Sweden: looted the king’s coffin – and escaped by motorboat

The thieves, who broke into Catarella near the Stockholm capital, came out with a trove of two crowns and other valuable objects. The local police asked the public to help locate the suspects, who have not yet been identified.
Two crowns and a decorated ball were stolen Tuesday from the Swedish royal family. The valuables were stolen from a cathedral in Strangance, west of Stockholm. The suspects, who have not yet been identified, were believed to have escaped by motor boat from the scene.

The investigation revealed that the thieves, who had not yet been caught, broke through the glass windows that covered the coffin of King Carl IX and his wife, Queen Christina. They took from them the two crowns and the 17th century ball. They then fled the scene by a motorboat waiting for them a few hundred meters from the cathedral on Lake Malaren, the third largest in the country.

Police tape is pictured at Strangnas Cathedral after thieves stole royal crowns from the 17th century, in Strangnas, Sweden July 31, 2018. Picture taken July 31, 2018. TT News Agency/Pontus Stenberg/via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. SWEDEN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SWEDEN.As mentioned, to date no suspects have been caught or found. The local police published the theft to prevent the trade in these jewelry, as part of the effort to return valuables to the royal family. “We are asking the public to help locate the stolen details by distributing the information and the pictures,” police spokesman Thomas Agniyak said.

Carl IX of Sweden, died in 1611, and his wife, Queen Christina, in 1625. The items belonging to the royal family and stolen from their coffin in the cathedral are worth a lot of money, and according to the police it will be very difficult to sell them. “We have great hopes to bring them back,” the spokesman added.