The gems were dug up underneath a house in Seine-Saint-Denis, just outside Paris, French police told Europe-1 radio in a statement. The thieves had stashed the jewelry, which included three pairs of earrings and 19 rings -- one of them valued at $8.3 million -- in a plastic container cased in cement and wedged into a rain sewer.
Francois Mori, AP
Stolen jewelry worth $25 million has been recovered in a Paris rain sewer after it was taken from a Harry Winston store in the city in 2008. The thieves had made off with $100 million worth of gems in total.
The entire heist took no more than 15 minutes, according to Sky News. One of the store's guards told police at the time that the thieves knew the names of the store's employees.
In June 2009, police arrested 25 people in connection with the theft, charged nine of them and recovered more than $1 million of the stolen gems. Officials say one of the men charged in the crime is the owner of the house where the jewels were found.
