No One Knows How Thieves Snatched Giant 220lb Gold Coin From German Museum

Compared to most criminals, people who steal from museums have it easy. They get to steal paintings, jewelry, and historical artifacts; which are often small and have a subjective price that ranges between thousands and millions of dollars. And unlike bank robbers and home invaders, they typically don’t have to deal with anyone who’s armed. All things considered, it’s probably a pretty sweet gig.

However, it appears that several thieves in Germany decided to give themselves a challenge. Under the cover of darkness, they snuck into the Bode Museum in Berlin on Monday morning, and walked away with a gold coin. But this wasn’t an ordinary gold coin. It was the “Big Maple Leaf” issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007 for Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Germany. It has a diameter of 20.9 inches, is made of 24k solid gold, and weighs 220 lbs. Though it has a face value of $1 million, the gold content makes it worth more than $4 million. The coin was entered into the Guinness Book of Records because of its purity, which is 999.99/1000.

Given its weight, police are confident that more than one perpetrator was involved in the heist. Police spokesman Winfrid Wenzel said that “Based on the information we have so far we believe that the thief, maybe thieves, broke open a window in the back of the museum next to the railway tracks. They then managed to enter the building and went to the coin exhibition.” A ladder was found not too far from the railroad tracks.

If a ladder was needed to get in and out of the building, it has to make you wonder. How do you carry a 220 pound coin up a ladder? That’s why the authorities can’t seem to figure out how the thieves evaded the building’s alarm system, or how they carried the massive coin out of the building.