A German company that designed the furniture lift used by thieves to escape the Louvre after a multi-million pound heist, has released a tongue-in-cheek advert.
The gang dressed as construction workers to enter the Galerie d’Apollon and steal eight pieces of jewellery worth £76 million this week. The daring seven-minute theft took place in broad daylight and while the building was open to visitors.
Footage posted online showed two masked men, one wearing a high-vis jacket and the other a motorbike jacket, sliding down from the glass museum in painful slow-motion using a 90ft high basket lift mounted on a truck. The pair later fled the scene on motorbikes.
The group had scaled the iconic Parisian museum using an extendable ladder on a lorry and broke its windows using small chainsaws.
The clip has been the subject of mockery and ridicule online, prompting Germany company Bocker to make the most of the publicity and release a new advert showcasing the Agilo furniture lift.
Pictures posted on social media pages for the company across Facebook, Instagram and X/Twitter show the contraption with the vehicle’s ladder propped against a building. A caption in German, later translated to English, reads: “If you’re in a hurry’.
It boasts that the lift can hold "up to 400kg of treasures at 42m per minute - as quiet as a whisper".
"We were shocked that our lift had been completely misused for this robbery, as it is not approved for transporting people," CEO Alexander Bocker told Sky News. "And certainly not intended for burglaries.”
Bocker and and his wife, marketing manager Julia Scharwatz, only discovered their product had been used after footage went viral on Sunday.
"Once the initial shock had subsided and it was clear that no one had been injured, black humour took over,” said Bocker.
“We brainstormed a bit and played slogan ping pong. My wife finalised it with her marketing team on Monday morning.”
The hunt for the suspects continues as French investigators analyse more than 150 DNA samples and fingerprints and other traces on items found at the scene. They include tools and safety gear left behind by the thieves.
Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said she still held “a small hope” that the jewels could be recovered and remains “optimistic”. She hoped that previous criminal records could narrow down the search.
Other clues which the thieves left behind, include a petrol container, scooter helmet, blowtorch, walkie-talkie, yellow vest and a blanket are all being looked into.
The Louvre reopened to the public on Wednesday with increased security presence.
