Update, October 13, 9:30 a.m.:
We already know that Kim Kardashian isn’t doing so well after the robbery in Paris at gunpoint, thanks to Khloé Kardashian’s comments to that effect on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” earlier this week. Apparently, Kim’s actually suffering flashbacks, and has turned to professional counseling in search of solace, E! News reports. “Kim is very paranoid still when she is alone,” a source told the outlet. “She has been having flashbacks and hasn’t been sleeping well. Her security is always around her now.”
It certainly can’t help that a new video has surfaced, and its contents are super sketchy. Apparently, someone filmed Kim wrapped in a blanket on a couch, FaceTiming with someone shortly after police showed up to the crime scene in Paris, TMZ reports. Cops are all over the luxury hotel accommodations, looking for evidence, and both Kim and the police are unaware that someone is filming.
It’s illegal in France to videotape someone in a private environment without their consent, which means that whomever took this footage could be thrown in prison for a year and fined about $50,000.
Though the footage was posted online this week, Kim’s lawyers quashed it immediately by reminding the publications that this type of film is against the law.
No wonder Kim is still having a hard time. In the wake of so much drama, it can’t feel good to have a video like this surface, and not have any idea who took the footage. But there is some good news: “Kim is doing better,” the source told E!, though “she still has a long way to recover from the robbery.”
Kim’s been leaning on her famous family more than ever: “Her friends and family have been really supportive,” the source adds. “Her sisters and mom have been checking on her every day. … Kanye has been by her side when he isn’t working and calling her nonstop to check in on her.”
Update, October 5, 4:20 p.m.:
It looks as though police may have found a lead in the Kim Kardashian case, thanks to a nail salon’s security footage. Because this whole saga could not get any closer to the plot of an actual action movie, the robbers were reportedly caught on camera thanks to the reflection of a “perfectly placed” mirror in a nearby salon, The Sun reports.
Police found the stranger-than-fiction footage at the upscale Bel Ange salon near Kim’s lodging at the Hotel de Pourtalés in Paris, according to the publication. Apparently, a mezzanine-level camera in the salon faced an outside mirror, which reflected the attackers’ getaway. There was also a second, ground-level camera, which also caught the gunmen fleeing.
“Police seized the footage on Tuesday morning,” a friend of the nail salon owner told The Sun. “They told the owner not to speak to the media about it.”
“She wasn’t even allowed to view it herself but they told her what was on it,” the pal told The Sun. “They said it showed their faces.”
Footage from two separate cameras caught the crew of robbers red handed. “The upstairs camera caught the gang in a mirror which looks out onto the street,” the source said. “It shot them perfectly as they made their way inside this shopping area and then a second camera got them as they made their way through an unlocked corridor to the car park. Police told the owner it has given them the best lead yet.”
Update, October 4, 12 p.m.:
Two nights ago, after gunmen overtook a hotel concierge, broke into Kim Kardashian‘s opulent Paris lodgings, bound and gagged the reality star at gunpoint, and took off with over $10 million of jewelry, Kim was able to break free of her bindings and alert the police. But how?
Though the Kardashian family hasn’t yet made a public statement about the ordeal—any minute now—a source told People that Kim managed to escape by “wriggling her hands.”
Kim “was tied up, and gagged with duct tape wrapped around her head,” the source said. “They put plastic ties around her wrists, but she managed to squeeze her hands out of the wrist ties by wriggling her hands.”
Once the thieves had fled the premises on motorbikes and Kim had freed herself, she “screamed from the balcony” of the Hotel de Pourtalès, the source told People.
She couldn’t call the police (les flics), since the robbers took off with a cell phone (not two, as previously reported), purse, and 1,000 euros in addition to the jewels, so she had to go the old-fashioned way of screaming for help. BTW: There was no “compromising information” on the phone, and it has been wiped clean remotely, TMZ reports.
BFF Simone Harouche, who was staying downstairs in the cavernous two-story apartment, heard her cries, but she’d already alerted Kim’s well-known bodyguard, Pascal Duvier, by that point. When she first heard the commotion upstairs, she locked herself in a bathroom and called Duvier, TMZ reports. It’s not clear, though, why she didn’t call the French equivalent of 911 (which is 112, FYI) at that point, though it’s possible that … she didn’t know what number to call.
In any event, Duvier returned to the apartment “two minutes after the robbers left,” according to TMZ. He’d been guarding Kourtney Kardashian and Kendall Jenner while they hit the clubs.
Apparently, Kim, clad in just a robe, tried to call Duvier when she saw “at least one masked man and another wearing a police hat through a sliding glass door” and heard boots on the stairs of her apartment at three in the morning, TMZ reports. But again, it’s unclear why she didn’t call 112 right away. Is it possible that no one was briefed on emergency contact numbers as they traveled abroad?
According to a source via E! News, “Simone texted Pascal Duvier and Kourtney Kardashian. She couldn’t dial 911 from her phone.”
The People source added that Kim had to struggle to remain as calm as possible. “She was hysterical but not screaming, as she knew she had to keep quiet to survive,” they said. “The reports of her fear of being raped are real. She really did think she was going to be raped. She had a gun to her head the whole time.”
A source told Page Six, “This was a life-and-death situation. They broke in when she was in bed, and put a gun to her head. She had to plead and beg for her life, telling them she was a mother, telling them about her kids.” Though initial reports said that she was locked in the bathroom, this publication’s source said that part isn’t true, though she was forced into the bathtub.
The whole thing took about six minutes, TMZ reports. Kim told police that the thieves didn’t know English, and spoke only French; she did, however, recognize the word “ring, ring” (“bague, bague“) and told them where she’d put her gigantic, brand-new, second engagement ring. It was at that point that her mouth was taped, because she kept crying and begging for her life.
Kim is recuperating in NYC now, having reunited with Kanye West and kids North and Saint yesterday morning (after boarding a private plane back to NYC immediately after giving a statement to police after the attack). A family source told People that she “is still upset, but being with the kids made her feel a bit better.”
Thankfully, her children were in New York the whole time, and not in Paris for fashion week with their mom. “Kim left the kids in NYC because she thought it would be a much better environment for them,” the People source said.
“She has given a statement to Paris police and they are investigating,” the Page Six source said. “They are looking at security footage. The place she was staying in is a boutique hotel where she and Kanye have previously stayed. A lot of celebrities stay there. She was in bed for the night and thought she was safe.”
Photo: Hotel de Pourtalès
However, “now everything has to change as far as her security goes,” the Page Six source added. “Her security has and will continue to be dramatically stepped up.”
And as to anyone crying publicity stunt, that’s just not so, the source said, calling such claims “absurd and offensive,” and adding that Keeping Up with the Kardashians wasn’t filming at the time. “There were no cameras for the Kardashian show shooting in Paris,” the source said. “This was a terrifying incident, Paris just isn’t a safe place at the moment.”
Though police have been searching surveillance footage, sources tell TMZ that there were no cameras inside or outside the hotel premises, as it turns out. There is police surveillance footage, but TMZ reports that the camera doesn’t face the front of the building, and the thieves stayed out of its frame. Police canvassed the neighborhood in search of video from nearby establishments, but have found nothing so far.
Photo: Hotel de Pourtalès
Some are speculating that it was an inside job, according to TMZ. The Kardashians and the police alike think it was no coincidence that Kim was without a bodyguard when the attack happened, and that the gunmen had been tipped off.
Kim had friends over until just before the robbery, and Duvier is almost always by Kim’s side—ironically, she’d just jokingly complained on Instagram that day that he’s “always in my shot!”
If someone tipped off Kim’s assailants, there’s a long suspect list, TMZ reports: “There are multiple units in the building, and lots of people involved in Paris Fashion Week knew Kim’s comings and goings.” They added that police are tracking phone records of various people associated with the hotel now.
By the way, it’s possible that Kim was the target of a ring of notorious jewel thieves known as Pink Panther, Page Six reports. “They were definitely mentioned,” a source told the publication.
“This kind of robbery could only have been carried out by a sophisticated international criminal organization,” a source close to the police investigation told the Daily Mail. “It would have to be if they had any hope of reclassify the stolen jewels and sell them again.”
What’s more, the Mail source added that Kim had been tailed by two men in the days before the attack; one posed as a plainclothes detective and another as a photographer. ”Kim Kardashian was tailed for at least three days before the robbery,” the source said. “We know there was one man who pretended to be a photographer who followed the American celebrity on a motorbike to find out her whereabouts. Another man pretended to be a plain-clothed detective to try to get a seat next to her at the exclusive Ferdi restaurant on Thursday night.”
Paparazzi challenged the fake photographer as he tried to eavesdrop on their conversations, apparently; the faux detective ran away when Ferdi employees asked for his credentials.
“We know the license plate of one of the vehicles used—a Fiat 500—and a photograph of one of the suspects,” the source said. “They both appear to be French and highly professional.”
Pink Panther has been around for almost 30 years, and usually disguise themselves in costumes, Page Six reports. They are “the largest, most successful gang of diamond thieves in the world, with over 370 heists worth $500 million,” according to CBS News.
“Pink Panther is a system,” a self-proclaimed founding member of Pink Panther, Rakjo Causevic, said this year, when jewels belonging to Croatia’s ambassador to Montenegro were discovered in an apartment Causevic rented.
Update, October 3, 11:45 a.m.:
We knew that Kim Kardashian had been held up at gunpoint in Paris last night, but we didn’t realize just how terrifying—and how complicated—the whole episode was until new reports surfaced this morning. And let us just say, first and foremost: What happened to Kim last night sounds like the plot line of a thriller.
There were not just two, but five masked gunmen dressed as police involved in grand larceny at Kim’s luxury apartment at the Hôtel de Pourtalès at 7 rue Tronchet in the eighth arrondissement, not far from the Louvre, Reuters reports. The attack happened at about 3 a.m. local time. The gunmen escaped on motorbikes.
The robbers apparently gagged and bound Kim at the hands and feet with tape, handcuffed her, forced her into the bathtub, and locked her in the bathroom, according to police sources via La Parisien. They took a jewelry box with about $6 million in bling inside, a $4 million wedding ring, two cell phones, her purse, and 1,000 euros, BFM TV reports. This may have been the ring stolen, which Kim just posted on IG three days ago (and just received as a second engagement ring two weeks ago):
Then again, that ring was reportedly valued at $8 million, so perhaps she still has both of her engagement rings and the robbers took another massive ring of the wedding variety.
“She begged for them to let her live and [said] she has babies at home,” a source told E! News. “Then they wrapped her mouth in tape and put her in the bathtub. She thought they were for sure going to kill her.” Kim called the ordeal “the worst moment in my life,” TMZ reports.
The French Interior Ministry told CNN that the attackers threatened the mansion concierge with a gun, handcuffed him, and forced him to open the apartment. An “authoritative source with knowledge of the hotel’s security” said that the gunmen overcame the one security guard on duty, took the key to the apartment, and “ran around the building until they found the right location,” NBC reports. Either way, this truly sounds like the plot of a horrifying movie.
Thankfully, Kim’s young children, North and Saint, weren’t in the apartment when this occurred, according to a CNN source.
Sisters Kendall Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian were also in Paris with Kim for fashion week (and partying at the time of the incident; looks like Kim’s go-to bodyguard, Pascal Durvier, was watching them, says TMZ, as Kim had already turned in for the night). Ditto for Kris Jenner and her boyfriend, Corey Gamble, but all of them departed Paris on private jets shortly after the attack in solidarity with Kim.
Ironically, Kim posted a shot of herself with Durvier in the background just hours before the attack, captioning the image, “This guy is always in my shot!”
As we reported last night, Kanye West stopped mid-show last night in NYC. He was seen leaving early this morning to meet Kim as soon as her jet landed at the airport, which is touching.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo took to Twitter early this morning to condemn the attack. “I condemn the attack Kim Kardashian suffered last night in her hotel. She has my support and will always be welcome here in Paris,” she tweeted. “This is a very rare occurrence that took place in a private space, and in no way does it call into question the work of our police or the security of our public spaces.” As of now, the armed robbers are still at large.
Kim, West, Kris, and Gamble were all seen arriving at the Kardashian-West residence in NYC a few minutes ago, along with a caravan of about 10 vehicles with 15-20 bodyguards. The NYPD is also on the scene, along with Durvier, TMZ reports.
Original Post:
Earlier tonight, Kanye West stopped his performance mid-“Heartless” at a show in NYC after learning that his wife, Kim Kardashian, had been held up at gunpoint in her hotel room in Paris, CNN reports.
“I’m sorry. There’s a family emergency, I have to stop the show,” West said at The Meadows, a festival in Queens, before the lights onstage went out.
That family emergency is a scary one. As CNN reports, “Kim Kardashian West was held up at gunpoint inside her Paris hotel room this evening, by two armed masked men dressed as police officers. She is badly shaken but physically unharmed,” Kardashian spokesperson Ina Treciokas said.
Fans were initially skeptical about West’s sudden departure from the stage.
But that skepticism quickly changed to shock and support after CNN broke the news of what the family emergency really was.
We’re just glad everyone is OK.
