Mystery man in an AP photo after the Louvre jewel heist creates a buzz
Teh article discusses a photograph taken shortly after the daring daylight heist of the crown jewels at the Louvre museum in Paris on October 19, 2025. The photo, captured by AP photographer Thibault Camus, shows a well-dressed young man walking past uniformed French police officers who had sealed off one of the museum’s gates. Although the image was meant to depict the police presence after the robbery, social media users speculated that the stylishly dressed individual might be a detective involved in the examination, likening him to the fictional Inspector Clouseau from the “Pink Panther” films.However, the photographer clarified that the man was simply passing by the scene and not officially identified. authorities have neither confirmed nor denied his identity, playfully suggesting that the mystery remains unsolved.
Inspector Clouseau? The mystery man in an AP photo after the Louvre jewel heist creates a buzz
PARIS (AP) — It was shortly after the stunning heist of the crown jewels at the Louvre when Paris-based Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus caught in his frame a dapperly dressed young man walking by uniformed French police officers, their car blocking one of the museum gates.
Instinctively, he took the shot.
It wasn’t a particularly great photo, with someone’s shoulder obscuring part of the foreground, Camus told himself.
But it did the job — showing French police sealing off the world’s most-visited museum after the brazen daylight robbery last Sunday.
Plus, Camus figured, the guy walking past the officers was unusually well dressed, in a coat, a jacket and tie and wearing a fedora, adding a touch of Paris couture to the scene.
And so off went the photo to AP’s worldwide audiences.
From there, fertile imaginations sprung into high gear — whipping up an online buzz.
Posts on social media declared the well-dressed man to be a French detective — if you will, a more dashing version of the famed Inspector Clouseau from “Pink Panther” movies — even though AP’s photo caption had not identified him.
It simply read: “Police officers block an access to the Louvre museum after a robbery Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Paris.”
A post on X that now has 5.6 million views says: “Actual shot (not AI!) of a French detective working the case of the French Crown Jewels that were stolen from the Louvre.”
Another poster — with 1.2 million followers — claimed the man “who looks like he came out of a detective film noir from the 1940s is an actual French police detective who’s investigating the theft.”
Camus says nothing he saw led him to that conclusion — the man was just someone who streamed away from the Louvre as authorities evacuated the area, Camus says.
“He appeared in front of me, I saw him, I took the photo,” Camus says. “He passed by and left.”
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If the unidentified man really is one of the more than 100 investigators hunting for the jewel thieves, the authorities are keeping it very hush-hush.
“We’d rather keep the mystery alive ;)” the Paris prosecutor’s office said with a wink in an email response to AP questions.
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