Jewelry from Versace heist found in ratty recliner

New York detectives found a fortune in stolen Versace jewelry stuffed inside a ratty recliner, the Associated Press reported.

The detectives got a warrant to search a Manhattan storage facility where the old chair was stored. They opened the chair’s upholstery and found $3.7 million in glittering gems nestled carefully into the foam seat padding and then sewn back into the chair, the AP reported. The chair was said to be worth about $10 and the cost of storage was about $50 a month.

“It was like finding pirate treasure,” Assistant Police Chief Thomas Fahey reportedly said Tuesday. “This is a very significant jewelry robbery.”

The assortment of heavy, solid gold watches embedded with diamonds, thick gold necklaces, and massive rings were stolen from the Versace boutique on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan during a July 9 heist, Fahey said.

Police are reportedly searching for William Robinson, 33, the store’s former head of security, who allegedly opened the store’s safe that evening and walked out with the jewelry.

The theft was discovered the following morning by other employees, who noticed that all the shop’s surveillance tapes also had been removed.

Detectives working on the case said they eventually learned Robinson had rented a storage unit in lower Manhattan under his own name—leading to the discovery of the chair and the jewelry, the AP reported.

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