The Dresden Green Vault burglary
Dresden, Germany, 2019
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 25 November 2019, shortly before 5 am, a fire in an electrical junction box near Augustus Bridge cut the street lighting in front of the Royal Palace in Dresden, home of the treasury museum known as the Green Vault. The thieves got in through a window whose grille had been partly sawn through and put back before the crime, smashed a display case and fled within minutes. The unarmed guards watched everything on the cameras and, as protocol demands, called the police without confronting anyone.
Twenty-one pieces of 18th-century jewelry, with more than 4,300 diamonds, valued at no less than 113 million euros, were taken. The getaway car was set on fire in an underground garage in Dresden. In November 2020, police raided properties in Berlin and arrested the first suspects, members of a family linked to organized crime. In December 2022, after a deal with prosecutors, most of the jewels were returned, and in May 2023 a Dresden court convicted five defendants, with sentences of between four and more than six years; a sixth was acquitted because he had an alibi.
Sources
In the game
Sawn Grille
Treasury room of a castle in Dresden, Monday, 4:56 am. Two hooded men climbed in through a barred window in the west wing, smashed a display case with an axe and left with 21 jewels from the 18th century.
The game borrows the staged blackout on the street, the grille sawn through days earlier and the guard station that watched the theft on a monitor. Characters, investigation details and outcome are fiction.
