GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The headlines underscore the oddness of the crime: “Saint’s heart stolen in Dublin” writes the Irish Times. The heart of the city’s patron saint, St Laurence O’Toole, was taken from the metal cage where it has been held for more than seven centuries, in Christ Church Cathedral.
A metal cutter was used, police say, to cut the bars. The crime appears to have taken place between 09:30 and 12:30 Saturday 3 March.
The newspaper says that he was born Lorcán Ua Tuathail in 1128 in County Kildare. He was canonized in 1225 and his heart has been preserved since the 131th century in Christ Church Cathedral.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Two stolen Picasso paintings, Tête de cheval (Head of horse), 1962, and Verre et pichet (Glass and pitcher), painted in 1944, have been recovered in Serbia, Swiss authorities say. The artwork was on loan to a small museum in Pfaffikon, near Zurich, when they were stolen in February 2008. A Swiss prosecutor told broadcaster Schweizer Fernzehen that the artwork is now safe and Switzerland has officially requested their return through the Serbian government.
CHUV in Lausanne
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Chuv university hospitals, which have greatly tightened their financial auditing systems since a neurologist stole nearly CHF5 million to feed his passion for precious books, Wednesday 5 October faced a new theft. A woman who worked in the visceral (internal organs, especially digestive) surgery unit as assistant to the director of the César Roux foundation has been suspended after admitting to taking CHF100,000 to support her gambling habit.
The teaching and research in surgery foundation is not technically part of the university hospitals but is closely linked; since it is not legally part of the Chuv its financial operations are not under the same close scrutiny, a situation the Chuv noted Wednesday it intends to clarify and put in order. The employee had access to documents and had use of a bank card for the foundation, in the name of her boss.
It was only when the professor, her boss, was confronted by the shortfall during an annual audit by a privatr company that the woman was asked to supply receipts corresponding to the amounts she had taken out. She was unable to do so and she then admitted to the crime.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Police in New Jersey in the US have found 11 stolen artworks, including a Picaosso etching, in a Hoboken apartment. The man who has the apartment was already being held in California on $5 million bail after he was charged with stealing ”Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman),” a 1965 pencil drawing by Picasso. The San Francisco Gate reports that the man is accused of stealing the art from several hotels and museums during a three-week spree that ended 6 July.
He is a former sommelier, says the news service, who is also accused of having stolen three bottles of wine in June, worth $6,000.
GENEVA, SWTIZERLAND – Nine men, six from France and three from Switzerland, all drivers for a transport company in Meyrin, were arrested after their boss called in police at 13:00 Wednesday 15 June. He suspected that the men were stealing petrol from the company. Officers checked the cars of two employees leaving the site and found 20 litres of stolen petrol in the back of one and two jerrycans with 25 litres each in the back of another.
The men admitted that the practice has been going on for months and is widespread, but Geneva police have not said what they were doing with the petrol, if it was for personal use or re-sale.
Lausanne police provide images of stolen jewelry to help victims identify missing pieces
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – If you have jewelry that went missing in 2009 or early 2010, you would do well to contact the city of Lausanne, which is working with city police to identify the owners of a spectacular haul of jewels made in February.
Lausanne police seized 900 items of gold jewelry at the time, most of it stolen from homes in the region, including 150 items from Geneva.
The investigation, carried out with Vaud police, that led to the haul took several months, but resulted in the arrest of two thieves and two jewelers who were receiving some of the stolen goods, police say. Several kilos of goods were discovered at a gold foundry in Bienne, where one of the jewelers had sent the items to be melted down.
What to do if you think your missing jewels are part of the haul
Victims who believe their jewels are part of the collection will need to send an e-mail to eurojud@lausanne.ch with the number of the item from the police photo page (see image at left) and contact information.
The police will then get in touch. Alternatively, they can phone Lausanne police at 021 315 4000, from 08:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00.
Links to other sites: 20 Minutes (Fre), Vaud Police
A great view, but not the same for Chaplin without his cane (photo,©2010 Overthemoon on flickr)
Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Charlin Chaplin’s metal statue, on the Lake Geneva shores, is missing its cane! According to Gerard Amoos, Vevey’s public space director, the cane has been missing since early April.
It is not the first time that Charlot‘s cane has been taken from the statue, although in 1989 the cane was found in the Lake Geneva waters.
The cane will be replaced with the original one returned in 1989, according to Amoos.
More casts will be made, just in case.
The unfolding drama of the thriller-style assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, killed 20 January at the al-Bustan hotel in Dubai, leaves a growing number of questions unanswered, and Britain is now joining the investigations. Stephen Lander, the head of Serious Organized Crime Agency (Soca) and former MI5 (British secret service) boss, has been put in charge of looking into the apparent use of British passports by the team of 11 who staged the murder. Austria and France are involved in trying to track the murderers.
It is unclear if passports were forged, stolen, or valid documents. Israeli spy agency Moussad appears to be a strong suspect as the organization behind the killing, but Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday 17 February that there is no proof of this, while not denying that Israel may have been involved. Rafi Eitan, a high-ranking Mossad official, denies any involvement by the group, according to Haaretz.
Confusion over the passports reigns, with Ireland and Britain saying they believed passports for their countries were likely forged. Meanwhile, Haaretz reports that “Men with the same names as seven of the 11 suspects whose European passport photos were distributed by Dubai this week reside in Israel, and those reached by reporters insisted their identities had been stolen and noted the pictures were not a match.
“Six of the men are Britons who immigrated to Israel. The seventh is an American Israeli, whose name Dubai said was on a German passport used by one of the assassins.” The Jerusalem Post says the Israeli immigrants were astonished to find their names on the list of suspects issued by Dubai.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Times, UK and timeline issued by Dubai police on Channel 4 TV, Belfast
Divonne-les-bains, France (GenevaLunch) – A Saturday 11 December carjacking in Divonne, France over the border from Founex, in canton Vaud, Switzerland, is the third in the region since October, according to Dauphine Liberé and 20 Minutes (Fre). The driver left the keys in the ignition while he ran an errand, with his companion sitting in the passenger seat. A man threatened the woman with a gun, then stole the car, an Audi with Swiss plates.
Thirty-three sketches and drawings made by Pablo Picasso from 1917-1924 were stolen from a first-floor unlocked case at the Picasso Museum in Paris, police announced Tuesday 9 June. The sketches are valued at $11 million and are believed to have disappeared between late Monday and early Tuesday. The museum is currently undergoing major renovation work and security is reportedly weak. BBC, afp/Google, Fre
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A Greek statue of a young man from the third century BC was identified by the Swiss Federal Office for Culture as one stolen in Libya in 1981. The statue was brought to the attention of the office by a dealer who suspected it might be stolen, and he handed it over to the Libyan ambassador in Bern after it was identified.
