Paris Ritz finds missing €750,000 ring in vacuum cleaner bag

A police car outside the Ritz in Paris after there really was a jewellery theft in January 2018. Photograph: Michel Euler/AP

The questions began swirling soon after police were notified that a €750,000 (£644,000) ring had gone missing from the Ritz hotel in Paris. Was it a meticulously planned and targeted robbery? An act of carelessness? Or simply a quick swipe, carried out when the opportunity presented itself?

Two days after a Malaysian guest at the hotel reported the missing diamond ring to police, the hotel proffered an answer, albeit less exciting than many of the theories that had circulated online: the hotel said security had found the ring in the bag of a vacuum cleaner.