Eideard

Dawn and Roland back in the day…

Five years after their disappearance, jewels thought stolen from the wife of the US ambassador to the Netherlands in 2006 have been found in the Hague.

Dawn Arnall realised her $9.3 million in gems were missing months after staying in a Dutch hotel.

Unknown to her, the jewellery had been found and was held for safekeeping by the hotel, AFP reports, before being given to an employee as unclaimed. The employee, assuming the items were costume jewellery, forgot about them.

Only after she recently found them in a drawer and took them to a jeweller for valuation did their true worth emerge. They were then handed in to police and have since been returned to the US.

Mrs Arnall, whose husband Roland was the US ambassador to the country prior to his death in 2008, had received an insurance payout for her loss.

No one knows if the honest employee who turned in the jewels – has received a reward.

Shall we reflect for a minute or two upon the class of political hacks who are rewarded for their fundraising tasks by appointment to Holland or somewhere else [is there a sliding scale?] as a reward. People so fracking rich it takes them months to notice they mislaid $9 million worth of jewelry!

A cache of Los Angeles Police Department submachine guns and handguns was stolen last week from a secured building used by the department’s SWAT unit, raising fears that the weapons, which police had altered to fire only blanks, could be converted back to lethal use, police officials confirmed…

Members of the SWAT unit, which specializes in hostage rescues and other high-risk situations, were scheduled to train at the facility Thursday, Downing said. A police officer arriving at the building around 9 a.m. Thursday discovered the weapons were missing, according to Downing. The officer also found electrical equipment stacked near a back door, indicating the burglars may still have been working and fled when the officer arrived.

Downing said the building, although not a guarded LAPD facility, was considered secure. To get to the weapons, the thieves cut through bolt locks on an outside door and two internal doors and forced their way through a metal roll gate, he said.

“I guess ‘secure’ is all relative now,” he said. “It’s embarrassing…. It’s a lesson learned…”

The building, which once housed textile companies, was donated to the department. Inside, the department put up walls and made other changes in order to create realistic scenarios for training exercises. They did not install an alarm system or surveillance cameras…

The obvious concern is that whoever stole the weapons will convert them from firing blanks to using live ammunition. Downing acknowledged that was “definitely a possibility” but said that to do so would require an understanding of the inner workings of the weapons.

Gun experts and online tutorials suggest, however, that the process is relatively simple and requires only a few parts. The company that manufactures the conversion kits used by the LAPD has an instructional video on its website that walks a viewer through the steps of returning an MP-5 to its original form in about five minutes.

Har. There’s a certain level of being “important” which conveys to some a conviction that they are untouchable. Who would dare to challenge their superior status not only in the community at large; but, among police officers.

So, you get careless.

Wow – we could sell these to FEMA

The French army top-brass were left red-faced when after a mobile command post worth 600,000 euros complete with military computers, was stolen…

The modular command post system, which resembles a cargo container, was discovered during the search of a warehouse in Bobigny, northeast of Paris, that had been rented by a man suspected of fraud…

The army noticed the command post was missing from its Montlhery barracks south of Paris during an inventory on July 18. Investigators suspect someone inside the barracks of involvement with the theft as the command unit can only be moved by a flatbed truck.

The Le Parisien newspaper reported the command post was supposed to have been sent to the Ivory Coast, where former colonial ruler France has a large military presence supporting a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

A 46-year-old Ivorian national and another suspect have been arrested and another two other suspects are being investigated, the local magistrate said.

Heartwarming to learn that military services outside the United States have traditions comparable to Sergeant Bilko. And it’s just as easy to steal from the French Army as it is from Uncle Sugar.

A group of Franciscan monks furious at the theft of bibles from their church in Florence have taken the unusual step of praying for the thief to be struck down by diarrhoea.

Monks at the 15th century church of San Salvatore al Monte, which was a favourite of Michelangelo, were irritated when a rare and expensive bible disappeared from the lectern, and they flew off the handle when a replacement bible donated by a worshipper also went missing and within a few hours.

In a note, pinned up in full view of worshippers, the monks say they hope the thief sees the error of his ways. But in case he does not, they add: “We pray to God that the thief is struck by a strong bout of the shits.”

This turn of events will, they hope, “encourage him to carry out no further thefts“.

Not your usual biblical punishment; but, it’s the thought that counts, eh?

A thousand-year-old religious manuscript which was looted in Italy during the Second World War has been returned by the British Library to its rightful owners in the southern Italian town of Benevento after a decade-long legal battle.

A British lawyer who acted for the archdiocese of Benevento, handed back the manuscript personally. The codex was written on parchment around 1100.

“The return of the missal had become highly symbolic for Benevento and its cathedral, so they were absolutely delighted to have it back,” Mr Scott said…

The early 12th century liturgical book is the first item to be returned by a British institution since the UK adopted a law regarding the looting of cultural treasures during the Nazi era, from Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in 1933 to the end of the war in 1945…

It is assumed to have been looted, but it is not known whether it was stolen by a German soldier, a member of the Allied armies or an Italian soldier or civilian.

It turned up in a second-hand book shop in Naples in early 1944, where it was bought by a British officer, Capt Douglas Ash of the Intelligence Corps, who was told by the owner of the shop that it was “molto antico” – very old.

On his return home he offered it for sale at Sotheby’s. It was bought by the British Museum for £420, before being transferred to the British Library in 1973.

The archdiocese of Benevento asked for it to be returned a decade ago, but the British Library refused the request.

Don’t you love how upright and prestigious institutions have no problem whatsoever keeping hold of stolen goods? Often, the rationale is some sort of elitist defense – “you ordinary folk wouldn’t know what to do with it if you had it back!”

I don’t know if that’s the case with this manuscript; but, hey – the British Library has known it was misbegotten for a decade. How long do you need to make up your mind about honesty?

Police said she thought it demanded their involvement because she had used pound coins for the eyes and teaspoons for the arms.

The woman, from Chatham, Kent, has been ”spoken to” by officers to advise her about what constitutes a real emergency.

Kent Police issued a transcript of the ”completely irresponsible” call which they received overnight as they fielded thousands of calls from people because of the sub-zero conditions.

In the call, the woman tells the operator: ”There’s been a theft from outside my house.

”I haven’t been out to check on him for five hours but I went outside for a fag and he’s gone.”

The operator asks ”Who’s gone?” and the woman replies: ”My snowman…

The incredulous operator asks her: ”Do you mean an ornament?” The woman replies: ”No, a snowman made of snow, I made him myself.

”It ain’t a nice road but you don’t expect anybody to nick your snowman…’

Chief Inspector Simon Black, from Kent Police’s force contact and control centre, said…”We have spoken to her and advised her what is a 999 call, and this clearly was not.”

Har!

Having recently had surgery, the professor could not be bothered to drop off his backpack in his apartment before first going to the laundry room. He instead left the bag behind a door in the stairwell, thinking it would be safe for a few minutes.

But when he returned a short time later, the bag was missing, along with the computer, keys, calendar and other documents inside.

The professor was most upset by the loss of his calendar. “It is my life. I have documented everything in it that has happened in the last 10 years and beyond,” he told the newspaper…

But when he went down to the stairwell a short time later, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“The backpack was there again. With all the papers, calendar and credit cards. It was just the computer that was missing,” he explained…Resigned to having lost his computer, the professor was nevertheless happy to have the rest of his belongings back.

But the considerate thief had yet one more surprise in store. About a week after the theft, the professor returned home to find an envelope containing a USB memory stick which had been taken along with the computer.

The professor was shocked to discover the thief had copied all the documents and personal files from his laptop to the memory storage device…

Besides the computer, the only other item that has not yet been returned is the professor’s library card.

Maybe the thief will pay any outstanding late fees at the library?

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

German beekeepers have begun installing satellite tracking systems in their hives as thefts of entire honeybee colonies are reported across the country.

Beehive banditry has now outstripped robberies of colour televisions and cars in some rural regions as bee populations have gone into sharp decline and the value of the honey producing insects has soared.

Gaede & Glauerdt, a Hamburg-based insurer specialising in apiculture, reported over 300 hive thefts last year, an 85 per cent increase.

This year’s long and harsh winter in Germany has decimated 30 per cent of colonies, making honeybees even more expensive and attractive to thieves. Germany’s Apicultural State Institute in Stuttgart has itself had 72 bee colonies stolen over the past few years.

A few weeks ago, the institute caught a 71-year-old apiarist from Baden-Wurttemberg in the act of bee burglary after installing hidden CCTV cameras in its hives.

Other beekeepers have fitted their hives with GPS devices to track bee bandits and to deter would be thieves.

Specialised hive theft has also become a problem in Japan following a similar decline in bee populations.

Last month, the Japanese Beekeeper and Honeybee Association warned its 2,000 members to be constantly on their guard against thieves after the theft of hundreds of thousands of insects.

So, if someone offers you a deal on bees, be certain you’re not buying stolen bees.

The Nazi gang that ordered the theft of the infamous ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign from the gates of Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland planned to sell it to fund violent attacks against the Swedish Prime Minister and Parliament, it was claimed today.

A spokesman for the Swedish security police confirmed that the authorities were taking seriously a threat by a militant Nazi group to disrupt national elections next year.

“We are aware of the information about the alleged attack plans,” said Patrik Peter, the security police spokesman. “We have taken actions. We view this seriously…”

Allegations concerning who ordered the theft, and why, have surfaced today in Swedish newspaper reports after the former leader of a Swedish Nazi group claimed that it had been stolen to order for a collector in England, France or the United States…

The Nazi source said that the money would pay for an attack on the home of Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish Prime Minister who has held the rotating presidency of the European Union for the last six months, and on the Swedish Foreign Ministry, the paper reported.

A third attack allegedly involved plans to bombard Swedish MPs from the public seats of the parliament…

The source allegedly said that five men were to be paid for carrying out the theft. He reportedly insisted that he personally was not guilty of any crime as the deal had not been completed.

I admit I’m surprised. Not about the theft being engineered for sale to a collector. There is no shortage of people with too much money who drape their pitiful egos with art and history.

OTOH – these klowns may just be the Swedish cousins of Michelle Bachman seeking backers for a run at fuehrer.

Thieves have stolen the infamous sign at the entrance of Poland’s Nazi-era concentration camp, Auschwitz, … police and museum staff reported Friday.

“The inscription was stolen early this morning,” museum spokesman Jaroslaw Mensfeld told AFP.

“It’s a profanation of the place where more than a million people were murdered. It’s shameful,” he added.

Whoever did it must have known what he was stealing and how to do it, he added.

The forged iron inscription was not hard to unhook from above the large gates at the entrance, “but you needed to know how,” he said.

Frackin unbelievable.

I have a feeling we’ll all know soon.

UPDATE: Police in Poland have arrested 3 young men who had the sign – cut into pieces – in their possession. No details, yet.

UPDATE: Swedish police have at least one Nazi terrorist in custody.