The theft of the giant gold coin from the Bode Museum
Berlin, Germany, 2017
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
In the early hours of March 27, 2017, between 3:20 and 3:45 am, thieves broke into the Bode Museum, on Berlin's Museum Island, and took from the coin cabinet the Big Maple Leaf, a Canadian coin of 100 kilos of pure gold, then valued at about 3.7 million euros. They climbed an aluminum ladder from the commuter rail tracks that run beside the building, entered through a window, smashed the armored glass display case and left again by the tracks.
Police found a wheelbarrow and a rope on the tracks, used to carry the coin, which was probably damaged when it fell from the viaduct onto the street. Arrests came in July 2017, and the trial of four young men ran from January 2019 to February 2020. One of them, a museum guard, was sentenced to three years and four months for passing security information to the others; two were sentenced to four and a half years and a fourth was acquitted for lack of evidence. The court ordered the confiscation of 3.4 million euros from the convicted.
Sources
In the game
Gold on the Tracks
Numismatic Museum of Berlin, on Museum Island, Friday, 10:00 am. In the early hours of Monday, between 3:20 and 3:45 am, the Hundred-Kilo Sun vanished from the armored display case in the coin cabinet.
The coin was never found. Investigators found ultra-pure gold dust, consistent with it, on clothes and in a seized car, and believe it was cut up, melted down and sold off bit by bit. The game borrows the museum next to the tracks, the ladder, the wheelbarrow and the guard who opened the way. Characters, investigation details and outcome are fiction.
