'Grandpa Robbers' on Trial in Paris Kardashian Heist

Ten people dubbed the "grandpa robbers" are on trial in Paris almost nine years after robbers held Kim Kardashian at gunpoint and stole jewelry worth an estimated $10 million. Most of the defendants are older men with long criminal records. Another suspect, 72-year-old Marceau Baum-Gertner, aka "Smashed Nose," died two months ago, Le Monde reports. The oldest suspect, 81-year-old Pierre Bouianere, has Alzheimer's disease and was deemed unfit to stand trial. Two defendants, including 68-year-old Aomar Aït Khedache, aka "Omar the Old," have admitted involvement in the Oct. 3, 2016, robbery.

Khedache, the alleged ringleader, and 69-year-old Didier Dubreucq are the two robbers who allegedly entered the apartment wearing police uniforms and tied up Kardashian, the AP reports. Other defendants allegedly tied up the concierge, acted as lookouts, or helped the gang sell the stolen jewelry. Kardashian who has said she was afraid she would be raped, will testify in person during the three-week trial. The robbers made off with jewels including Kardashian's $4 million engagement ring from then-husband Kanye West, which was never recovered. Khedache has said he didn't know who Kardashian was until he heard about the value of her jewelry from a friend of a chauffeur and convinced former acquaintances to reunite for another robbery, Le Monde reports.

Patricia Tourancheau, author of Kim and the Grandpa Robbers, says the men were caught months after the robbery because they "didn't take into account the progress made by police techniques, which can now find micro traces of DNA anywhere," the BBC reports. She says the suspects, who dropped a bag of jewels as they fled on bikes, aren't the "elite" thieves the media initially portrayed them as, but a "bit of a bunch of losers." Tourancheau says she's fascinated by the "clash between these old-style burglars from the Parisian banlieue and this global social media star." "These are a group of elderly down-and-out thieves, they're always broke, they're forever involved in convoluted plans … and they're facing a huge celebrity and they don't even know who she is," she says. (More Kim Kardashian stories.)