€30,000 watch stolen at Monte-Carlo Bay pool
Monaco has a whole host of places to visit free of charge - © Monaco Tribune
The thief, a Romanian national in his thirties, was convicted several years after the crime.
Take care of your personal belongings on beaches and beside swimming pools… it can happen to anyone, including guests at Monaco’s most prestigious hotels. As evidenced by the case heard on Tuesday 6 June at the Monaco Criminal Court. Since both parties were absent from the hearing, the President of the court read out the facts from the case file:
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“The CCTV cameras show a man entering the Larvotto establishment on foot, passing the future victim, whose watch was still on his wrist, and even chatting with him. The hotel guest then headed to the outdoor swimming pool. He placed a small bag, in which he had carefully put his watch, under his towel. He hadn’t figured on the slyness of the man he had just bumped into, who, taking advantage of a moment’s distraction on the part of the victim, went over to the deckchair and stole the valuable item.”
The culprit was not identified when the events took place, in 2016. It was not until two years later that the victim received a tip that his watch was being repaired in Vienna (Austria). The possessor said he had bought it from a man in Romania and, thanks to an Interpol photo shared with the Monegasque authorities, a man was arrested. The man claimed to have bought the watch on a sort of “Romanian ebay” for €1,000, believing it to be a fake. In any event, he denied being behind the theft.
A custodial sentence requested
“It was a very complex investigation,” said the Public Prosecutor, “because the gentleman used his wife’s papers for his subterfuge. She admitted that the culprit “could have been him.” May I remind the Court that at the time he was an unemployed drug addict. Also, although he swore he had never been to Monaco, plane tickets for Nice in his name match the timing of the theft. I don’t believe his story, and besides, no one puts stolen objects up for sale straight away. I request eight months’ imprisonment.”
The court disagreed with the public prosecutor, downgrading the offence from “theft” to “handling stolen goods” and sentencing the man to a six-month suspended prison sentence. During the hearing it was also revealed that the watch had still not been returned to its owner.