'Irreplaceable' James Bond movie guns stolen in brazen heist
This sounds like a case for James Bond.
Roger Moore on set in A View to a Kill.
It's been a rough year for the James Bond franchise. First, the release of Daniel Craig's final Bond movie No Time to Die got pushed back to November. Now, five irreplaceable guns used on screen in other Bond films have been stolen from the home of a private collector in London.
The Metropolitan Police appealed to the public for information on Friday. The burglary occurred on March 23. Neighbors interrupted the heist, but the suspects, "three white males with Eastern European accents," escaped in a silver car with the stolen weapons.
This iconic Walther PPK was used by Roger Moore in his final James Bond movie.
The guns had all been deactivated so they couldn't be used to fire bullets.
"The firearms stolen are very distinctive and bespoke to particular James Bond movies," Detective Inspector Paul Ridley said in a statement on Friday. They will almost certainly be recognized by the public and to anyone offered them for sale."
The weapons included two Berettas and a Llama featured in the 2002 Pierce Brosnan movie Die Another Day; a Smith and Wesson revolver from Roger Moore's Live and Let Die in 1973; and a Walther PPK from the 1985 Moore movie A View to a Kill.
The Walther PPK handgun is Bond's familiar weapon of choice in many of the films. The stolen Walther was the last one used by Moore in his final movie as the superspy. The police said the missing Magnum is "the only one in the world ever made in which the whole gun is finished in chrome."
Ridley described the collection as "irreplaceable." The guns have an estimated value of $124,000 (£100,000).
The Metropolitan Police posted images and serial numbers in hopes the public can help locate the stolen firearms. The theft doesn't quite rise to the supervillain level, but it's still plenty villainous.
