In Barcelona, a man was walking with his family in the Old Town when a thief approached him violently and grabbed his watch. He claimed it was a Hublot, worth 800,000 euros!
In the summer months, as people opt for more airy and revealing clothes, jewelry is on display. On the street corners of Paris, Barcelona, London, Madrid, Rome there are thieves waiting alone or in groups, on foot or on motorbikes.
Jewelry theft has been “democratized” in Europe, writes “El Pais” in an article. Once the work of careful…thieves, it is now carried out by common criminals. Last year, on the island of Ibiza, these criminals broke a record: They stole a watch worth 1.2 million euros! A private security company managed to recover it.
In Barcelona, a man was walking with his family in the Old Town when a thief approached him violently and grabbed his watch. He claimed it was a Hublot worth €800,000, although police found it was actually worth around €43,000.
The young thieves are usually recruited by international networks, which have the stolen watches for sale in the Asian market. Watch thieves get a good percentage of the profits, although it is meager compared to what the end sellers earn.
Police sources explain that, a decade ago, most watch thefts were committed by Italian or South American “experts”, usually via motorbike. Now, crime is more rampant. Watches account for more than 4% of violent robberies in Barcelona, in the Catalonia region of northeastern Spain. To combat it, the Catalan police created a unit that examines the criminal structures behind each hit, to better recover property and achieve judicial convictions.
“Until a few years ago, these incidents were treated as isolated events… but now there is a more organized approach“, according to the authorities. The gang operates in luxury tourism areas such as Portals Nous in Calvià or Jaime III in Palma. In 90% of cases, the victims are foreigners. Complaints accumulate between May and October.
One of the most notorious robberies was that of a watch worth 1.2 million euros taken from a young tourist from Azerbaijan last June in Ibiza. It was a 50-03 McLaren F1 by Richard Mille, one of only 75 produced worldwide. A private security company managed to recover it. Neapolitan gangs now recruit common thieves. Most are young men of North African origin, unrelated to each other, who sometimes resort to violence. In winter they go to the Canary Islands to commit crimes, taking advantage of the good weather and tourism, according to the National Police.
Four operations have ended in recent months with eight people arrested – seven of whom are still in jail – for stealing watches worth almost half a million euros. The wealthy districts of Salamanca, Chamartín and Chamberí were their hunting grounds.
In Paris, street theft of watches began to skyrocket a decade ago and, in recent years, “has become democratized”, as the newspaper “Le Parisien” explains, citing police sources.
In the beginning, “Le Parisien” recounts, there were gangs of Neapolitans or Algerians, professional thieves with the ability to steal watches with minimal violence and with a deep knowledge of the market. But now, a new generation has been added, consisting of suburban youth, petty criminals with superficial knowledge of the field. These more ferocious thieves target Rolexes worth around €15,000, which they immediately resell, according to the French press. Thefts of luxury watches in Paris have increased by 31% since the beginning of 2022, according to data published by the “Journal du dimanche”.
After Jack the Ripper, in London the most recent case is that of the Rolex Rippers. It’s about a gang of young women, speaking English with a soft Eastern European accent, who approach older men. As soon as they see an elderly gentleman driving an expensive car or exiting a gourmet supermarket, they look at his wrist, looking for a coveted luxury watch. They pretend to be engaged in some kind of research or collection, which allows them to approach men without suspicion.
These ladies operate in the wealthiest parts of England: Dorset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Surrey or Sussex. So far this year, according to police, they have carried out more than 60 hits. Some are talking about just a few women, but authorities suspect there are more, part of a criminal organization similar to those operating in other parts of Europe. It is estimated that in 2011 alone their loot exceeded 600,000 euros.
The value of a stolen watch – in good condition – is reduced by 30% in value when resold on the black market. The pieces are bought mainly by Neapolitan bootleggers with contacts in East Asian markets, mainly China and Hong Kong. Russia is also a big buyer. Before the sale, a specialist broker examines the watch and takes care of the shipment. After the pandemic, however, the refinement of this process has collapsed. The experts are now competing with a new generation of thieves, who have increased the level of violence in their robberies.
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