Crazy story out of Morocco, per Al Jazeera:
"Fifteen people have gone on trial in Morocco over the theft of dozens of luxury watches and other pieces of jewellery from one of King Mohammed VI's royal palaces. [...] The main suspect, a 46-year-old female employee at the palace, is reported to have been aided by the palace's security staff and some Moroccan jewellers. Reports say the alleged ringleader, who worked as a cleaning woman in the royal household, has confessed to the robberies. The woman, who is alleged to have stolen 36 watches, had many of them melted down and sold on to gold merchants. The 14 other suspects, all men, are gold traders or intermediaries, and have denied any involvement in the robberies."

FYI, the Moroccan king owns (or owned?) a 5980/1400G white gold Nautilus with set with no less than 893 diamonds throughout. Lax security, anyone?

 

How do you not realize you're missing 36 watches....Melted for gold.... Imagine melting a $200k watch and thinking you hit a home run making $2,000.

 

Prison isn’t enjoyable anywhere but I’m sure it’s a little worse in Morocco, I think your time may be made particularly unpleasant if your crime was against the king

 

You did - you ripped that watch off for free. These people don’t care what they’re worth; they care only that they can be converted into cash easily

 

Guessing the next time the cleaning lady rides a bicycle she will be able to say "Look ma, no hands!"

 

when you consider how poor Morocco is, it’s a way of giving back to the people.

 

At least she was arrested and put on trial. I suspect that in many countries in that part of the world, a woman who did that to a member of the royal family would just disappear.

 

Honestly, we had a cleaning lady stealing from us for over a year and we didn’t realize it. I was traveling overseas constantly, my wife was working, the kid was busy with school. Stuff was going missing and we just figured it was our crazy lives till all the gift cards from foster kids gift bags we’d staged went missing on X Mass. Then we fired her and changed the locks. She had stolen a bunch of jewelry, dresser cash, my wallet (thought I’d lost it) all our coin cans.

 

My thoughts exactly. I almost thought it was a blessing in disguise (?) for her that she didn't mysteriously disappear.

 

This is probably stupid to think, but hopefully they weren't any vintage valuable pieces and just a lot of the gaudy jewelry pieces being made these days.

 

Sorry but Morocco is a country where human rights organizations say people get arrested unjustly, that the king muzzles the press and the police has been accused of torturing some inmates.
Who cares if the King’s expensive watches get melted, even if they’re vintage? As @watchyouwant put it so well in a recent post, watches are just “things”. They’re not people.
And by the way, this is an all powerful king, not a decorative king like we have in Europe.

 

No blessings here, only tears

It's not too surprising that they'd put these people on trial- rather than quietly "disappearing them" into some random torture chamber. They latter is for people who have offended/embarrassed the crown a way that the crown would not want to be publicly discussed. In the case of a mere thief, of COURSE the crown would want it discussed and shown publicly, that the thieves be "made an example of" to demonstrate both the power and majesty of the King and remind people not to challenge it.

If, on the other hand, one were to make a stray comment about the king's poor morals or poor ethics or poor allegiance to his countrymen- in such fashion as those comments were arguably true, the king might prefer that those comments (and commentators) simply be misplaced and forgotten. Forever.

 

no prison can hold me

 

It's completely legitimate to care about objects being melted, especially finely crafted watches.
As for the "human rights", it's for the Marocains to decide whether they're happy with their society or if they want social changes (whatever the direction).

 

Thank god they have a free press and fair elections to facilitate the expression of their choice... oh wait.

 

to me the claim the stuff was melted for gold value is a typical explanation when the authorities are trying to locate the hot goods. "oh it's gone we melted it". Especially in this case where there were so many people involved in the theft. so not one of the large group of thieves AND the jewelers involved caught on that these watches were worth a fortune even hot?

 

We didn't have that either in 1789. Nor did the Tunisians in 2011. But curiously, the people was able to voice its choice.

 

Right. And curiously too, the Egyptians in 2011. And the Iranians in 2009. And the Chinese in 1989. It’s soooo simple.