robber made off with close to $136 million in precious jewels, a number that, by the way, surged stratospherically, exponentially, algorithmically, whatever word you want to use, in cannes. erin, how is the thief able to pull this off? >> reporter: well, erin, it was 11:30 on sunday when people had gathered here at the carlton hotel to look at the diamond exhibition, when all of a sudden a man with his face covered, head in a cap walked into the hotel and carrying a semiautomatic weapon and threatened to shoot both the exhibiters and the guests before walking out with what the prosecutors say now is over $100 million worth of jewelry. now, there was security present at the time. prosecutors say that security was unarmed. plenty of questions remain as to how this could have happened, why the necessary security was not in place to protect the jewelry and what is looking like one of the biggest gem thefts in contemporary european history.