An unidentified thief busted a hole through the wall of a Moscow shop and absconded with 47 fur coats worth a total of 5.7 million rubles ($90,000), the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday, citing a source in law enforcement.
The pillaged furs came from a menagerie of exotic mammals, including lynxes, minks and sables. The shopkeeper reported the theft to police Wednesday morning shortly after arriving to work at a mall in northern Moscow's VDNKh district.
Elaborate though the crime may seem, fur theft is not incredibly unique among Russian crime logs.
Last February, $530,000 worth of fur coats were stolen from a high-end clothing store downtown, state news agency RIA Novosti reported at the time. That perpetrator entered the store showroom at night by removing a window, the report said.
That same month, the theft of a single fur coat worth $55,000 from a central Moscow apartment made headlines in Russia.
Though the coat had been made of chinchilla fur, chinchillas were not the only animals harmed to produce the items stolen on that particular occasion. A total of $500,000 worth of luxury items was stolen during the break-in, including two crocodile-skin bags — valued at $25,000 and $33,000 — and a $700 suitcase presumably used to carry out the loot.