Patricia Tourancho. “Kim Kardashian’s jewelry heist is one of the last major heists committed by old-style thugs.”

In 2016, the theft of Kim Kardashian’s jewelry by granddad-thugs during Paris Fashion Week shocked the frenzied industry. After knocking over the reality TV star and influencer in the bathroom of her luxury hotel, the criminals made off with the loot on bikes. nine million euros… It only takes a fall from a bicycle and DNA analysis to be caught shortly after. “I consider reality stronger than fiction,” Patricia Tourancho, the author of the investigation, observes in this regard, the more detailed, the tastier. Kim and Grandpa’s Bandits (1), where he describes the collision of two completely opposite universes. An interview with an experienced detective, to whom we are already indebted Gregory, family schemeor Le Grêlé. the killer was a policemanboth adapted for docu-series (one on Netflix, the other soon to air on France TV titled Undoubtedly).

Madame Figaro. What do you think Kim Kardashian represents?

Patricia Tourancho. Have you seen me insignia? Born with a silver spoon in her mouth to a father who was OJ Simpson’s lawyer, she attended a high-society institution for young girls, where she befriended Paris Hilton. At first, the latter penetrates through the TV show, and then Kim is only his dressing room. Until the day the release of the sex tape, with the consent of her mother and manager Chris, who negotiated the rights, would shine the spotlight on her. Kris Jenner is also in talks for a reality TV series about their blended family; Kim Kardashian surpasses Paris Hilton, whose show is canceled and their friendship is in tatters. If all this is not so glorious from the beginning, then she develops the talents of a business woman and creates lines of clothes, cosmetics… Everything is good for business.

His meeting Kanye West made him even higher…

He gave her the veneer of sophistication she lacked. During her first Fashion Week, she was a pink, American teen look, gross and poorly made up. He taught her how to dress, played Pygmalion and they became a power couple, on the cover Vogue:, symbolically celebrating their union with a lavish wedding at the Palace of Versailles. And, of course, he proposed with a mega-concert where he presented her with this nearly nineteen-carat diamond ring worth four million dollars, which he flaunted everywhere. Because Kim Kardashian has a real gift for it, with Instagram, which today has over 364 million followers…

What attracted you to the jewelry theft case?

A collision of two conflicting worlds, on one hand a team of robbers between the ages of sixty and seventy-two, and on the other, a global social media star. This attack on Kim Kardashian at a hotel where thieves smash their faces off while escaping on bikes is really jet-set vs. bikes or queen of bling-bling vs. rappetus. The thieves were arrested in January 2017, and as soon as they were released, especially due to age and various illnesses, one was bypassed four times in prison, the other suffered from lung cancer… – I went to meet them. It was not easy. it took me up to two and a half years to just have coffee with some of them.

How did the robbers decide to organize their attack?

None of these old thugs are on social media, and it’s a combination of circumstances that they end up around images of Kim gathered in an internet cafe, wearing her ring and all her other jewelry: necklaces, earrings, bracelets… In addition, she says: hour by hour everything he does, whether he is in a certain showroom or going to a certain fashion show, and details his movements on the Internet. They decided to do some scouting, starting with the first abortion attempt in 2016 when she came to Paris to shoot with Karl Lagerfeld; he was surrounded too much and the rest was short, but it was learned that when he returned to fashion week, he would be alone for the last night before the rest of his entourage hit; a habit they intend to take advantage of, especially since the hotel where he is staying is poorly protected and is in a common courtyard with the museum, which is therefore open to the public. The icing on the cake is that the digital code doesn’t work.

However, this bike hack has earned them a reputation for being nickel-plated…

At first it was the old hands who had a good idea. Here we are in 2016, a year after the attacks on the Bataclan and Charlie Hebdo. it’s the pinnacle of the Vigipirate program and it’s impossible to park, cars will be spotted instantly. Therefore, a bicycle is a very smart solution. The problems start when they leave again. One of them is having a hard time because if the bikes bought with Leboncoin were bricked so that no DNA could be found, obviously the tires were not checked, and broke the face to find out when the bag was carried and which exploded, did not contain their equipment, which should be discarded: branded K-Ways “police”, vaults designed for hotel surveillance cameras… – but from looting. Among them, a 30,000-euro diamond-encrusted cross that escaped and was found a short time later. How DNA was found on the plastic handcuffs and duct tape they used to “cut” Kim Kardashian and the hotel security guard.

Is your book a picture of jewelry theft in general and the teams that are responsible for investigating it?

The case is an excuse for me to tell about the Anti-Robbery Brigade (BRB), a general intelligence group specializing in jewelery theft, and other gangs such as the Pink Panthers, which included up to a hundred and twenty people. – mostly citizens of the former Yugoslavia, and specialized in blitzkriegs in Cannes, Paris, Dubai, London… They smashed windows and confiscated jewelry in record time. In particular, they robbed the Harry Winston luxury jewelry store on Avenue Montaigne twice, the first time for 20 million euros, and the second time for 85 million euros. I also spoke to the head of the Armed Bandits (VMA), an old-fashioned chicken who looks like Kim Kardashian’s thieves, about the armored van attacks. he speaks like them and has seen the evolution of methods. In summary, we have all the advances in technical and scientific policing analyzing cell phones, GPS beacons, surveillance cameras in Paris, DNA changing the technique of theft… The theft of Kim Kardashian’s jewelry is one of the last major thefts. committed by old-style bandits; it marks the end of an era.

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You also wanted to use the colorful thieves’ slang that adds an Audiard touch to your investigation…

“Chatter of thugs,” “artich” less well-known than “sorrel,” “bremen,” which means the tricolor police card and comes from a playing card, but also from a fish that feeds on mud foraging, “return.” horse” for a repeat offender, “all in the bowl” for “everyone in jail”… These words set the scene and describe their world, their identities, their motivations and desires better than I could. Police slang is equally flowery and delicious. It was a whole literary task that I had never tackled before and that took me a lot of time.

(1) Kim and grandpa-thugs get their hands on Kardashian’s jewelry Patricia Tourancho, ed. du Seuil, 240 p., €19.