Gunmen in drag net millions in jewelry

PARIS – Armed robbers wearing women’s wigs and clothing made off with diamond rings, gem-studded bracelets and other jewelry worth $108 million from a Harry Winston boutique in Paris, in one of the world’s largest jewel heists.

As Christmas shoppers strolled outside, the gunmen forced store employees to strip rings, necklaces and earrings from window displays and pull more out of safes, Isabelle Montagne, spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, said Friday.

The brazen robbery early Thursday evening took place in the presence of security guards and security cameras in one of Paris’ toniest shopping locales, just steps away from the tourist-filled Champs-Elysees. Besides Harry Winston, Nina Ricci, Gucci, Chanel and Dior are among the fashion houses with boutiques on the Avenue Montaigne.

The robbers threatened the 15 employees with handguns and hit some on the head, according to a police official who cannot be identified under agency policy. The robbers spoke a foreign language at times and appeared to know employees’ names, the official said.

Montagne said there was only one client in the store at the time, and no one was injured and no weapons were fired. She called the incident “very well-organized,” and said three of the four gunmen were dressed as women and wore wigs.

Investigators seized the store’s surveillance tapes and police said one group under suspicion was the so-called “Pink Panthers,” a ring of jewel thieves mostly from the former Yugoslavia. The international police agency Interpol has blamed the group for jewel thefts in 19 countries in Europe, Asia and the Persian Gulf worth more than $150 million over the past 10 years.

Paris’ Harry Winston boutique was targeted in a similar heist last year, when three thieves made off with $28.4 million worth of jewels after forcing employees to open safes. They were never caught.