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German police: Thieves stole huge gold coin with wheelbarrow

Posted at 12:07 PM, Mar 28, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-28 12:07:17-04

BERLIN (AP) — Berlin police say suspects used a wheelbarrow to make off with a 100-kilogram (221-pound) gold coin worth millions.

Police said Tuesday at least two burglars broke into the Bode Museum early Monday morning using a ladder to climb up to a window from elevated railway tracks running alongside the building.

The thieves grabbed the “Big Maple Leaf” coin, on loan to the museum’s coin collection, loaded it onto the wheelbarrow, 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.

Police say the three-centimeter (1.2-inch) thick coin, with a diameter of 53 centimeters (20.9 inches) and worth some $4.5 million for the gold alone, was likely damaged in the theft.