Sherlock Holmes inspires jewellery heist

Policemen in St Petersburg are claiming that a robbery in the romantic city was inspired by a plot from one of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic tales.

The incident took place at a jeweller's in Russia's second city. According to police reports, thieves paid an elderly lady to vacate her apartment. Meanwhile, they burrowed through a wall in her flat, forcing their way into the jewellery store that adjoined the property.

Before you could say elementary, my dear Watsky, the crooks had made off with a hoard of goodies.

Apparently, a security alarm went off, but owing to the fact that nothing looked suspicious from the front door, nobody acted on the siren.

The heist echoes the famed Conan Doyle caper The Red Headed League, in which a man is duped into leaving his property, opening the way for thieves to use his house as a bridge to the bank next door.

In the story, Sherlock is one step ahead, and foils the crooks. But as St Petersburg cops lamented this April, the pipe-smoking legend was not in attendance this time round.