Thieves grab $800K worth of jewelry from luxury Aspen hotel

ASPEN, Colo. — Authorities say three men stole about $800,000 worth of diamond-encased jewelry from a display case in the lobby of The Little Nell hotel in Aspen, Colorado.

The Aspen Daily News reports that police say one of the men involved in the theft Friday used a screwdriver to pop open the locked case and put a necklace and at least one ring and a set of earrings into a backpack.

The items belonged to Piranesi, a New York City-based business that has an outlet in Aspen.

Piranesi employee Veronica Sumner says Piranesi has had the display case in the hotel’s lobby for marketing purposes for more than 20 years.

Aspen police Officer Kirk Wheatley says “a whole team is working on it, it’s pretty big.”