PARIS (AFP)
Paris police have recovered a 300,000-euro ($375,000) watch
stolen from Rafael Nadal at the hotel where he stayed during the
French Open and arrested a hotel employee, a police source said
Wednesday.
The source said police tracked down the alleged thief, a hotel
barman, on Tuesday after tracing his hotel access badge, which
was used to get into the suite in which Nadal stayed with his
parents during the championship.
He confessed to having entered Nadal's suite and taken the luxury
watch, and brought police to the spot where he had hidden it
along a railway track near his home in the Essonne area south of
Paris, the source said.
Speaking at a tournament in Halle, Germany, Nadal praised police
for cracking the case.
"The French police have done good work," he said, adding he was
"very happy" the watch had been found and praising the hotel
despite the incident.
"I cannot say anything wrong about the hotel. They were great for
me every time I was there, for the last, I think, eight years.
I'll be back in the hotel next year," Nadal said.
French media reported that luxury watchmaker Richard Mille had
lent Nadal the watch for the French Open, which the Spanish
tennis sensation won for a record seventh time Monday, beating
Serbia's Novak Djokovic.
