How thieves stole Celtic gold coins worth US$1.65 million in 9 minutes from German museum
- Thieves broke into the unguarded Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching and made off with 483 Celtic coins after disrupting communications networks in the area
- Police have launched a global hunt to track down the culprits who smashed open a display cabinet and scooped out the treasure
Thieves who broke into a southern German museum and stole hundreds of ancient gold coins got in and out in nine minutes without raising the alarm, officials said on Wednesday, in a further sign that the heist was the work of organised criminals.
Police have launched an international hunt for the thieves and their loot, consisting of 483 Celtic coins and a lump of unworked gold that were discovered during an archaeological dig near the present-day town of Manching in 1999.
Guido Limmer, the deputy head of Bavaria’s State Criminal Police Office, described how at 1.17am (local time) on Tuesday cables were cut at a telecoms hub about 1km from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, knocking out communications networks in the region.
Security systems at the museum recorded that a door was pried open at 1.26am and then how the thieves left again at 1.35am, Limmer said. It was in those nine minutes that the culprits must have smashed open a display cabinet and scooped out the treasure.
