Over the weekend, six were arrested in India after stealing 2,200 finisher’s medals that the thieves believed were actual gold. The crew pilfered the medals from boxes scattered across various tents at the Tata Mumbai Marathon.
During the marathon, police officers noticed a group of third-party workers hired for the event carrying large sacks out of the tents, who attempted to avoid the officers.
“The team suspected some foul play as the laborers tried to avoid them. A search revealed that the sacks contained medals,” one of the officers told The Hindustan Times.
After being notified by the police, marathon organizers discovered that 162 boxes containing more than 2,000 medals were missing.
The police arrested six as part of the investigation, including the workers and their friends.
“The laborers were engaged in installing tents and fixing banners. The accused thought the medals were made of gold and decided to steal them,” Pravin Munde, deputy commissioner of police, told the paper.
Of course, not even Olympic gold medals are made of solid gold—an Olympic gold medal is mainly composed of silver, which is then plated with at least six grams of actual gold. The 2,200 stolen medals were said to be worth around $1,700, just a little more than the value of four actual gold medals.
Unfortunately, the would-be gold caper was not the only news surrounding the marathon.
Two runners, including a 74-year-old and a 40-year-old man, collapsed and died during the race. Both were avid marathoners, according to the Times of India. A further 22 runners were hospitalized due to dehydration and other factors.
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Condé Nast Traveler and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
