Public too in awe of Muscles from Brussels to spot Paris jewel thief
Armed robber made off with £2.5m of gems while crowd peered at action star in nearby optician’s shop
POTENTIAL witnesses to an armed jewellery heist off the Champs-elysées failed to see the suspect escape on an e-scooter because they were distracted by the presence of one-time screen hard man Jean-claude Van Damme on a walkabout, it has transpired.
In an ironic twist to the case, it turns out Van Damme, the Hollywood actor and martial arts expert known as the “Muscles from Brussels”, was in Paris to launch a Netflix film that involves an e-scooter chase not far from the spot where the robbery took place.
In a daring heist on Tuesday evening, a man entered a boutique of famed Parisian jeweller Chaumet with a handgun and made off with up to €3million (£2.5million) of gems and precious stones, according to a source close to the case.
Security camera footage shows the grey-haired thief, wearing a light-grey suit, white shirt and tie, arriving at the store in Rue François 1er at about 5.10pm. Shortly afterwards he was filmed leaving with his stash in a white bag and departing on a green scooter that he had left parked outside.
Staff told police the man had pretended to be a customer and asked to see various expensive items before threatening staff with a weapon. No one was injured in the robbery.
Jeanne d’hauteserre, the mayor of Paris’s 8th arrondissement where the robbery took place, described it as “mind-boggling, daring, unprecedented and regrettable”.
According to Le Parisien, one police officer called the haul “monumental”.
Potential witnesses at a nearby café told the newspaper they had failed to notice anything untoward. Many were reportedly distracted by the presence of Van Damme at a nearby optician’s. That fuelled speculation of a Machiavellian ploy to divert the attention of passersby with a Van Damme lookalike.
Patrick Goavec, the actor’s Paris agent, confirmed that he was in the area at the time of the heist. “He arrived yesterday from the US and is staying in a hotel nearby and he went to the opticians yesterday and returned today,” he said. “I spoke to him five minutes ago and he had absolutely no idea about the robbery.”
Van Damme is in the French capital for the global launch of his latest Netflix film, The Last Mercenary, out tomorrow in which, “a legendary secret agent-turned-mercenary comes out of hiding to save the son he’s never met”.
“The irony is it does include a chase on an e-scooter in central Paris,” said Mr Goavec. Images from the Netflix trailer show one actor in Y-fronts – not Van Damme – hurtling through the Place des Vosges on an electric two-wheeler.
In his long career, the Belgian actor has “never played a jewellery thief”, according to his agent.
However, in a minor drama of his own, a jet-lagged Van Damme had a lucky escape after forgetting his wallet and phone in a Paris taxi on Tuesday.
When the driver failed to respond to calls, he managed to retrieve the valuables by geolocating his phone and sending a motorbike to intercept the vehicle.
Despite the apparent lack of witnesses, by yesterday afternoon police had arrested two suspects in Moselle, eastern France, and retrieved a “significant part” of the haul, which they were carrying, according to judicial sources.
The suspects, born in 1967 and 1977, were intercepted on board a coach at a motorway lay-by in Longeville-lèssaint-avold.
The Paris prosecutor said the arrest was made possible “thanks to the remarkable mobilisation of the BRB”, the anti-robbery unit of the capital’s force, without providing further details.
An investigation into armed robbery has been launched.
Founded in 1780 and most famous for its flagship store in the Place Vendôme near the Ritz Hotel, Chaumet was previously robbed in 2009, when €1.9million of precious stones were stolen.