Celebrities get robbed too

The $150,000 (Sh13.6 million) Calvin Klein Oscar gown worn by actress Lupita Nyong’o that was stolen about a week ago was returned last week Friday by the thief, who tipped off celebrity news site TMZ after learning the pearls on the dress were fake.

To save face, the Calvin Klein fashion house was quick to assert that they never said the pearls were real.

Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o isn’t the first A-lister to fall victim to the burglar bunch.

In Lupita’s case the burglar(s) used the balcony to steal the dress. The thief threw it off the balcony where someone on the ground was waiting to grab it.

In 2008, a group of teens and 20-somethings  referred to as The Burglar Bunch and The Bling Ring reportedly stole more than $3 million (Sh273million) in clothing and jewelry from the homes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, Audrina Patridge, Rachel Bilson and Megan Fox.

The Burglar Bunch used Google Maps, TMZ and the website celebrityaddressaerial.com to scout the locations. According to police, they would also track their targets via social media and media reports to see when they were out of town. Their activities were documented in the 2013 movie The Bling Ring starring Emma Watson.

The kleptomaniacs were finally arrested thanks to CCTV footage from the houses and pictures they posted on social media boasting about their new acquisitions

In May 2013, one of the biggest jewellery heist happened at the presitigious Cannes Film Festival. Chopard jewels, worth more than $1million (about Sh91 million) were reportedly stolen.

The jewellery was stolen from the safe in the Suite Novotel Cannes Centre room of an American Chopard employee overnight. The jewellery was due to be loaned to stars walking the red carpet.

Cannes police reported that the value of the stolen jewelry was about $1.4 million, and that the whole safe was taken out of the wall in the hotel room. The suspect was able to get to the safe through an adjoining room with a connecting door.

They added that they believed the burglary could be an inside job, and that hotel employees were being questioned.  The jewellery is yet to be recovered.

An Artwork Heist While Kate Moss Slept

As brazen as the Bling Ring was, at least they had the sense to wait until their celebrity targets were out of town before breaking in.

Art thieves broke into Kate Moss’ home in London and proceeded to steal three pieces of valuable artwork, including a portrait by graffiti artist Banksy worth approximately $140,000 (Sh12.7million). And, they did it all while Moss, her boyfriend, and her mother slept in the very same home.

Some sources have suggested the thieves had prior knowledge of Moss’ home, and thus were able to slip in and out undetected.

If Moss had had alarm monitoring, the supermodel would have known immediately about the intruders.

However celebrity break ins also take a turn for the bizzarre, take the incident of the the creepy guy who would break in to hiphop mogul Diddy’s home and  make himself at home.

Apparently, the burglar has been breaking into rapper and music icon Diddy’s New York mansion since 2001...but nothing has ever been stolen.

Quamine Taylor, a Diddy stalker repeatedly broke into Diddy’s home in order to live like Diddy — which apparently included drinking the star’s alcohol, trying on his clothes, eating his food, and even sleeping in Diddy’s bed.

When he was arrested after a 24-hour spree at Diddy’s house in spring 2012, Taylor confessed he was able to break into the star’s home via an unlocked door in the basement. Even rock stars are not immune to theft

Rock legend Jon Bon Jovi lost his expensive jewellery when a robber broke into his home in 2012.

After breaking into numerous homes in the area, Nicholas Tracy arrived at Bon Jovi’s home on the Jersey shore and walked off with approximately $100,000(Sh9.1 million) worth of the singer’s jewelry.

Happily, the thief was caught soon after Tracy tried to rob Bon Jovi’s neighbour. Unlike Bon Jovi, the neighbor had a home alarm system and security system monitoring....which immediately alerted the police, who caught the thief red-handed.

While rapper Kanye West is more prone to stealing people’s limelight during award shows, he sometimes has to also deal with people stealing stuff from him.

While Kanye was on the other side of the world for a tour of the UK, his home in the Hollywood Hills was paid a visit by a couple of burglars.

A member of Kanye’s entourage responsible for checking up on the house realised things were amiss and contacted police.

The cops determined that someone had broken into the home and made off with some unidentified valuables, some of which were dropped during the robbers’ exit.

Other celebrity heists

 1. Kirsten Dunst’s hotel room at the Soho Grand Hotel in New York was broken into in 2007. Thieves slipped into Dunst’s penthouse and made off with a $13,000 (Sh1.8 million) handbag, cell phone, iPod, digital cameras, $2,500 (Sh227,863) in cash, and her ID and credit cards. The crooks were apprehended thanks to hotel security cameras, and Kirsten’s possessions were returned.

 She’s got sticky fingers of her own but while vacationing in Hawaii Lindsay Lohan said she had her $5,000 (Sh455,727) purse stolen which contained $10,000 (Sh911,455) in cash, her probation papers, her passport and I.D. The Burglar Bunch  stole six figures worth of Lohan’s clothes and jewellery and celebrated the job as their “biggest conquest.”

Most recently, at a Hollywood party Lohan was attending, more jewellery was stolen from the premises after Lohan and the crowd passed out in the early morning hours.

 Long before he was a husband and a dad, Matthew McConaughey was vacationing in Nicaragua when, after a drinking session at a bar, two people found him in a ditch looking for his shoes. After helping him back to his villa they left the door unlocked and someone came in and stole his phone and $2000 (Sh182,000) in cash.

2. Orlando Bloom had $500,000 (Sh45.6 million) of jewellery, including two expensive watches, taken from his Hollywood Hills home. He was in New York at the time of the break in.

3. Paris Hilton had $2 million (Sh18.2 million)worth of watches and necklaces given to her by her grandmother stolen from her Sherman Oaks home in 2008.

4.  Queen Latifah was a victim of jewellery crime. While vacationing in the Caribbean she had $10,000 (Sh911,455) worth of jewellery stole from the villa she was staying in.

5. Tyler Perry had his credit card number stolen in 2010. The perpetrator managed to rack up $28,000 (Sh1,822,910) before he was caught a week later.

6. Kourtney Kardashian, the oldest of the Kardashian sisters was struck by burglars in late 2009. Thieves broke into Kourtney’s California home and went right for her jewellery. The robbers stole more than $80,000 (Sh7,291,640) worth of various blingy valuables, including a $30,000 Cartier watch.

7. Closer home, South Africa’s Mafikizolo were robbed when thieves gained access to their dressing room and rummaged through the group’s bag. Three mobile phones and an iPod MP3 player were stolen while performing on stage in London in 2009.