ATTENTION – Philippe Gillain collection stolen!

[wilhelm saris]

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It is sad, but true. Next week I will return this subject for more details,
but for now just a short announcement.

Last weekend the entire collection from my friend Philippe Gillain from Belgium,
who helped me a lot in the past with my books, has been stolen from his house!

And when I say collection, one hardly can imagine what this means. I have seen
the collection many times and I must say it is practically impossible this is done
by one person only. This must have been done by a gang, a scrupulous number of
thieves, and must have taken hours and hours before all was taken from the house!

It is speculated the theft was on orders of some person, who may have paid the
gang for their job! Who knows where all the items have landed. We can be sure the
items from the collection will not be offered that quickly, as for now it is HOT STUFF!

I will keep you all informed, but believe me there were enormous rare items in the
collection: hundreds of rare buckles, rare cloth insignia (also ALL of his HJ cloth
insignia as triangles and shoulder-straps), numbers of headgear of all kind, flags
and so on. Too much to mention!

PLEASE inform me when hearing things about this theft. Keep open your eyes and
ears. Thanks in advance! Spread the word...........

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[Jo Rivett]

That was a really massive collection, really impossible for one person to do alone.
Good thing he was not at home really, because the kinds of people who go through with such an act, are capable of doing anything to get what they are after.
And they do, as well all know already.
Stolen on commision no doubt.

 

[wilhelm saris]

Jo, I agree. This was a job for at least four or so persons, having a truck
to load all the material. I have seen often mr. Gillain's collection and
when I think of the weight for all the enameled signs he owned, then
you understand me (if knowing the book I wrote with him, people can
understand possibly).
Yes, and I think he was lucky he was not at home. Many of us know
about the theft years ago in Germany, where the owner and his wife
were killed by the thieves. Just for the stuff (and so for the money).

I think all was transported to a place behind what once was the "old
iron curtain"!

 

[kriegsmodell]

What a shame. Having nearly 30 years in the business of criminal investigation would suggest this was a "custom theft." Or on commission as Jo stated. Solicited and brokered by an individual or individuals who bankrolled the thugs with the appropriate expertise to commit the heist. On some occasions the actual thieves turn up dead after transferring the stolen items. As the saying goes, "dead men tell no tales." This for bringing this to our attention Wilhelm .....

 

[wilhelm saris]

If members from this forum could see this beautiful and enormous collection,
they would get sick, I think. I hope the owner, mr. Gillain, will start a sort of
website to show what was stolen. But that will be a hell of a job as it were
thousands of items.
Now the one or the other scumbag is drooling about what he owns, but can't
tell the world!

 

[Gefolgschaft]

Shocking news! I've seen many of his items published. Will keep a watch for any items I've seen published up for sale and inform you Wim! Tragic to hear.

 

[Joe B]

This really makes me mad ... I hope he has photos of his items that can be used to identify them when and if they surface .

 

[Garry]

That's dreadful news... Thieving bas####s...

 

[crack]

This really makes me mad ... I hope he has photos of his items that can be used to identify them when and if they surface .

Ditto.

 

[wilhelm saris]

This really makes me mad ... I hope he has photos of his items that can be used to identify them when and if they surface .

Yes, he has photos. I asked him to send photos from the most rare items.
I have his latest book with photos from his collection. It is very heavy, it
has 250 pages, but the size is not good for scanning. So, I have to wait
for photos from material from the stolen collection. I will see what I can do!

I will see if I can make photographs, but I am not a good photographer.

 

[WIDUKIND]

Jo, I agree. This was a job for at least four or so persons, having a truck
to load all the material. I have seen often mr. Gillain's collection and
when I think of the weight for all the enameled signs he owned, then
you understand me (if knowing the book I wrote with him, people can
understand possibly).
Yes, and I think he was lucky he was not at home. Many of us know
about the theft years ago in Germany, where the owner and his wife
were killed by the thieves. Just for the stuff (and so for the money).

I think all was transported to a place behind what once was the "old
iron curtain"!

Hi Wim,
I am saddened to learn what happened to Philippe Gillain.
Many beautiful and unobtainable items came from Helmut Weitze.
I think Philippe must be sickened and pissed off, he will leave the collection forever.
You are right Wim, I too will not be surprised that the stolen items are now found in eastern Europe.

 

[Joe B]

Question : did Mr Gillian live in a secluded area (country house) or in normal housing in a city or a suburb .

Did he have security cameras and an alarm ?

I just find it strange that a theft of this magnitude , the time it would take , the planning using 3-6 people , a truck for transportation , the surveillance and tracking of all of Mr Gullians movements and knowing when he would be out of town for a few hours or days away from his residence .... and nobody saw or questioned anything ? If I was going out of town , I contact a relative and a neighbor to watch my house and property , that and to drive by and check out if anything is unusual . This was planned and executed like a military operation with precision . At least one of the perpetrators of this theft had to know Mr Gullian personally and had seen the collection and the lay out of the house , that and his personal schedule .

Let us see how this plays out , it is just strange to me that a man that has a million dollar collection did not have a good security system or neighbors that could have reported this .

 

[wilhelm saris]

A simple answer about the situation of the house, camera's or not!
The house is in a small village, about 75-100 meters from the road.
The buildings on the property are positioned in such way, that one
can drive with a small truck from the road and hide the car in such
way that one cannot see a damned thing from the road. Even when
dark one cannot see the lights from the house, when being on the road.
Even if they were there with various persons and for various hours,
they could have done the job without someone observing this.

Maybe it was an "inside job" as not much people knew mr. Gillain
was on vacation and his housekeeper was not there at that moment.
Who knows what would have happened when someone had come
home. It would not be the first time the owner of the collection
was killed for that (as years ago in Germany where the owner and
his wife were killed).

Maybe I can post the HJ items in the course of the week, as much of
it was in a private photobook, mr. Gillain made, which I own a copy from.
But it is a lot of scanning as the amount of HJ stuff is about 19 pages.

 

[WIDUKIND]

Question : did Mr Gillian live in a secluded area (country house) or in normal housing in a city or a suburb .

Did he have security cameras and an alarm ?

I just find it strange that a theft of this magnitude , the time it would take , the planning using 3-6 people , a truck for transportation , the surveillance and tracking of all of Mr Gullians movements and knowing when he would be out of town for a few hours or days away from his residence .... and nobody saw or questioned anything ? If I was going out of town , I contact a relative and a neighbor to watch my house and property , that and to drive by and check out if anything is unusual . This was planned and executed like a military operation with precision . At least one of the perpetrators of this theft had to know Mr Gullian personally and had seen the collection and the lay out of the house , that and his personal schedule .

Let us see how this plays out , it is just strange to me that a man that has a million dollar collection did not have a good security system or neighbors that could have reported this .

no one is safe from burglary in Europe, whether you are in a city or in the countryside. There are no more borders, so everyone is free to travel.
The mafias of the countries of eastern Europe settle progressively without really worrying. They mock video cameras.

 

[B-RAD]

Very sad indeed, here is a little tip for items of value use a gps locator some are as small as I coin and can be placed in a pocket. They don't cost much and I can use my phone to track anything down. (tile inc. is a good one)

 

[wilhelm saris]

would you buy some thousands and thousands of them locators?
The HJ/Napola/Students etc. items he owned ran into over 600 pieces.

 

[Jo Rivett]

no one is safe from burglary in Europe, whether you are in a city or in the countryside. There are no more borders, so everyone is free to travel.
The mafias of the countries of eastern Europe settle progressively without really worrying. They mock video cameras.

And what i believe, is that all the CCTV cameras and überwachungsgräte are more for us, so the government can watch the taxpayers... they do not give two hoots about any foreigner or any crime being committed. All these things are in place to controll and manipulate the honest slave-taxpayer. What news have we been hearing the past 2-3 years? Even when someone gets caught on camera stealing, or raping, absolutely nothing will be done at all. But try and go 5KMH too fast on any road in Europe - and the camera will definitely catch you!
You see, the camera is only useful to someone who can make money from the film. Catching a criminal with a camera?? no, that was yesterday... today it is about money.
(Camera batteries are expensive you know, and someone needs to pay for them. A criminal will only cost extra money processing them, and they have no money to pay any fines anyway, so thieves are bad for goverment money-making business.)

 

[WIDUKIND]

would you buy some thousands and thousands of them locators?
The HJ/Napola/Students etc. items he owned ran into over 600 pieces.

Hi Wim,

here is Philippe Gillain's NPEA Visor cap that was in his collection.

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[B-RAD]

Wim

You only need to place one gps locators in a item. You might find your items still together in a truck, garage or building within a hour, day or week. Even if things are split up you would like to catch the thief. They only cost $25.00 or 4 for $70.00 and that's Canadian dollars. I kept one on my father in-laws key chain (he had alzheimers and would get lost) and I could track his location.

 

[Jo Rivett]

Wim

You only need to place one gps locators in a item. You might find your items still together in a truck, garage or building within a hour, day or week. Even if things are split up you would like to catch the thief....

Yes, but that`s going on the premise that your whole collection may be stolen! And that is something that rarely happens and surely no one recons with. Maybe at shows it would be a clever idea to slip one into a special item in case it goes walkies...

The major problem here, is the way in which this «job» was carried out. I really can`t see this being a cash-job, or any part of the collection ending up for sale on the web or at Militaria shows. The kinds of folk that have the means (and balls) to carry out a "job" like this, want the items for themselves. (or their contractor)
They go into the same underground oligarch rooms that stolen paintings worth millions do. They will most likely never be seen again on the open market IMHO.