CCTV footage shows thieves breaking into the Green Vault in Dresden, Germany and steal ‘priceless’ diamonds. The burglars turned off the power at the secure unit and broke in through a window. There were two burglars filmed in the dark vault, with torchlights on their heads.
The jewellery stolen was commissioned by the 18th-century ruler of Saxony, Augustus the Strong. Three sets of jewels were stolen. Experts at the museum, who once boasted that their collection was ‘as secure as Fort Knox’, said today that the value of the items stolen was ‘immeasurable’ and pleaded with the thieves not to destroy them.
Escaping in a getaway car, the burglars are yet to be found. The manhunt continues.
Police said they were alerted shortly before 5 am by unarmed museum security guards who had spotted two burglars inside the downtown museum on video surveillance cameras.
The first officers arrived on the scene within minutes but the thieves had already fled in a waiting getaway car, which managed to elude immediate attempts to find it in the surrounding area and on the nearby highway, Dresden police chief Joerg Kubiessa told reporters.
Police later confirmed that an Audi A6 matching the description of the getaway car was found burned out in an underground parking lot in Dresden.
Investigators suspect that a fire at an electrical junction box near the museum, which took out the streetlights at the time of the robbery, was linked to the crime, police said.
The outage affected lights in front of a window through which the thieves gained entrance, somehow getting through bars and safety glass to reach the Jewel Room.
