The stranger-than-fiction confessions of Kim Kardashian’s diamond thief
A shocking celebrity robbery has spawned a criminally bad tell-all book by one of the culprits. But how believable is it?
At 2:30 am on October 3, 2016, Yunis Abbas, a 63-year-old French-Algerian, made his way to Paris’s Hotel de Pourtalès to rob one of the richest women in the world:
Kim Kardashian.
Along with four other men in their sixties and seventies, all dressed as a policeman and wheeling pushbikes, the elderly conspirators allegedly cased the joint beforehand, entered Kim Kardashian’s rented apartment and held her at gunpoint. They zip-tied her hands and ankles, dumped her in the bathtub and promptly made off with £7 million worth of jewellery and two mobile phones.”
It was a shocking crime, reportedly set in motion after the reality star marked her Paris arrival with Instagram photo featuring a £3.5m diamond ring. But a new book - written by Abbas, who is currently awaiting trial - reveals just how madcap their audacious plot was. I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian, his recollection of the biggest robbery of an individual in France in two decades, is by turns bizarre and fascinating; it could easily inspire the script for a Hollywood action comedy. Think Taxi meets Heat.
To wit:
in the book, published today, Abbas describes how within moments of cycling off with his loot he got a flat tyre, catapulting him (and his goods) over the handlebars and onto a Paris pavement. A €30,000 pendant was left behind in the fracas; then a phone rang - Kim’s, with an incoming call from singer Tracey Chapman. Abbas tossed it into the Canal de l’Ourcq and sped home to face his wife, Farida, prone to chiding him for late returns.
Abbas, now 67, and his four accomplices, who were arrested in January 2017, are all awaiting trial, but he plans to plead guilty to all charges against him.
His book was written, as he says, to set the record straight, frustrated by his portrayal as “a very uninviting character… It’s sad really”.
Abbas claims to have been recruited by a longtime criminal mastermind nicknamed Le Pince (Aomar Ait Khedache) when Kardashian was just "the wife of an American rapper", who would be in possession of a $4 million engagement ring, Kanye’s €40,000 Rolex, plus jewellery loaned by haute couture houses she had visited while in Paris for Fashion Week.
According to the book, Le Pince's 'granny and grandpa spies’ allegedly conducted multiple reconnaissance missions on Hotel de Pourtalès, where they found little security and the communal door - as is common in Parisian buildings with courtyards - was left open around the clock. (Khedache, who has previously admitted to involvement in the robbery but denies being the ringleader, is awaiting trial.)
As for the security cameras, they were found to be mostly a deterrent - after all, this is where the high-fliers like Prince, Madonna and Leonardo DiCaprio had stayed to ensure their privacy.
That night, a network of sources, including a brother of the owner car rental enterprise used by the Kardashian-Wests, fed the gang live updates on their movements and, at 2am, it was clear that Kardashian was alone.
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A concierge, on hearing banging at the door and cries of ‘Police!’, let the gang in and, claims Abbas, asked “Is it about the cocaine, gentlemen?” He was promptly tied up, and Kardashian sought out.
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During his attempts to lie low and avoid capture Abbas began "researching" his victim - by binge watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
BBM
