'Window cleaner' scoops $1m mid-day heist in Milan

Police in Milan are investigating an unusual $1m (£628,420) robbery in the heart of the Italian fashion capital.

It was, said the victim, "a masterpiece of its kind". It was certainly daring - in broad daylight and on one of Milan's swankiest shopping streets.

Staff at Pederzani's, one of the city's exclusive jewellers, thought nothing amiss when a window cleaner went to work on the plate glass display.

Dressed in regulation overalls, he propped his ladder against the window.

But then, instead of using the bucket and squeegee to clean it, he calmly unscrewed it before scooping an estimated $1m-worth of jewels into his bucket and walking off into the Friday shopping crowd.