A man went on trial on Tuesday in Ivanovo, the center of Russia’s textile industry, on charges of stealing 27 kilometers of cloth from a local enterprise.
The man tricked the manager of a storage facility housing the cloth into letting him briefly obtain the key, which he duplicated before returning, said prosecutors in Ivanovo, which is located 290 kilometers northeast of Moscow.
The alleged con artist then hired some men to load up a truck with 449 rolls of cloth – enough to span the entire city – from the storage facility, which he opened using the key, the report said. He also took a laptop and a large sum in cash, bringing the loot’s total value to more than 1.3 million rubles ($40,000).
The suspect, a Dagestani native whose name was withheld, faces up to 10 years in prison on charges of large-scale theft, prosecutors said.
