PARIS (AP) — It was
shortly after the robbery of the crown jewels at the Louvre when
Paris-based Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus caught in his frame an
elegantly dressed young man walking by uniformed French police officers, their
car blocking one of the museum gates.
Instinctively, he
took the shot. It wasn’t a particularly great photo, Camus told himself.
But it met his
objective: to show French police sealing off the
world’s most-visited museum after the daylight robbery last Sunday.
Besides Camus thought
that the guy was unusually well dressed, in a coat, a jacket and tie and
wearing a fedora hat, adding a touch of Paris couture to the scene. And so off
went the photo to AP’s worldwide audiences.
From there, fertile
imaginations started posting on social media and declared the well-dressed man
to be a French detective — if you will, a modern version of the famed Inspector
Clouseau from “Pink Panther” movies — even though AP’s photo caption did not
identified him. It simply read: “Police officers block an access to the Louvre
museum after a robbery Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Paris.”
A post on X that now
has 5.6 million views says: “Actual shot (not AI!) of a French detective
working the case of the French Crown Jewels that were stolen from the Louvre.”
Another poster — with
1.2 million followers — claimed the man “who looks like he came out of a
detective film noir from the 1940s is an actual French police detective who’s
investigating the theft.”
Camus says nothing he
saw led him to that conclusion — the man was just someone who was there as
authorities evacuated the area.
“He appeared in front
of me, I saw him, I took the photo,” Camus says. “He passed by and left.”
If the unidentified
man really is one of the more than 100 investigators hunting for the jewel
thieves, the authorities are keeping it very hush-hush.
“We’d rather keep the
mystery alive ;)” the Paris prosecutor’s office said in an email answer to AP
questions.
You can also watch the video by clicking on the Play Button below
Article from AP (edited)
