US GP spectators appear in court following brazen watch thefts

Michelle Foster
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Richard Mille watch and US flag

Richard Mille watches were stolen at the United States GP

A group of alleged thieves targeting high-end watches at the United States Grand Prix was arrested after an earlier victim spotted the woman involved pulling off the same stunt she used to rob him a day earlier.

Richard Mille watches appear to be a favourite, not only amongst the Formula 1 drivers but also the spectators at grands prix, and the thieves coveting them.

F1 thieves and Richard Mille: All you need to know

⦁ Group of Richard Milles watch thieves in court over US GP thefts
⦁ Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were all robbed of their watches in past incidents
⦁ Bernie Ecclestone turned his theft into an ad campaign in 2010

The latest incident of luxury watches being stolen took place at the Circuit of the Americas where a brazen group of thieves stole two Richard Mille watches off the arms of good Samaritans who had stopped to help the woman.

The initial theft was reported to the Austin Police Department, with the victim telling the police that he had been walking when a woman fell over directly in front of him. He stopped to help her and was assaulted by a group of men.

After the assault took place, the man noticed that his luxury Richard Mille watch was gone.

“He’s fortunate that he wasn’t seriously injured or even killed,” former Federal Agent and Private Investigator Mark Gillespie told Kxan.

“They are like pack animals. They work in a group, they work as a team. It is a very well-orchestrated and highly skilled execution. I promise you, they know what they’re doing and they do it often.”

Back at the track the following day, the victim spotted her pulling the same stunt on another person and shouted at the man, who reportedly grabbed hold of the woman and held her until police were able to detain her.

The woman was arrested, and while police executed a search warrant, they nabbed the others involved, who were staying at a rental in Lago Vista.

“The group targeted wealthy individuals that were wearing high-end luxury watches,” Travis County court documents said according to Kxan.com. “These specific watches retail for hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Lando Norris was put in a ‘headlock’ as his Richard Milles watch was stolen

It’s not the first time Formula 1 and Richard Mille watches have been linked in a robbery with Lando Norris‘ 67-02 designer watch stolen after the Euro 2020 final at Wembley.

The McLaren driver was accosted in a car park outside the stadium by two men, with one gripping him in a headlock and the other ripping the watch from his wrist.

In his statement to the police, Norris said: “Suspect One slowly approached me and asked me: ‘Is this your car?’ I don’t recall exactly what happened, but Suspect One then went behind me and put his right arm around my neck and his left arm under my back.

“Suspect One pulled me into him and pulled me back on my neck, meaning I was facing the sky and I couldn’t see him at this point.

“Suspect One told Suspect Two to grab my watch. He shouted multiple times: ‘Grab the watch’. Suspect One was holding me the whole time and Suspect Two was trying to grab the watch. He struggled for a while and then used force to pull the watch off, leaving scratches on my arm.

“When Suspect One had his arm around my neck Suspect Two managed to get the watch off my left wrist and then ran through the pedestrian walkway to Rutherford Way. From there I do not know where they went. My view was blocked.

“Suspect One was pretty close as he put his arm around my neck. Suspect Two was ten feet away and I saw Suspect One for around ten seconds and the interaction was around thirty seconds, not very long.”

After a week-long trial and two hours of deliberations, the jury cleared the suspect of the theft.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz also targeted before

The thieves who targeted Charles Leclerc didn’t escape as they were sentenced for their involvement in the high-profile theft that took place in Italy in 2022.

The brazen robbery of Leclerc’s $2.8 million luxury Richard Mille watch took place in Viareggio where two men confronted Leclerc, while others acted as lookout. They tried to escape using a scooter and a rented SUV, but the entire event as caught on CCTV cameras leading to their arrests.

A year later, Carlos Sainz was robbed in Milan when two men stole his Richard Mille watch that was reportedly worth $500,000.

The Spaniard chased them down with his bodyguard and caught the thieves with the help of passers-by before handing them over to police.

Bernie Ecclestone turned his mugging into an ad campaign

10 years earlier, Bernie Ecclestone was the victim of a mugging in London and suffered a black eye as his Hublot watch was stolen from his wrist.

The former F1 supremo was thrown to the ground in the attack, leaving him with a broken face and swollen eye.

As only Bernie would, he sent a photograph of his injured face to Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of Hublot, with the note: “See what people will do for a Hublot”.

Hublot agreed, paid €2.5 million for the rights to the photo, and launched one of the most widely discussed luxury campaigns in memory.

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