Criminals in Germany stole 483 Celtic gold coins along with a lump of gold in a heist that took only nine minutes, according to police.
The thieves stole $1.65 million worth of treasures from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, Germany, on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
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The thieves pried the door open at 1:26 a.m., smashed a cabinet display, stole the goods, and left by 1:35 a.m. without tripping any alarms, authorities said. The deputy head of Bavaria’s State Criminal Police Office said communications networks in the region were cut at about 1:17 a.m., allowing the heist to go off smoothly.
“It’s clear that you don’t simply march into a museum and take this treasure with you,” Markus Blume, minister of science and arts for Bavaria, told public broadcaster BR. “It’s highly secured and as such there’s a suspicion that we’re rather dealing with a case of organized crime.”
Officials worry the coins may be melted down and sold away because of how recognizable they are.
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Interpol and Europol are working on finding the criminals, with the code name “Oppidum” being used for the 20-person investigative team searching for the stolen goods.
