I kidnapped Kim Kardashian: one of the thieves who stole almost USD 11 million from the American star told details of that night in Paris

The American star Kim Kardashian suffered in 2016, during the Paris Fashion Week, a robbery valued at almost 11 million dollars. It was considered the coup of the century and one of its authors, Yunice Abbas, has just published a book with her version of the bizarre robbery. "J'ai sequestré Kim Kardashian" (I kidnapped Kim Kardashian) is not a story that whitewashes the facts. Abbas accepts them and is even pleased that everything happened “very well and very quickly. Between arrival and departure not even ten minutes passed, ”she says in an interview with EFE.

He, who is 67 years old, has two children and three grandchildren, did not know the potential victim. He only knew that she was a famous woman, and as for the next day he was aware of the national and international media echo, he instantly regretted it. “I told myself: We are finished because they are going to put all the means. Every street camera, every possible witness”, points out who, after having already spent 22 months in detention in this case, until October 2018, is now on provisional release awaiting trial. 

The robbery, which went down in history as the largest robbery of an individual in France in the last two decades, went around the world. Most of the pieces were never found: police have only recovered a diamond-encrusted cross that Abbas dropped as he left the scene on a bicycle.

His group was known as "the yayos band" because its five members were between 60 and 72 years old. But behind those grandparents there were people with a criminal past who planned their hit for weeks, taking advantage of the invisibility that their nondescript appearance gave them when examining the future scene of the events.

Kardashian and part of his entourage were in the French capital to attend the Fashion Week shows, and on the day of the heist, the night of October 3, the stars aligned for Abbas and the other accomplices. The star's bodyguard, one of her sisters and the limousine driver had gone to a nightclub, and her mother was resting at the hotel. She stayed in the rented apartment accompanied by her secretary. 

“What interested us was his diamond. That was what attracted us. I had pictures with him everywhere,” says Abbas about that engagement ring with rapper Kanye West. The surprise came when they also found jewelry borrowed from luxury houses.

A ROBBERY WITHOUT VIOLENCE

Wearing fake police jackets, they entered his residence. The author of “J’ai séquestré Kim Kardashian” took care of the concierge. He handcuffed him and the rest of the group took him to the apartment to use him as a translator because he spoke English.

Abbas never got to meet the quintessential reality TV queen, with 203 million followers on Instagram. But, according to his own version, the robbery itself was manual. “There was no need to threaten. She collaborated. In general, it is always like that. There is no reason to resist, it would be silly”, adds this Frenchman of Algerian origin and resident on the outskirts of Paris.

Kardashian was also handcuffed and although her secretary hid in the bathroom and called the police, the gang was in luck again: she dialed 911, the American emergency number, and not the French 112, which gave them enough time to take the jewels and flee, by bike and also on foot.

Rapper Kayne West's wife later told police that the men, at least one of whom was wearing a jacket with police insignia, tied her up with plastic cables and duct tape and lowered her into the empty bathtub. “Everything went quickly, maybe five, six, seven minutes, from the entrance to the exit, because everything went smoothly. No one interfered, the victim handed over the jewels without putting up any resistance,”

Abbas, who in total has spent nearly 21 years in prison due to other robberies in the past, was betrayed by DNA traces that, despite having put on two gloves, were left on the rope with which he tied the janitor. His accomplices were also located and the trial in the Criminal Court for robbery in an organized gang and kidnapping, which will put 12 suspects on the bench, has at least one year left.

Abbas, who signed up for that robbery because he needed money to get a place to work as a mechanic, says he received only 70,000 euros (almost $84,270) of the loot and is so clear about his chances of going back to prison that he will go. to the audience with a backpack prepared for it.

It is unlikely that he would meet Kardashian in person, but if he did, he would apologize. “If he doesn't want to or can't, it's within his rights. I'm sorry, but I can't do more, I can't go back."