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Charles Leclerc Chasing Watch Thieves in His Ferrari 488 Pista Is Real-Life Batman Stuff

There’s no describing the mix of feelings you experience when you realize you’ve been robbed of something; we’ve all been there at some point. With anger, frustration, sadness and loss is the desire for revenge, to go Batman on the culprit so you can get your stolen item back.
Charles Leclerc's Ferrari 488 Pista chasing after the thieves who took his Richard Mille watch 13 photos
Photo: Twitter / Arma dei Carabinieri (Composite)
Charles Leclerc wears the RM 67-02 Leclerc Prototype, sold in 2021 for $2.3 millionCharles Leclerc wears the RM 67-02 Leclerc Prototype, sold in 2021 for $2.3 millionCharles Leclerc wears the RM 67-02 Leclerc Prototype, sold in 2021 for $2.3 millionCharles Leclerc wears the RM 67-02 Leclerc Prototype, sold in 2021 for $2.3 millionCharles Leclerc wears the RM 67-02 Leclerc Prototype, sold in 2021 for $2.3 millionCharles Leclerc wears the RM 67-02 Leclerc Prototype, sold in 2021 for $2.3 millionCharles LeclercCharles LeclercCharles LeclercCharles LeclercCharles LeclercCharles Leclerc
As any police officer will tell you, that Batman stuff is best left to the fictional Dark Knight and the law: you can’t go vigilante to get your personal possession back, because that’s also breaking the law. The only exception is something like what F1 driver Charles Leclerc did when he was targeted by robbers in an April 2022 incident, when they stole his Richard Mille timepiece off his wrist.

The incident happened in Viareggio in Tuscany, Italy, during an impromptu meet and greet with fans. Two thieves posed as fans and asked for autographs and photos with Leclerc, using the few moments of physical proximity to slip off the watch from his wrist and into their pocket. Varying reports claim that the watch was worth anything between $320,000 and $2 million, with the latter meaning that he might have been wearing a Richard Mille prototype that he was testing.

Richard Mille, the hottest go-to watchmaker to the stars, has been a partner for both Leclerc and Ferrari for a very long time, developing several designs in collaboration with the former, including the famous RM 67-02 Leclerc prototype. Even if that hadn’t been the case, any piece of jewelry on Leclerc is bound to be of high value, if only because of the association with him.

Earlier this week, police arrested four people in relation to the heist, releasing at the same time the surveillance footage that helped with tracking them down. As shown in the video available at the bottom of the page, Leclerc himself contributed to their arrest, chasing down the thieves in his custom Ferrari 488 Pista and, this way, getting the plates on both vehicles used. No, he didn’t go Batman on them as you might have imagined; that’s for the movies, this is real life.

The video shows Leclerc’s Ferrari being tailed by a gray SUV before the ambush. The two men inside the vehicle communicated his whereabouts to two other guys, who showed up on a scooter, pretended to be fans, and then proceeded to steal the watch. The four met up later, to make the switch. At the end of the video, the Ferrari is seen again, this time following the two men on the scooter.

Police say that several other watches and some $25K in cash were recovered from an apartment, but they didn’t say whether Leclerc’s piece was among those. That’s probably because it wasn’t, since a July 2020 report in the Italian media claimed the watch had resurfaced after it was sold for $200,000, a tenth of its reported $2 million price and a huge paycut imposed by the fact that the watch was a one-off, which made it very easy to track.

Movie Batman is all pew-pew and butt-kicking, but real-life Batman is Charles Leclerc slow-speed chasing the men who stole his Richard Mille watch so he can get their plates.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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