90 Seconds, 40 Luxury Watches - Frankfurt Stock Exchange
At 10:41 on 29 June 2023, two disguised men robbed a jeweller one block behind Frankfurt's grand stock exchange, grabbing 40 luxury watches and jewellery worth about 850,000 euros in just 90 seconds, then escaped by bicycle and calmly locked their bikes before vanishing. They have never been caught.
Sobre este lugar
Frankfurt's Stock Exchange is a temple of money: a Renaissance revival palace of yellow sandstone, opened in 1879 to designs by Heinrich Burnitz and Oskar Sommer, home to the trading hall with the famous DAX board and guarded outside by Reinhard Dachlauer's bronze bull and bear, set up in 1988 for the exchange's 400th anniversary. Yet one of the city's most brazen recent crimes unfolded just one block behind it. At about 10:41 on 29 June 2023, a man in a brown wig and a false full beard was let into a jeweller's shop on Hochstraße, pulled a pistol from a shopping bag and shouted "Überfall!", sending passers by fleeing from the window, while his accomplice in a blue fishing hat smashed the display cases with a hammer. In roughly 90 seconds they packed 40 luxury watches, Rolex and Hublot among them, plus jewellery worth about 850,000 euros into a backpack. Then came the twist that stunned even seasoned investigators: instead of a getaway car, the pair rode bicycles about 650 metres to Emil-Claar-Straße in the Westend and calmly fastened them with spiral locks before strolling away. Police believe they were travelling professionals, and despite surveillance video, a witness's phone footage, a national television appeal and a 1,000 euro reward, the case remains unsolved.
Datos clave
- 90 seconds — How long the two robbers spent inside the jeweller's shop on Hochstraße, every moment of it captured by the store's surveillance cameras.
- 40 luxury watches — Rolex and Hublot pieces among them, swept into a backpack together with jewellery for a haul worth about 850,000 euros.
- 650 metres — The distance the robbers pedalled to Emil-Claar-Straße, where they locked their getaway bikes with spiral locks and simply walked away.