saw a lonely man with a Kalashnikov on a motorbike.”
“Two minutes later, three other men came out with big black bags. They also had automatic weapons and got on two motorbikes and left very quickly,” she added. For Cyril, 31, supervisor in the same store as the young woman, it was “not pros, because it lasted a good ten minutes”. “There are even people who crossed in front of the lookout without realizing that he was armed,” he told AFP.
“By the time the cops arrived, the guys had probably already left Paris with their TMax,” added Jérémy Vansterberghe, employee of the same clothing store.
According to information from Europe 1, the banditry repression brigade seized images from around fifteen CCTV cameras. The amount of damage is estimated at at least one million euros.
Several luxury boutique robberies committed in Paris
Last summer and autumn, several robberies of luxury shops were committed in the capital, according to various operating methods.
At the end of July, a man on a scooter had grabbed around two million euros worth of goods from a Chaumet store, near the Champs-Élysées. He had been arrested with his accomplice the next day and most of the loot found.
On September 7, a Bulgari jewelry store on Place Vendôme was also robbed, for damages estimated at 10 million euros. Two members of the robbery team were arrested the same day following a chase.