TRENDING Trial begins for Berlin's $1 million-worth gold coin heist

TRENDING

Trial begins for Berlin's $1 million-worth gold coin heist

People's Daily app

23:34, January 11, 2019

Four men went on trial Thursday over the theft of this enormous gold coin - the size of a manhole cover - from a German museum. What authorities say was a heist using a ladder and a wheelbarrow.

The so-called Canadian "Big Maple Leaf" coin has a face value of $1 million, but is thought to be worth four times that, and weighs in at a whopping 220 pounds - one of six produced by the Royal Canadian Mint.

Authorities say three of the suspects broke in through an upstairs window, using the ladder, wheelbarrow, and rope to extract the coin from a bullet-proof glass cabinet.

It was an inside job, they say, the fourth man was a museum security guard.

The coin is believed to have been melted down. The suspects were not identified under German law because they were under the age of 21 at the time of the crime, but it is known that three of them are related. It is thought they could serve up to three years and 10 months of jail time. 

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