Robbers Raid Mini-Russia Museum, Beat Accountant

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: September 12, 2012 (Issue # 1726)

A team of robbers stole boxes of cash from the Grand Model Russia museum in St. Petersburg early Monday after entering an open door to the facility and  tying up multiple staff members.

Five burglars entered the museum — an 800-square-meter model of Russia with sections devoted to every area of the country from Kaliningrad to the Far East — and beat up the office accountant, deputy general director of the museum Olga Drukarenko told Interfax on Tuesday.

The robbers then used zip ties — plastic fasteners that can be used as makeshift handcuffs — to restrain the accountant, the museum’s deputy technical director, two model builders and two janitors, Drukarenko told the news agency. A law enforcement source told RIA-Novosti that there were six burglars, two of whom were women, all dressed in camouflage. The source said they entered the museum around 1:30 a.m. Monday.

The intruders collected five metal boxes filled with money and documents, as well as discs containing security-camera footage, and fled in a car, Drukarenko told Interfax. She said it had not yet been determined how much money was stolen.

Drukarenko added that the museum, located at 16 Tsvetochnaya Ulitsa, was open for visitors Monday and operating on its regular daily schedule.

The museum’s website says it is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.