Paris Chopard Jewelry Store Robbery: 2 Perps, 2 Helpers, 4 Diamonds

Summary: The Paris Chopard jewelry store robbery March 1, 2016, in France yielded a suspect in Switzerland, another with two helpers and four stones by April 2017.

suspects and four stones recovered in 2017 from March 2016's robbery at luxury jewelers Chopard's Paris location at 1 Place Vendôme: Agence France-Presse @afpfr, via Twitter March 1, 2016

The central Paris Chopard jewelry store robbery March 1, 2016, allowed two male suspects to abscond with high-end, luxurious jewels in one of France's most high-profile luxury shopping districts during daylight hours.

The Paris Chopard jewelry store robbery brought face-to-face armed interventions with coercive, forceful, intimidating fear factors at midday to the first arrondissement (district), near police patrols. It catapulted one grenade carrier and one gunslinger into one of four exclusive Chopard boutiques on La Rive Droite (the right bank [of the Seine River]). It did so despite the Chopard boutique's Place Vendôme address at number 1 not far from the Ministre de Justice (Ministry of Justice) at number 13.

The Paris Chopard jewelry store robbery earmarked a business for easy entry and exit exactly when radio scanners exhibited area police patrols away at a fire.

The suspects fit the Paris Chopard jewelry store robbery into the capital city's lunch hour, at 12:40 p.m. Central European Time (11:40 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time).

Jean-Michel Huguet, Alliance Police Nationale (National Police Alliance) union spokesman, gave the perpetrators a 5- to 10-minute grab-and-go ("Cela a duré entre cinq et dix minutes"). He had the boutique robbery reconstructed as "Un individu est entré dans la bijouterie, il a exhibé une arme à feu afin qu'un deuxième individu entre." He indicated, "Celui-ci a exhibé une grenade" ("One individual entered the jeweler's, exhibited a firearm in order that a second enter. The latter exhibited a grenade").

The Paris Chopard jewelry store robbery perpetrators jeopardized their anonymity by jogging in and out on foot and by judging facial disguises or ski masks unnecessary.

Online news sources know from eyewitness accounts of the two males as one robber about 25 years old and as another thief around 40 years old.

The non-implementation of threatened violence during an unpatrolled lunch hour left the Paris Chopard jewelry store robbery without eyewitnesses other than those inside the street-level business. A concierge at the Chopard-owned, same building-addressed Hôtel de Vendôme mentioned that "On a découvert que ça s'était passé quand on a vu la police arriver." Noiselessness netted survival for the building's guests and other occupants since "We (concierges) discovered that that (robbery) had taken place when we saw the police arrive."

The Paris Chopard jewelry store robbery offered two perpetrators, and possibly two accomplices, the theft of €6 million ($6,520,200) in diamonds and precious gems and metals.

Online sources present one suspected perpetrator as arrested for another theft in February 2017 and imprisoned in Switzerland and a second and two accomplices in April.

Four unmounted stones qualified the trio for questioning by the Banditry Repression Brigade (Brigade de Répression du Banditisme) and the Regional Intervention Group (Groupe d'Intervention Régional). An unidentified police source revealed a 60-year-old man with a police record for jewel thefts as the second thief in the Paris Chopard jewelry store robbery. The brigade and the response group suspect a 46-year-old of criminal conspiracy and a 47-year-old of possession of four of the otherwise already sold stolen jewels.

What about four traceable stones tempted a trio not to tender the quartet with other Paris Chopard jewelry store robbery treasures and turned the three in?

Chopard's window display, emptied of jewelry, attests to grab-and-go robbery March 1, 2016, at Swiss luxury brand's posh Paris location at 1 Place Vendôme: Juliann @JuliannPlk, via Twitter March 1, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

suspects and four stones recovered in 2017 from March 2016's robbery at luxury jewelers Chopard's Paris location at 1 Place Vendôme: Agence France-Presse @afpfr, via Twitter March 1, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/afpfr/status/704703322012385280

Chopard's window display, emptied of jewelry, attests to grab-and-go robbery March 1, 2016, at Swiss luxury brand's posh Paris location at 1 Place Vendôme: Juliann @JuliannPlk, via Twitter March 1, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/JuliannPlk/status/704699471561674752

For further information:

Agence France-Presse ‏@afpfr. 1 March 2016. "Vol à main armée à la bijouterie #Chopard, place Vendôme à Paris." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/afpfr/status/704703322012385280

BFMTV ‏@BFMTV. 10 April 2017. "Braquage chez Chopard en 2016: trois hommes mis en examen et écroués." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/BFMTV/status/851407906755010561

Le Figaro. 7 April 2017. "Braquage de la bijouterie Chopard en mars 2016: trois interpellations." Le Figaro > Actualité > Flash Actu > 7 avril 2017.
Available @ http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2017/04/07/97001-20170407FILWWW00123-braquage-de-la-bijouterie-chopard-en-mars-2016-trois-interpellations.php

France24. 2 March 2016. "Braquage de la bijouterie Chopard, sur la célèbre place Vendôme à Paris, malgré l'état d'urgence." France 24 > France > État d'urgence > Braquage.
Available @ http://www.france24.com/fr/20160302-france-braquage-arme-bijouterie-chopard-place-vendome-etat-urgence

Juliann @JuliannPlk. 1 March 2016. "Vitrine #Chopard (vide) après le braquage à côté de la place #Vendôme @franceinfo." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/JuliannPlk/status/704699471561674752