In 2016, the theft of Kim Kardashian's jewelry by grandpa robbers during Paris fashion week shook the bling-bling sphere: after having dicked the reality TV star and influencer in the bathroom of her luxury hotel, the criminals had taken off on bicycles with loot of nine million euros... Only to be caught shortly afterwards, a fall from a bicycle and DNA analysis required.
“I find reality stronger than fiction,” observes Patricia Tourancheau in this regard, author of an investigation as detailed as it is tasty,
Kim et les papy-braqueurs
(1), where she describes the clash of two universes that are completely opposed. .
Interview with an experienced news reporter to whom we already owe
Grégory, the family machination
, or
Le Grêlé: the killer was a cop
, both adapted into documentary series (on Netflix for one, soon to be broadcast on France TV for the other under the title
Unsuspected
).
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Madame Figaro.
What do you think Kim Kardashian represents?
Patricia Tourancheau.
The emblem of have-you-seen-me.
Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, with a father who was OJ Simpson's lawyer, she attended an establishment reserved for young high society girls, where she became friends with Paris Hilton.
It is first the latter who breaks through, with a television show, and Kim is then only her locker room.
Until the day when the release of a sex tape – with the consent of her mother and manager, Kris, who negotiated the rights – shines the spotlight on her.
Kris Jenner is also negotiating a reality TV series about their blended family – she has remarried in the meantime – and it snowballs.
Kim Kardashian gets the better of Paris Hilton whose show is canceled and their friendship is shattered.
If all this is not initially very glorious, she then develops talents as a businesswoman and creates lines of clothing, cosmetics... Everything is good for business!
Also read: When Kim Kardashian returned in detail to her attack in Paris
Her meeting with
Kanye West
propelled her even higher…
He gave it the veneer of elegance it lacked.
At her first Fashion Week, she was in pink, American teenage style, frumpy and poorly made-up.
He taught her how to dress, played the role of the Pygmalion and they became a power couple, on the cover of
Vogue
, symbolically celebrating their union with a sumptuous wedding at the Palace of Versailles: the contemporary king and queen of image and glitter!
And of course, he proposed to her by organizing a mega-concert where he gave her this ring with a diamond of almost nineteen carats, worth four million dollars, and which she showed off everywhere.
Because Kim Kardashian has a real gift for that, with an Instagram which today has more than 364 million followers…
Kim and the robber grandpas
, by Patricia Tourancheau DR
What attracted you to the jewelry theft case?
The collision of two worlds at odds with each other, with on one side a team of robbers aged sixty to seventy-two years old and on the other, the global star of social networks.
This attack against Kim Kardashian in an entrenched hotel, with thieves breaking their faces while fleeing on bicycles, is really the jet-set against bicycles or the queen of bling-bling against the Rapetous!
The thieves were arrested in January 2017 and as soon as they were released, due in particular to their age and their various illnesses – one underwent a quadruple bypass in prison, another suffered from lung cancer… – I went to meet them.
It wasn't easy: it took me up to two and a half years to just have coffee with some of them!
Also read: Kim Kardashian's robber: "If I had known it was someone so famous, I would have said no"
How did the robbers decide to stage their attack?
None of these old bandits are on social networks and it is through a combination of circumstances that they find themselves gathered in an internet café around images of Kim wearing her ring and all her other jewelry – necklaces, earrings, bracelets … In addition, she recounts hour by hour everything she does – whether she is at a particular show room or going to a particular fashion show – and details her movements on the Internet in detail.
They decided to do some scouting, embarking on a first aborted attempt in 2016, when she came to Paris for a shoot with Karl Lagerfeld – she was too surrounded and the stay was brief – but learned that when she returned for the fashion week, she will stay alone the last night, while the rest of her entourage goes clubbing: a habit they intend to take advantage of, especially since the hotel where she is staying is poorly protected and is located in a courtyard shared with a museum, which is therefore open to the public.
The icing on the cake is that the digital code doesn’t work!
However, this bicycle breakage has earned them the reputation of being nickel-plated...
Initially, it was old hands who had a good idea.
We are in 2016, a year after the attacks on the Bataclan and Charlie Hebdo: it is the peak of the Vigipirate plan and it is impossible to park, cars would immediately be spotted.
The bike is therefore a very smart solution.
The problems start when they leave again.
One of them is having a hard time – because if they bricked the bikes bought on Leboncoin so that no DNA could be found, they clearly didn't check the tires – and breaks his face, to find out when the The bag he was carrying and which was ripped open did not contain their equipment to be thrown away – K-Ways with the
“police”
logo , caches intended for the hotel's surveillance cameras… – but the loot from the heist!
Including a cross adorned with diamonds worth €30,000 which escaped and which was found shortly afterwards.
Just as DNA was found on the plastic handcuffs and adhesive tapes they used to “cut” Kim Kardashian and the hotel guard.
Is your book also a picture of jewelry theft in general, and the brigades that are responsible for investigating it?
The case serves as a pretext for me to tell about the general investigations group of the banditry suppression brigade (BRB), specialized in jewelry theft, and other gangs, such as that of the Pink Panthers, which included up to one hundred and twenty people – mainly nationals of the former Yugoslavia – and specialized in lightning raids, in Cannes, Paris, Dubai, London… They smashed the windows and seized the jewels in record time .
In particular, they robbed the Harry Winston luxury jewelry store on avenue Montaigne twice for a loot of 20 million euros the first time and 85 million euros the second.
I also spoke with the head of the armed robbery groups (VMA) about the armored van attacks – an old-fashioned chicken, who looks like Kim Kardashian's thieves: he speaks like them, and saw the evolution of methods.
In summary, we have all the progress of the technical and scientific police, which analyzes cell phones, GPS beacons, video surveillance cameras in Paris, DNA which changes theft techniques... The theft of Kim Kadashian's jewelry is one of the last big heists committed by old-style robbers;
it marks the end of an era.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
You were also keen to use the colorful slang of thieves, which gives an Audiard touch to your investigation...
“The thugs’ chatter”, “the artich” – less known than “sorrel” – the “bream” which designates the tricolor police card and comes from a playing card but also from a fish which feeds by searching the mud, the “returning horse” for a repeat offender, “all in the bowls” for “all in prison”… These words set the scene and describe better than I could their world, their identity, their motivations and their desires.
Cop jargon is just as flowery and tasty.
It was a whole literary task that I had never tackled before and which took me a lot of time!
(1)
Kim and the grandpa-robbers, their hands on the Kardashian jewelry,
Patricia Tourancheau, ed.
du Seuil, 240 p., €19.