Sometimes you are assigned stories that are so different that even experienced journalists raise their eyebrows. Sunday’s jewelry heist at the Louvre in Paris is certainly one of them.
Four guys, climbing the side of the museum on a cherry picker, break through a second-floor window, scoop up $100 million worth of French crown jewels and make off with the loot on scooters in less than 10 minutes. Something from the movies. Pink Panther. You name it.
I used to live in Paris. I covered many front-page stories during my time there and afterwards – from the death of Princess Diana to several deadly terrorist attacks and the fire at Notre Dame. Now, this.
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Luckily I had a top team with me: professional cinematographer and producer John Templeton and Simon Owen, seasoned Parisian producer since the 1990s, Cicely Medintzeff, and a handy large Mercedes van and driver.
The trip didn’t start well: a few production bags were lost on the flight from London to Paris. But cinematographer John did it. As we chatted with people at the airport, including a nice American couple from Washington State. The robbery was already the talk of the town.
Our next challenge was finding a place to shoot our live shots. When we arrived at night, the road near the museum was blocked by police on one side, so we ended up backing up on the other side. We found a spot in front of the museum’s iconic pyramid-shaped entrance. Day and night it is one of the great backdrops – as we talked about a terrible crime.
New footage reportedly shows a person in a yellow jacket next to a display case amid the Louvre robbery. (BFMTV)
The next morning we went straight to the scene of the crime: the back of the museum. We saw the narrow sidewalk where the thieves parked their truck, the thin window they cut through, and a piece of wood that now covered the hole. Besides a parked police car, there wasn’t much security around even at that time. There was no museum video of the burglary. The criminals raised the alarm.
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We weren’t the only ones yawning. A small crowd, including American tourists, stared up and wondered. “It looks incredibly simple,” one told us. “Weird,” sighed another.
But the large crowd stood again in front of the museum. Even though it was closed that day (it had been closed after the robbery), there was still a large crowd, many wondering what the crime was. Many more people just take the usual Instagram-style selfies with the Louvre.
With our TV equipment spread across the sidewalk for live images, we became a new source of attention. “Where did it happen?” someone asked. “When will the museum open again?” asked another. Another American tourist came forward and described how he and his wife had been to the museum the day before the robbery and could already tell that the security was terrible.
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Police officers stand near the pyramid of the Louvre Museum after reports of a robbery in Paris, France, October 19, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY (Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)
As more details emerged about the crime, the story only became stranger. How the thieves picked up their truck just 40 kilometers outside Paris. How could they be in such a hurry that they left behind a crown studded with more than 1,300 diamonds (they were given eight other pieces). And how police – to make up for lost time – collected evidence including an architectural-style vest, a glove, a license plate and a video of the suspects fleeing on a highway outside Paris.
And the French did something else they are good at: pointing fingers and blaming. President Emmanuel Macron has enough political headaches these days. The last thing he needed was a high profile catastrophe. He promised that the perpetrators would be caught. To her credit, the museum’s director offered her resignation (it was rejected), but was strongly criticized by the French Senate.
All of this, as we noted, was a race against time for a team of a hundred French police investigators – one of the largest manhunts in French history – to catch the thieves before they had a chance to smash the jewelry, recut the gemstones, and melt down the gold and silver to be sold. Part of a growing trend of museum robberies.
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In addition to hearing my colleagues on air express their surprise at the crime, we also expressed our opinions about the “tough” assignment of being sent to Paris. And indeed, it was wonderful to see my old hometown again. Paris is breathtaking. But I should also note that, apart from a delicious wrap dinner in the brasserie, the trip was more about sitting on cafe chairs to write scripts and use facilities – plus Uber Eats, French style.
So now we wait to see how this incredible French crime caper turns out. Most people we heard from were quite confident that the bandits would be caught and the museum’s security would be updated. But they had doubts whether the precious jewelry – described as the “soul” of France – would ever be recovered. The Louvre has reopened. Let’s hope this movie-like story has a happy ending.
