Just after the shocking theft of the French Crown Jewels from the iconic Louvre Museum, Paris-based Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus captured a striking image. In his lens, a impeccably dressed young man walked casually past uniformed French police, who were busy cordoning off one of the museum’s entrances.
Camus snapped the picture on instinct. He initially thought it wasn’t his best work, with a shoulder partially blocking the foreground. However, the photograph perfectly conveyed the scene: French authorities locking down the world-renowned museum following the audacious daylight robbery on Sunday, October 19, 2025.
What truly caught Camus’s eye was the man’s attire – unusually sharp for the chaotic scene, sporting a coat, jacket, tie, and a fedora. This touch of classic Parisian style inadvertently added a captivating element to the unfolding drama.
The image quickly circulated among the AP’s global audience, and from there, public imagination took flight, creating a massive online sensation. Social media platforms buzzed with theories, many declaring the sophisticated gentleman to be a French detective – perhaps a real-life, more debonair version of the legendary Inspector Clouseau from the “Pink Panther” films. This was despite the original AP photo caption offering no identification, simply stating: “Police officers block an access to the Louvre museum after a robbery Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Paris.”
One widely shared post on X, garnering over 5.6 million views, exclaimed: “Actual shot (not AI!) of a French detective working the case of the French Crown Jewels that were stolen from the Louvre.” Another influential poster, with 1.2 million followers, confidently asserted that 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.”
However, Camus himself clarified that he saw nothing to suggest such a conclusion. According to him, the man was merely one of many individuals moving away from the Louvre as the area was being evacuated. “He appeared in front of me, I saw him, I took the photo,” Camus recounted. “He passed by and left.”
If this unidentified man truly is one of the more than 100 investigators currently pursuing the audacious jewel thieves, the authorities are certainly keeping their cards close. When queried by the AP, the Paris prosecutor’s office offered a playful and mysterious reply: “We’d rather keep the mystery alive ;)”