VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 28 (UPI) -- Gas masks and anti-bear spray were used in the $2 million robbery of a Vancouver, Canada, museum last week, museum officials said.
Anthony Shelton, director of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., the thieves waited until the lone security guard went outside for a cigarette to strike Friday night.
Shelton didn't say how this was learned, but said the thieves donned gas masks and then fogged the museum with powerful bear repellent gas that would have disabled any people.
More mysterious is that several key surveillance cameras stopped recording before the heist. An automated alert about the failure went to campus police, who did nothing, the CBC said.
Thieves took three pieces of Mexican Zapotec jewelry and 12 works by nationally acclaimed goldsmith and Haida Indian artist, Bill Reid, Shelton said.
Shelton said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been questioning staff, but denied there is any evidence to suggest the burglary was an inside job.
