💍 Famous case · Paris, 2008
The Harry Winston heist (2008): what we know
One Thursday in December 2008, in the middle of the Christmas shopping season, four armed men walk into the Harry Winston jewelry store on the avenue Montaigne, in Paris. Two or three of them, depending on the source, are dressed as women. Within minutes, nearly nine hundred pieces of jewelry are gone. Here is how this heist unfolded, as the sources tell it.
A few minutes on the avenue Montaigne
Just after 5:30 p.m.: four armed men enter the store at no. 29 avenue Montaigne, in the 8th arrondissement. They show their weapons and threaten the fifteen or so people inside, staff and customers, herding them into a corner. Some employees are pistol-whipped.
The robbers sweep rings, necklaces and luxury watches out of the display cases, empty the hiding places of the jewelry not on display and carry everything off in bags, within minutes. They leave without firing a single shot.
Nearly nine hundred pieces
Depending on the source, the loot is valued at 70 to 85 million euros. As early as December 5, AFP spoke of 80 million euros. Either way, it is the biggest jewelry store robbery ever committed in France.
They knew the place
According to a police source quoted by AFP, the robbers knew the names of some employees and where the jewelry not on display was hidden. They had an informant: a former security guard of the store, later sentenced to 5 years in prison, 3 of them suspended. Early on, the police suspected gangs from the Balkans, the "Pink Panthers", a lead that was later dropped.
The investigation and the trial
In June 2009, about 25 people are arrested. Part of the loot is found at the home of the mastermind, who had already robbed the same store on October 6, 2007. In 2011, more jewelry turns up, hidden in a sewer in the Paris region.
In 2015, eight men are tried by the Paris Assize Court for both heists. The prosecution asks for 18 months to 12 years; the jury goes further: from 9 months in prison to 15 years of criminal imprisonment, the heaviest for the mastermind, Douadi Yahiaoui, known as "Doudou". The former guard, Mouloud Djennad, gets 5 years, 3 of them suspended. Only 279 of the nearly 900 pieces were recovered during the investigation.
Your turn to reconstruct the heist
In Enquetix's famous case, you reconstruct the heist by pure deduction: who was in the gang, with which disguises and which weapons, and which places they went through. The facts are documented 📚. The convicted go by their real names 📚; those whose identity was never established by a judgment have a made-up name 🔎.
🔎 Reconstruct the Harry Winston heist The other famous cases
Sources: AFP; Washington Times (December 6, 2008); NBC News; Al Jazeera (2011); Sud Radio and 24matins (2015 trial).