By the time Kim Kardashian’s Twitter account fell silent, it was already too late.
The American television personality had been robbed at gunpoint by a gang who, disguised as policemen, broke into her luxury residence close to the Madeleine and Opera in Paris’s elegant eighth arrondissement.
Among the jewellery reported stolen, worth an estimated US$10 million (Dh36.7m), were rings that gave so much pride to Kardashian that she boldly and continuously posted photographs of them on various social media outlets including Snapchat. No word yet on the fate of the diamond grill she sported on her teeth, either.
Did this willingness to parade her fabulous wealth put the idea of a get-rich-quick heist into the minds of gangsters whose ruthlessness is matched only by their irrepressible opportunism?
That, along with the suspicion of a possible “inside job”, is among the stronger theories being canvassed as victim and investigators alike reflect on the audacious crime in which Kardashian was terrorised by intruders she reportedly feared might be intent on raping her. As it was, they bound and gagged her with zip ties and bundled her into a bath before escaping with their valuable haul.
It is easy to imagine the buzz that swept certain Parisian circles as news spread that Kardashian was in town. For the publicity-conscious organisers and exhibitors at Paris Fashion Week, where she attended keynote shows, it was an obvious public relations coup. For the ubiquitous paparazzi in one of Europe’s great capitals, the prospect of lucrative work beckoned.
And for a bunch of calculating thieves, linked or not to the infamous Pink Panthers with a litany of crimes stretching from Europe to Dubai, there was a golden opportunity that proved impossible to resist.
The 35-year-old Californian, described as a socialite, model and businesswoman, has a staggering 48.3 million followers on Twitter; she follows a mere 121 in return. Then there is Instagram, and the furiously popular Snapchat.
But this vast army of curious, often star-struck people will have looked in vain for her thoughts on being robbed in such frightening circumstances that her third and present husband, the US rapper, producer and designer Kanye West interrupted a live performance in New York to tell fans: “I’m sorry. I have a family emergency. I have to stop the show.”
The robbery happened in the early hours of Monday, Paris time. It was still Monday, US eastern seaboard time, when Kardashian stepped from a private jet to be greeted by West and retreat with him him to their Manhattan home. Up to yesterday evening, she had steered belatedly clear of Twitter.
In a world dominated by social media, it is perhaps unsurprising that a woman best known from reality television should be so prominent a user.
Complete strangers can learn a great deal of the more glamorous aspects of her life from Snapchat and Instagram postings, tweets and other online outpourings. It is easy to deride the vacuous nature of such a public lifestyle - the CNN news network calls her a “master of self-promotion and sovereign of social media” - but foolish to deny what importance is attached to it by millions obsessed with celebrities.
Of course, it is not necessary to flaunt wealth to become a target of evil attention. Three Emirati sisters, visitors to London from the Sharjah in 2014, did nothing to display signs of opulence before being brutally attacked in their hotel room by a crack-addicted career criminal, who battered them mercilessly before calmly walking off carrying a suitcase stuffed with valuables including a white diamond-encrusted Cartier watch worth £12,000 (Dh68,936) and Louis Vuitton jewellery. Khuloud Al Najjar, then 36, and her younger sisters Ohoud and Fatima, from Sharjah, were lucky to escape alive but still suffered life-threatening injuries.
But the Kardashian attack makes clear, if it was not already, that a compulsion to tell the world about one’s wealth will ultimately lead to unsavoury characters plotting to get their hands on it.
The appalling terrorist attacks of November 13 last year, when ISIL gunmen killed 130 people enjoying a night out in Paris, have already had a damaging effect on France’s important tourism industry. Disruptive strikes, and the violence of political demonstrations in the capital, have also had an impact.
The last thing the City of Romance and Light needed was a further reason not to be visited, albeit one affecting a small minority of travellers. But the robbery at Kardashian’s Parisian home presents just such a deterrent.
As Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz, the new editor-in-chief of Vogue Arabia and a member of the Saudi royal family, told The New York Times: “There’s no question in my mind that this will play heavily on the mind of shoppers and travelers from the Gulf when it comes to visiting in Paris.
“Lots wear their jewellery very openly here. They shop. And have always felt very safe doing so. But when something like this can happen, and to someone with such a good security detail, well - it’s a big surprise. And it’s very frightening.”
Kardashian certainly sported her jewellery and allowed herself to be seen when in Paris in its chic boutiques, department stores and restaurants. She had, as Vogue Arabia’s editor noted, a “good security detail”, though her main, 6’ 4” bodyguard Pascal Duvier was out at a nightclub some distance from Kardashian’s residence when the attack happened, presumably with her blessing.
But she was also surprisingly indiscreet about her prized possessions. The one moment when the otherwise French-speaking robbers made themselves abundantly clear to her, according to reports, was when they repeatedly demanded “the ring”.
She knew perfectly well they meant the Lorraine Schwartz ring, 20-carat and emerald-cut, recently given to her by West. And she readily showed her assailants where it was.
That piece of jewellery might have been sufficient incentive for the gang to pull of their raid. It is said to be worth $4.5million and had been pictured – on Kardashian’s finger - only a few hours earlier on a Snapchat post, her last before the robbery.
But this was no more than the gem in the crown: the robbers also took away a jewellery box worth $6.7 million and melted into the Parisian night on readily available hired bicycles.
Another Lorraine Schwartz ring, with which West proposed before their 2014 wedding, is valued at around $1.6million. She had been photographed wearing her newest ring, both in pictures taken by the press during her stay in Paris and on her own social media sites. Neither this nor her engagement ring was visible in photographs taken as she left Paris on Monday morning to fly back to the United States.
Knowledge of Kardashian’s wealth, and the joy she takes in it, are public property. Forbes, the US business magazine and compiler of “rich lists”, put her worth at US$45m in 2015, reporting that her earnings had doubled in 12 months as she “monetised fame better than any other”. The income came to a large extent from her Kardashian Kollection fashion accessories and Kardashian Beauty cosmetics line but even Instagram and Twitter posts are sponsored, bringing in further useful revenue.
All of this will have been known to her robbers. Whether they turn out to be linked to the Pink Panthers, a network rather than single gang with origins in the civil wars of the former Yugoslavia, or conventional gangsters from the Parisian underworld remains to be established.
So does the extent to which their plotting was inspired by their victim’s own taste for ostentation.
Although uncharacteristically, Kardashian and the rest of her clan were quiet on social media following the attack. But as she recovers from what must have been a traumatic experience, other celebrities may be having second thoughts about being quite so open about their good fortune.
