2LT International News

BERLIN, Germany – In a daring Hollywood-style heist, a huge gold coin, made of 100 kgs of pure 24-carat gold was stolen from the Bode Museum in Germany.

On Wednesday, German news agency DPA claimed that the suspected robbers are believed to have used a ladder to get into the Bode museum and a wheelbarrow to carry the 53 cm coin.

They then carted it out of the building and along the tracks across the Spree River before descending into a park on a rope and fleeing in a getaway car.

Hundreds of heavily-armed German special police raided houses, made arrests in several buildings in Berlin after the audacious night-time heist and seized a car in the district of Neukoelln and found a balaclava and knife.

They said that four suspects, all related to each other and aged between 18 and 20 were arrested and another nine people are being questioned in the case.

The police last week released CCTV footage of suspects at a local train station asking the public for help in finding the thieves.

Carsten Pfohl of the Berlin state criminal office told reporters at a press conference, “We assume that the coin was partially or completely sold.”

He added that police also confiscated clothes and cars to comb for traces of gold.

Police are also said to have searched a jewellery store in the Berlin neighbourhood and said they had indications the store may have been involved in the possible sale of the gold.

Police also revealed that the thieves were most likely tipped off to the existence of the enormous coin by an acquaintance who worked at the museum as a guard.

According to reports, the Canadian ‘Big Maple Leaf’ is made of 100 kg of gold and is worth about $4.2 million, despite a lower nominal face value.

Since March, when the heist took place, the coin has not been found and investigators believe it may have been melted down and sold.

The investigators have no answers on how the thieves broke the bullet-proof glass inside the building and evaded burglar alarms.

According to sources, the suspects come from a “large Arab family” with alleged links to organised crime.

The Big Maple Leaf coin, which was minted by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007 was certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest gold coin. Five such coins were made with each being 3 cm thick, 53 cm in diameter, and with the likeness of Queen Elizabeth II on one side, as Canada’s head of state.

It is named so because one of the sides of the coin shows the Canadian national symbol, the maple leaf.

The coin was reportedly held in a coin cabinet at the Bode Museum and was one of more than 540,000 objects in the cabinet, but reports noted that during the heist, only the ‘Big Maple Leaf’ was stolen.

The coin was reportedly on loan from a private, unidentified person.