Hi, All!

Louvre robbery

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What we know about the evidence left at the scene of the Louvre jewel heist

"All criminals make mistakes," said a retired NYPD chief of detectives. ByBill Hutchinson

As the hunt for the thieves who stole over $100 million worth of jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris stretched into its fifth day on Thursday, veteran detectives who have probed similar cases said French investigators have a lot of evidence to work with.

Chief among the clues police have recovered at the scene of Sunday's sensational crime at one of the world's most famous museums are traces of DNA found on items the thieves left behind in their hasty motorbike getaway.

"That's a tremendous piece of evidence to have recovered, to actually have DNA," Geoffrey Kelly, a retired FBI agent who was on the bureau's art crime team, told ABC News. "We've always typically thought of fingerprints as the way to catch bad guys, but DNA is really 21st-century technology."

The DNA, which investigators are analyzing and hope will lead to the identity of the brazen thieves, was found in one of the helmets and one of the gloves the thieves used in the robbery, French police in charge of the heist investigation told ABC News.

Kelly said French detectives are likely running the DNA traces through law enforcement DNA databases to look for a match.

"If it were here in the States, we would certainly be running the DNA through what we call the CODIS database, which is a database of all collected DNA samples," Kelly said.

The CODIS database is maintained by the FBI, but the DNA available to investigators is mostly of people convicted of crimes or who have been reported missing.

"If that didn't work, then we would go to investigative genealogy, where we would actually be using commercial DNA databases and running the DNA evidence collected through these databases to try and find a match. If not direct, then maybe second, third or fourth generation."

Robert Boyce, the retired chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, said the genetic evidence obtained in the Louvre case can also be run through the DNA database of Interpol, the world's largest international police organization headquartered in Lyon, France.

Even if the perpetrators have no previous criminal history in which they were required to submit DNA samples, Boyce said the evidence can still be used once an arrest is made to place the suspects at the scene of the crime.

Boyce, an ABC News contributor, noted that Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the Dec. 4, 2024, fatal shooting in midtown Manhattan of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had no previous criminal record that would have required him to submit his DNA.

But once Mangione was caught, a candy bar wrapper and a water bottle that police collected as evidence allegedly placed Mangione at the crime scene because they contained traces of his DNA, according to prosecutors.

"Once you identify a suspect, it will put him or her right there at the scene," Boyce said.

French police said the Louvre jewel thieves also left behind a stolen truck with a mechanical cherry picker mounted to it that the perpetrators used to reach the second-floor window leading to the Apollo Gallery they targeted.

Also collected as evidence at the crime scene was a blanket, two angle grinders used to cut through the window of the gallery and the display cases inside, a walkie-talkie, gasoline and a blowtorch, as well as the glove and helmet that contained the DNA.

"It's all critical," Boyce said. "Anything you find at a crime scene... that's going to help you in the long run with this case."

He said the stolen truck with the cherry picker mounted to it could turn out to be a key piece of evidence once police determine the location it was taken from.

"The tools they left at the scene, they knew they were going to leave at the scene. So they didn't really care," Boyce said.

Boyce said investigators will likely look for security video in the vicinity of where the truck was taken.

"You do your video searches before the perp gets to the scene," Boyce said. "So, you want to find video showing that cherry picker, where that was, and see if you can develop any evidence from that before they get to the scene, because that's when their guard is down. They think they're not being watched."

Another key piece of video that investigators are closely analyzing is one that law enforcement sources told ABC News was taken from inside the museum by Louvre security and captures two of the thieves exiting the museum on the mobile cherry picker and fleeing on motorbikes with the loot.

Boyce said the other pieces of evidence collected at the scene can also be crucial, particularly if the thieves purchased the items at a store.

"I had cases where the perpetrators went to a Home Depot to buy their tools," Boyce said.

Boyce said the Louvre heist was "audacious and shows you the level of detail they went to."

"They practiced this," Boyce said.

However, Boyce added, "All criminals make mistakes, all of them. And it's up to us, the investigators, to find those mistakes."

https://abcnews.go.com/International/evidence-left-scene-louvre-jewel-heist/story?id=126812677
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PS: Clean job ;-)

Bye, All!
Alexander Koryagin

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To learn English read something interesting

Also: discuss something interesting, and write somethings interesting.

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Hi, Anton! Recently you wrote in a message to Alexander Koryagin:

To learn English read something interesting

Also: discuss something interesting, and write
somethings interesting.

Okay... here's my contribution. Recently I noticed an article by a man from the southwestern corner of Canada who spent a year teaching in Germany. He commented that when he didn't know a particular word in German he'd say it in English, whereupon his students laughed. Then they'd tell him they use the same word but pronounce it a bit differently.

I've had a few similar experiences myself. When a teacher from the Netherlands pronounced the /v/ in "Volkswagen" as an /f/ I thought to myself "Oh
... the people's car". In grade ten I found this insight a revelation.... :-))




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

Hi Ardith,

25.11.2025 3:46:12, Ardith Hinton wrote:

I've had a few similar experiences myself. When a
teacher from the Netherlands pronounced the v in "Volkswagen" as
an f I thought to myself "Oh .. the people's car".

Which particular type have you imagined: passenger railroad car,
station wagon, hippie van, horse-drawn cart? :-)


... "That's not writing; That's typing." - Truman Capote on J. Kerouac
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* Origin: www.wfido.ru (2:5023/24.4222)

Hi, Gleb! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

I've had a few similar experiences myself. When a teacher
from the Netherlands pronounced the v in "Volkswagen" as
an f I thought to myself "Oh .. the people's car".

Excuse me... but in linguistics it's important to use slash lines to indicate the pronunciation. That's what I was trying to do here. As usual, we borrowed the word from another language & pronounced it a bit differently. :-)

Which particular type have you imagined: passenger railroad
car, station wagon, hippie van, horse-drawn cart? :-)

Good question. In those days the Volkswagen was a passenger car made in Germany & designed to be reasonably affordable to people on a limited budget. Later on I saw a whole streetful of them parked in UBC's University Village, but unfortunately we didn't have cell phones with cameras back then.

For those of us whose everyday language came from northern European & Scandinavian sources it's not difficult to put "folks" & "wagon" together. When I was a kid linguistics was not included in the school curriculum, however. :-Q




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

Hi Ardith,

28.11.2025 3:12:21, Ardith Hinton wrote:

Excuse me... but in linguistics it's important to use
slash lines to indicate the pronunciation. That's what I was
trying to do here. As usual, we borrowed the word from another
language & pronounced it a bit differently. :-)

Excuse my news reader, for it does see paired slashes and treats them
as "italics" marks, but when I do quote-reply, the message editor
slashes them slashes... :-) If that makes sense at all.

Which particular type have you imagined: passenger railroad
car, station wagon, hippie van, horse-drawn cart? :-)

Good question. In those days the Volkswagen was a
passenger car made in Germany & designed to be reasonably
affordable to people on a limited budget. Later on I saw a whole streetful of them parked in UBC's University Village, but
unfortunately we didn't have cell phones with cameras back then.

It was a mild attempt to make fun of the "brand name" ambiguity and how
it could be perceived across different languages. For example, in
American English, I believe "wagon" could also bring to one's mind an
image of the "wagon and horse" vehicle, while "folks" might as well
amplify the impression of "rurality". Meanwhile in Russia... "wagon"
conjures up a (passenger/freight) railroad car in the first place, but
isn't directly linked to wheeled vehicles in general; it could even
become a stationary shelter or trailer with its wheels off (e.g. a
small hut for construction workers). In a similar manner, a North
American "station wagon" in no way seems to decode into a Russian
"family car with an extra cargo volume", because "station" again would involuntarily link it to the railways. So... :-)


... "An empty stomach is not a good political advisor." - A.Einstein
--- InterSquish NNTP Server/FTN Gate
* Origin: www.wfido.ru (2:5023/24.4222)

0Hi, Gleb! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

Excuse me... but in linguistics it's important to use
slash lines to indicate the pronunciation. That's
what I was trying to do here. As usual, we borrowed
the word from another language & pronounced it a bit
differently. :-)

Excuse my news reader, for it does see paired slashes
and treats them as "italics" marks, but when I do quote-
reply, the message editor slashes them slashes... :-)
If that makes sense at all.

Yes, it does. I'm not a techie & I've never used a news reader but I have seen some very strange punctuation in other echoes when people are quoting material they found on the Internet. Okay... you're forgiven. :-)

In those days the Volkswagen was a passenger car made in
Germany & designed to be reasonably affordable to people
on a limited budget. Later on I saw a whole streetful of
them parked in UBC's University Village, but unfortunately
we didn't have cell phones with cameras back then.

It was a mild attempt to make fun of the "brand name"
ambiguity and how it could be perceived across different
languages.

Ah. I wasn't sure if you realized "Volkswagen" is a brand name. In grade twelve I attempted to study German by correspondence, and gave up when I was expected to memorize twenty-five prepositions taking three cases in lesson nine. I remember enough of the pronunciation, though, to conclude that what I heard this person say would be what others say in the language of origin. :-)

in American English, I believe "wagon" could also bring to
one's mind an image of the "wagon and horse" vehicle,

It could... but the term is also used to apply to motorized vehicles such as the paddy wagon, the welcome wagon, and as you said the station wagon.

while "folks" might as well amplify the impression
of "rurality".

If the term is qualified by saying "country folk(s)", yes. But where I come from it's also an informal way to say "people in general". That's how I use it. I don't mean to suggest I regard anybody as an ignorant peasant. :-)

Meanwhile in Russia...
"wagon" conjures up a (passenger/freight) railroad car
in the first place, but isn't directly linked to wheeled
vehicles in general; it could even become a stationary
shelter or trailer with its wheels off (e.g. a small hut
for construction workers).

Ah. In English a "wagon" is a wheeled vehicle which may be pulled by one or more animals, such as horses, or by a motor engine of some sort. OTOH I understand people take shelter where they must... and that happens here too. I have also heard of restaurants in this vicinity with similar arrangements. :-)

In a similar manner, a North American "station wagon"
in no way seems to decode into a Russian "family car with
an extra cargo volume", because "station" again would
involuntarily link it to the railways.

For awhile such cars were popular around these parts, especially with "yuppies"... i.e. young upwardly mobile adults. I chuckled when I saw one in a local parking lot with a toddler seat & one of Richard Scarry's books on board. For those who don't know, the author wrote books such as "What Do People Do All Day?" but focused on readily observable tasks such as building roads & bridges. Computer programmers, translators, and editors need not apply until later. :-Q

Where I come from one might speak of a railway station, but "station" is also a term Australians might use to refer to a cattle ranch or a farm where sheep are raised. I'd like to ask Paul Quinn about this. But from what I last heard he's now living with his daughter, who doesn't have a Fidonet connection. Others from Down Under who may be lurking are welcome to participate here. :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)