London: A gang of thieves in the UK carried out a Mission Impossible-style heist in which they abseiled into a warehouse and stole rare antique books worth nearly 2 million pounds. The gang of three thieves targeted the warehouse in Heathrow and made off with more than 160 publications dating back to the 15th century.
The gang are reported to have climbed on to the building's roof and bored holes through the reinforced glass-fibre skylights before rappelling down 40 feet of rope "like commandos", somehow avoiding sophisticated motion sensor alarms.
Scotland Yard confirmed that "a number of valuable books" were stolen during the burglary in Feltham between January 29- 30.
Alessandro Meda Riquier told Sky News, 51 of his books were being stored in the building near Heathrow Airport before they were due to be flown to an event in California.
"I'm very upset because this is not something you can buy everywhere. Behind these books there is a lot of work because we have to search to try to find out where the books are - auction houses, collectors, colleagues - and there's big research behind these books," he said.
Reports said the selected books were put in holdalls and pulled up to the roof with ropes before being lowered down to a waiting van where they were driven away.
There is speculation the raid was done to order because the titles would be impossible to sell to a reputable dealer or auction house.
The gang are reported to have climbed on to the building's roof and bored holes through the reinforced glass-fibre skylights before rappelling down 40 feet of rope "like commandos", somehow avoiding sophisticated motion sensor alarms.
Scotland Yard confirmed that "a number of valuable books" were stolen during the burglary in Feltham between January 29- 30.
"I'm very upset because this is not something you can buy everywhere. Behind these books there is a lot of work because we have to search to try to find out where the books are - auction houses, collectors, colleagues - and there's big research behind these books," he said.
Advertisement
There is speculation the raid was done to order because the titles would be impossible to sell to a reputable dealer or auction house.
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
Man Dies After Falling From Pulpit Rock, The Cliff Featured In 'Mission Impossible' Oscars 2024: From Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer to Emma Stone Starrer Poor Things, the Full List of Winners On Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible Showreel, Co-Star Anil Kapoor Left This Comment Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down Bangladesh Imposes Curfew, Deploys Military As 105 Die In Protests Tesla Halted Some Production Lines Due To Global IT Outage: Report SpiceJet Says Services Up Again After "Resolution" Of Microsoft Outage Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.