The Louvre robbers may have smuggled stolen jewels by shoving them in their bodies back door, according to America’s most infamous jewel thief Larry Lawton.
Larry shared his two cents after four thieves stole $102 million worth of jewels from the Louvre Museum on Sunday, October 19.
He also teased them for dropping the Empress Eugenie’s imperial crown while fleeing the scene.
Highlights
- America’s most infamous jewel thief, Larry Lawton, spoke about how the Louvre robbers pulled off the brazen heist.
- He claimed the perpetrators may have smuggled the stolen items by shoving them in their body’s back door.
- The ex-con also spoke about how he was able to hide a knife in his derriére during his looting days
“They’re not professionals like I was,” he said. “I robbed 25 f***ing stores and I never dropped the jewelry, no less a f***ing crown!”
America’s most infamous jewel thief, Larry Lawton, spoke about how the Louvre robbers pulled off the brazen heist
Image credits: Larry Lawton Jewel Thief
It took just seven minutes for four robbers to steal eight pieces from France’s Crown Jewels, kept at one of the best-protected buildings in the world.
The robbers are still on the run after carrying out their brazen heist.
However, Larry called them “idiots” and “amateurs.”
Image credits: Mathias Reding/Unsplash
Larry was a notorious American jewel thief who had looted around 25 jewelry stores across the East Coast in the US during the 1980s and ’90s.
The now-64-year-old has hauled $18 million worth of items during his robbery days and would even tie up store owners and customers during his daytime raids. He was arrested in 1996 and spent 11 years behind bars.
While speaking about the Louvre robbers, he said he hoped they had enough cash to “literally lie low and get out of the country.”
Larry said the robbers may have smuggled the stolen items by shoving them in their bodies’ back door
Image credits: Andy Luo/Unsplash
The reformed felon said the Louvre robbers would not have put the stolen jewels in their hand luggage if they fled the country on a plane.
Instead, they would have “suitcased” them, which refers to hiding items in one’s personal backside cargo.
Image credits: Larry Lawton Jewel Thief
It involves “inserting something in your rect**,” he said.
“Believe it or not, depending on the size, you could take some of that jewelry apart and literally ‘suitcase’ it,” he told the New York Post.
The ex-con spoke about how he was able to hide a knife in his booty during his looting days
Image credits: Larry Lawton Jewel Thief
The ex-con shared some of his own wild ways of carrying stolen items.
“You have seven extra inches in your an**, and the reason I know this is [because] I’ve actually had a knife up my a**,” he said.
“You put a knife in half of a [travel] toothbrush holder and put masking tape on the other end,” he continued.
Image credits: Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto
Despite pulling off an audacious heist, Larry said they were not “professionals” because they had left behind a glove and even dropped the crown during their escape.
He also believes the heist could have been an “inside job.”
“That doesn’t mean the person was involved in it,” he told NewsNation. “If a person was married to a tour guide, if I’m married to a tour guide and I want to rob that place, you’re going to know everything you know.”
Larry claimed the robbers were not “professionals” and believes someone on the inside may have helped them, possibly even unknowingly
Image credits: Musée du Louvre / Jean-Gilles Berizzi
Larry pointed out how the robbers knew exactly which window to break and spent less than four minutes inside the museum.
They seemed to know exactly what they were after and managed to flee on scooters in broad daylight.
“How did they know that you could even get through that glass that wasn’t penetrable?” the convicted felon said. “How did they know exactly what window and stuff to go through? How did they know that construction stuff was there?”
Image credits: Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto
“So there’s definitely an inside element. I’m not saying they’re involved, but somebody had to tell them what was along, what was not,” he added.
Although he left his robbery days in the past, Larry acknowledged how there’s a “high” one gets after completing a heist.
“There’s no high like walking out of a jewelry store knowing you got $1 million in a f***ing bag,” said the notorious jewel thief
Image credits: Musée du Louvre / Stéphane Maréchalle
“Your adrenaline is flowing,” he told the New York Post.
“I’ve done every dr** in the book, but there’s no high like walking out of a jewelry store knowing you got $1 million in a f***ing bag,” he added.
Louvre director Laurence des Cars acknowledged some of the “terrible failures” on the museum’s part
Image credits: France Inter
As the manhunt continued for the four robbers, Louvre director Laurence des Cars acknowledged the “terrible failure” on the museum’s part during the heist.
She said the audacity and scale of the heist exposed “weaknesses” such as the shortage of security cameras outside the monument.
She also said they failed to “detect the arrival of the thieves soon enough.”
“Today we are experiencing a terrible failure at the Louvre, which I take my share of responsibility in,” she said in her testimony to the French Senate.
“The security system in the Louvre is really a laughing stock of the world,” one commented online
