From the colorful Telegraph obituary of Peter Scott, a British cat burglar who says he targeted only the rich and famous–not that that makes it okay–and lived for the titillation of potentially being caught doing something naughty:
“Always a meticulous planner, Scott bought a new suit before each job, so that he would not look out of place in the premises he was burgling. Fear, the possibility of capture, excited him.
During one break-in ‘a titled lady appeared at the top of the stairs. ‘Everything’s all right, madam,’ I shouted up, and she went off to bed thinking I was the butler.’ On other occasions, if disturbed by the occupier, he would shout reassuringly: ‘It’s only me!’
In all, by his own reckoning, Scott stole jewels, furs and artworks worth more than £30 million. He held none of his victims in great esteem (‘upper-class prats chattering in monosyllables’). The roll-call of ‘marks’ from whom he claimed to have stolen valuables included Zsa Zsa Gabor, Lauren Bacall, Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh, Sophia Loren, Maria Callas and the gambling club and zoo owner John Aspinall. ‘Robbing that bastard Aspinall was one of my favourites,’ he recollected. ‘Sophia Loren got what she deserved too.’
Scott stole a £200,000 necklace from the Italian star when she was in Britain filming The Millionairess in 1960. Billed in the newspapers as Britain’s biggest jewellery theft, it yielded Scott £30,000 from a ‘fence.’ After Miss Loren had pointed at him on television saying: ‘I come from a long line of gipsies. You will have no luck,’ Scott lost every penny in the Palm Beach Casino at Cannes.”
Tags: Peter Scott