Daylight Robberies Continue for Luxury Brands

Online, January 13, 2011 (Newswire.com) - It has indeed become trendy for thieves to take on daylight robberies among the world's foremost luxury brands. According to the press in France, at approximately 11:30 a.m. on Friday afternoon, a lone man was spotted pacing and nervously glancing at windows of the Korloff PARIS boutique.

One witness observed the lightning fast heist while taking a mobile call-within only a narrow few meters of the crime scene. "The man was anxious, awkward and ran toward the boutique releasing a crowbar from the sleeve of his overcoat" before smashing the window and swiping watches and accessories. The swoop represents Korloff's entire Voyageur collection of timepieces ranging from 2,500 to 15,000 euro in value.

Since the beginning of the recession Paris has become the site for several such brazen heists. In 2009 bandits struck Chopard on Place Vendome to steel 15 pieces. Along one of the most publicly traversed corridors-the Champs-Elysees-four men dressed in drag and fled Harry Winston with $102 million in jewelry. In what has been deemed as the heist of the century an armed team raided the highly guarded Antwerpen Diamond Exchange looting over 100 million euro in stones.

This latest instance is strikingly odd. The daylight bandit wore no mask and made no attempt to protect his identity. When asked whether or not the brand's famed 88 carat black diamond was safe from potential thievery a representative from the luxury maison claimed "The Korloff Noir is secure for its destination is not revealed...at least all our staff is unharmed and all that needs to be repaired is a broken window."

One of the biggest challenges thieves of such pieces face today is to locate a buyer on the open market. Traditionally these works are created as either limited editions or limited productions and are fully serialized and recorded to identify authenticity of craftsmanship and ownership.