Berlin police say thieves broke into the German capital’s Bode Museum and made off with a massive 100-kilogram (221-pound) gold coin worth millions.
Spokesman Stefen Petersen said thieves apparently entered through a window about 3:30 a.m. Monday, broke into a cabinet where the “Big Maple Leaf” coin was kept, and escaped with it before police arrived.
A ladder was found by nearby railway tracks.
The three-centimeter (1.18-inch) thick coin, with a diameter of 53 centimeters (20.9 inches), has a face value of $1 million. By weight alone, however, it would be worth almost $4.5 million at market prices.
The museum says the coin is in the Guinness Book of Records for its purity of 999.99/1000 gold. It has a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on one side and maple leaves on the other.
(AP)
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4 Responses
Wow, bad news. I guess they could find the thieves, but if they don’t, then melting and selling the gold would probably be fairly easy for these guys. Wow.
If you melt gold there’s no way to track it
What goes around, comes around
The gold coin was probably stolen from jews to begin with
It was found in a parking meter on Coney Island Avenue.