$25 million in stolen sparklers wash up in Paris sewer

(CBS/AP) PARIS - French police have recovered $25 million worth of jewelry hidden in a Paris rain sewer, two years after they were stolen from luxury jeweler Harry Winston's Paris store.

Nineteen rings and three sets of earrings - one pair valued at 14 million euros ($19.5 million) - were dug up from a drain at a house in the working class Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, officials said Tuesday, confirming a report on Europe-1 radio.

The jewels were hidden in a plastic container set in a cement mold inside the sewer, police said.

The Harry Winston robbery on Dec. 5, 2008, reportedly netted the thieves - some dressed as women and wearing wigs - gems and bejeweled watches worth up to 85 million euros ($118.1 million). More recently, police have set the figure at $85 million.

The Harry Winston boutique is on a street off Paris' famed Champs-Elysees Avenue, dotted with fashion houses and fashionable cafes. The robbery, carried out while Christmas shoppers strolled outside, was among the most audacious in France in recent memory.

Some stolen rings, necklaces and watches were recovered when police rounded up 25 people in a June 2009 sweep and eventually charged nine of them. Police say one of the men charged in the crime is the owner of the house where the jewels were found.