The Pink Panthers Strike - Rue du Rhône
On the afternoon of 17 August 2009, four armed men in hats and wigs smashed the display cases of the jeweller Chatila on Geneva's Rue du Rhône and fled on scooters with jewellery worth about 2.6 million francs that was never recovered, and in 2013 a Geneva court sent a suspected Pink Panther to prison for nine years.
Su questo luogo
Long before it became Geneva's luxury mile, this corner was the city's harbour: the Molard is recorded as a port as early as 1271, and the Tour du Molard, part of the lower city wall and rebuilt in its present form in 1591, still stands at the end of the square, carrying Paul-Maurice Baud's 1921 relief Genève cité de refuge. Today the Rue du Rhône is lined with jewellers, watchmakers and private banks, which is exactly what drew four armed men in hats and wigs to the boutique of the jeweller Chatila on the afternoon of Monday 17 August 2009. Speaking Russian or another Slavic language, they smashed the display cases while the 75 year old owner, Elie Chatila, struggled with one of them and an employee set off the alarm. By the time the police arrived, the gang had fled on scooters with jewellery worth about 2.6 million francs, leaving behind, of all things, a ring worth more than 500,000 francs. The loot was never recovered. On 20 September 2013 a Geneva court sentenced a 39 year old Montenegrin, believed to belong to the notorious Pink Panthers, to nine years in prison for this raid and a lightning heist in Lucerne, yet two of his three accomplices in Geneva have never been identified.
Fatti principali
- 2.6 million francs — The value of the jewellery the four robbers took from Chatila on 17 August 2009; not a single piece was ever recovered.
- 500000 francs — The value of one ring the robbers left behind in the smashed display cases, as the owner, Elie Chatila, told reporters.
- 9 years in prison — The sentence a Geneva court gave a 39 year old Montenegrin, believed to be a Pink Panther, on 20 September 2013.