The 47-carat diamond ring was large enough to fit on two fingers, and the stone rotated on itself. The piece, exclusive, is valued at four and a half million euros, assured Wednesday afternoon its owner, a Russian citizen of about 70 years who, accompanied by a daughter, was the victim of a robbery in terminal 1 of Barcelona's El Prat airport when they were waiting to check-in in the Emirates business line.
The victims were caught off guard for a second and a man, a regular airport thief, crept up and, unbeknownst to the women, took a small white Louis Vuitton cabin bag on which they had left a Hermès handbag, model Birkin, with gold and glitter inlays. Distributed between the suitcase and the handbag, the woman kept jewelry and watches valued at eight and a half million euros, in addition to more than 10,000 dollars and another 10,200 euros in cash.
The robbery was quick, silent and stealthy, just like the many thieves who operate every day at El Prat airport. The victim filed the complaint at the Mossos d'Esquadra police station at the airport at half past eight in the afternoon. He was not confident of recovering the pieces, but he made a detailed inventory to the police of the jewelry and watches he had in the two bags, and of their approximate value. In addition to that ring, the great jewel of the collection, the thieves took two watches, a Chopard worth about 45,000 euros and a Bulgari worth about 800,000. The loot contained two diamond brooches of exclusive design, a Chanel valued at more than €750,000 and another in the shape of a swan. Diamond earrings valued at one million euros, another ring worth half a million and a Tiffany bracelet worth about 250,000 euros and a Versace diamond chain worth 250,000 euros completed the stolen item.
The woman, accompanied by her daughter, was returning to Russia after a holiday. Both boarded the plane without much hope of recovering the jewels.
From that moment on, the investigation unit of the Mossos that works in the airport complex got to work. If El Prat has something good, which undoubtedly has many, it is a video surveillance system based on high-quality cameras that do not leave a single space to monitor. But you have to know how to use them and control each one's area.
In a few minutes, the investigators located the exact moment of the robbery and the individual who was calmly walking through Terminal 1 dragging a white Louis Vuitton, with an Hermès attached to the top.
That face was familiar. The suspect joined another individual in the escape and together they moved quietly to the third floor of the airport parking lot, where they had parked a rental Ford Focus. Both are old acquaintances of the airport police. They specialize in stealing bags and suitcases without violence, taking advantage of a distraction. They operate in airports all over Spain. In fact, one has a stay-away order in force from Madrid's Adolfo Suárez airport, from the end of last year.
They had never been arrested in Barcelona because they were so bad that plainclothes or uniformed officers guessed their intentions before stealing and kicked them out every two out of three of the Prat terminals. But on Wednesday they were crowned and starred in a heist that not even in their wildest dreams they could have imagined.
What's more, there are meticulous and prepared thieves who spend years planning a robbery of the magnitude of the one these two couples carried out on Wednesday in El Prat, and they have no guarantees of success.
With the handbag and the suitcase on top, both individuals moved to the car and headed to their home. They loaded absolutely all of their personal belongings, divided the stolen loot between bags, and put some of the pieces on top of them.
They were probably euphoric, but without imagining the value of what they were carrying, because without changing cars, they filled the gas tank and got into the AP-7 in the direction of France with the probable intention of reaching the his country, Serbia.
At the time, the airport investigators had already communicated to the rest of the Mossos with the details of the vehicle in which the thieves had fled. They suspected that they had changed cars, but the surprise was big when two and a half hours later, a traffic patrol identified the car near Salt and called them over.
The two criminals did not change. They collaborated. One of the men had a Swedish passport, and the other a Polish one, although in principle they are registered as Kosovars. The detainees were taken to the dungeons of the Girona police station, where yesterday they expected the judge to overrule in favor of the El Prat magistrate so that it is the airport cops who will continue with the report.
The jewels were yesterday in the bunker of the Girona police station and will initially be moved to the airport. The victim was able to be located when he was flying back home, as he had a telephone line in business class. The woman was grateful and surprised by the police's efficiency. Despite the astronomical amount of the stolen pieces, the events carried out by the two men are still a theft. Both will be released when they appear in court. Unknowingly, they staged the heist of the century, but they acted like bread-soaked thieves.
