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Åkersberga, Sweden—If you want the police to look very carefully through your trash, put it in a container labeled “Bomb.” (Image at left: The Local).

That’s what a couple of thieves did last week to dispose of the priceless crown jewels of Sweden. The Local, a Swedish-based newspaper, reports that the pieces found in a Stockholm suburb were confirmed to be the Crown Jewels, stolen from Strängnäs Cathedral last year. The crowns were made for the burial of Kind Charles IX and his wife Christina, and date back to the early 1600s. A royal orb was stolen along with them, and the gold jewels are decorated with silver and pearls.

The Swedish crown jewels recovered in a rubbish bin labeled "Bomb." Image: The Local.

The brazen July 31 heist was a smash-and-grab conducted in front of tourists at the cathedral. Perpetrators smashed a locked and alarmed display case, grabbed the jewels, and made off on bicycles before getting into a motorboat.

The pieces were returned Monday in a large black wheeled rubbish bin, spray-painted with the word “bomb” (in English) and placed on top of a parked car. At press time, there was no word of the condition of the jewels, but three young men in their 20s are in police custody.

This is neither the first theft of Swedish royal jewelry nor the first return in a trash container, says the paper. In 2013, a crown and scepter used in the funeral of Sweden's King Johan III were stolen from Västerås, another village in the same region. Those later turned up in two large trash bags by the side of a highway following a tip-off to police. 

Det Är Inte Sopor. It’s not garbage, indeed.