Staff at Blenheim Palace were awoken by the sound of breaking glass and a noise which sounded like an exploding boiler as a £4.75 million gold toilet was stolen in a five-minute “audacious raid”, a court has heard.
“They knew precisely where to go, broke down the wooden door to the cubicle where the toilet was fully plumbed in, removed it, leaving water pouring out of the pipes, and drove away,” prosecutor Julian Christopher KC said previously.
They were awoken when the fully functioning toilet, which had been installed as an artwork at the Oxfordshire country house where Sir Winston Churchill was born, was stolen in a raid in the early hours of September 14 2019.
Night duty manager Abel Clarke, whose room is over the exhibition, almost above the golden toilet, said: “I was woken by the fire alarm sounding.
Ms Paice, who also lives in a flat on the site, said she had been woken up by the the sound of what she thought was a delivery but then realised it could not be and added: “I realised it was smashing glass.”.
