I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian: robbery suspect tells all about infamous Paris heist in new book

From singer Tracey Chapman calling Kardashian's phone to the thieves accidentally leaving behind a £26,000 necklace, the night sounds stranger than fiction
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A tell-all book about the night Kim Kardashian was robbed at gun point in Paris has been released
Getty
Lizze Edmonds5 February 2021

It was one of the biggest showbiz stories of the decade. Kim Kardashian held at gunpoint in Paris while robbers made off with £7 million-worth of gems, including her £3.5 million engagement ring.

The reality television star, who was in the city for Paris Fashion Week, says she pleaded for her life as she was gagged and restrained by five men dressed as police officers who burst into her hotel room while she slept.

Now, one of the men waiting to stand trial for the heist has written a tell-all book about that fateful October night in 2016.

This week, French-Algerian Yunis Abbas, now 67, has released J’ai Séquestré Kim Kardashian (I kidnapped Kim Kardashian).

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West engagement party
Kim with her engagement ring the night Kanye proposed
© instagram

He is one of 12 suspects facing time behind bars - and says he is expecting to be sent back to jail. He was remanded in custody for 18 months following his 2017 arrest before being released on bail a year later.

Various extracts of the book have already been published. According to Abbas, the night was full of bizarre details - including the fact Tracey Chapman tried to call Kardashian moments after the heist, and that he lost some of his loot because of his escape vehicle - a bicycle.

Here’s all we know about I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian...

Remind me, what happened during the Kim Kardashian Paris heist. 

Reports of what happened that night suggest that at about 2.30am on October 3, 2016, five men dressed as police officers entered Paris's Hotel de Pourtalès. They were let in by concierge.

The group then reportedly handcuffed the concierge at gunpoint - and he led them to the star's apartment. 

The men reportedly entered Kardashian’s room and put a gun to her head. They apparently tied her up, put gaffer tape over her mouth and locked her in the bathroom. 

On hearing news of the robbery, her sisters, Kourtney Kardashian and Kendall Jenner, stopped partying at Arc nightclub in Paris and rushed to the apartment. They had been with Kardashian’s bodyguard.

Her husband, the rapper Kanye West, cancels his set at the Meadow Music and Art Festival in New York to be at her side.

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What happened in the aftermath?

At least 17 people were arrested in connection with the robbery. Some of them were reportedly known as “career criminals” to authorities. 

Twelve people have been waiting to stand trial since - and now, due to the pandemic, might not until next year.

And what about this book?

Abbas was arrested in 2017. He plans to plead guilty to all charges against him. However, in the book he maintains he remained on the ground floor and did not go to the apartment. He says he never spoke to his co-conspirators ever again.

He says he wanted to write the book to set the record straight as he has been portrayed as "a very uninviting character… It's sad really.”

But he hardly helps himself by saying in the work that he is proud to have fulfilled the kind of heist "every mobster dreams of." 

Any interesting revelations in the book?

Abbas said he “knew nothing about this girl before taking part in the robbery… I was closed off from the universe of reality TV stars and influencers".

Abbas says he only knew of Kardashian as “the wife of an American rapper” meaning Kanye West. He says he wouldn't have got involved if he'd known how famous Kardashian was.

According to the book, the group used “granny and grandpa spies" - or older accomplices - to allegedly conduct reconnaissance missions on Hotel de Pourtalès.

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French-Algerian Yunis Abba is behind the book
AFP via Getty Images

Abbas claims that the confused and stressed Kardashian tried to dial 911 rather than the local police number during the robbery.

He says he left the building with his loot - which apparently included a mobile phone belonging to Kardashian. 

He writes: “In front of my incredulous eyes, a name appears on the screen as it lights up. No way, I must be tripping,” he says, saying it was singer Tracy Chapman who was calling Kardashian's phone.

He also claims that after cycling off from the scene, he got a flat tyre - which sent him catapulting over the handlebars on to the pavement. He says a £26,000 pendant was left behind in the confusion.

What has the response been to the book?

Some fans of Kardashian, now 40, have suggested the book's publication will be painful for the star - who is reportedly in the midst of divorcing West, 43.

Others have suggested Abbas sees it as a pay cheque - and that he’s hoping his tale will be turned in to a movie or a film when he's put behind bars.

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