French van heist suspect surrenders in Monaco

The daring heist turned Musulin into an Internet sensation, with several pages on Facebook and elsewhere.

A French security van driver who became an Internet folk hero after making off with 11.6 million euros (17.2 million dollars) handed himself in to police in Monaco on Monday, officials said.

Toni Musulin's armoured vehicle was found abandoned -- and missing 49 sacks of cash -- in the central city of Lyon on November 5. Two days later, police found nine million euros in a nearby lock-up garage.

Investigators said they were worried the suspect, who has family roots in the former Yugoslavia, might flee to the Balkans with the rest of the cash, and Interpol issued an alert to its 185 member states asking for help.

But the 39-year-old suspect turned up, apparently in a confused state, in Monaco, a sovereign city-state on the Mediterranean coast about 500 kilometres (310 miles) south of Lyon.

- He was acting strangely when he surrendered. We still don't understand why he did so. We don't even know if he understood that he was in Monaco - said a Monaco official who asked not to be named.

Monaco police said they would give a press conference later Monday, while a police source told AFP he was handed over to French authorities in the Jardin Exotique park on the border between the two states.

Musulin was not arrested by Monaco police because they had received no international warrant, the source said, adding he was escorted to the border without handcuffs because he agreed to be questioned by French police.

Because there was no violence during the heist, Musulin faces a maximum of three years in jail if convicted of the theft.

The daring heist rapidly turned the van driver into an Internet sensation, with several pages on Facebook and elsewhere appearing overnight to praise France's new anti-hero.

- The World is Yours: Tony Best Driver 2009 - page has been drawing a steady stream of comments describing the theft as "the heist of the century."

Facebook users created a "Tony Musulin for president" page, while members of the "Tony Musulin fan club" said he was a "hero" for his "no guns, no violence" approach.

Musulin disappeared, along with the vehicle and cash collected from a Bank of France building, while his two co-workers from the Swedish security firm Loomis had gone back inside their company's premises.

Investigators later found packets of cash -- ranging from five-euro notes to 100-euro notes -- totalling 9.11 million euros hidden behind a hired car parked in a garage that had been rented under a false name since April.

The rental contract ran until December and investigators, who believe Musulin acted alone, initially hoped to catch the thief when he returned to his booty.

But after details were leaked to the press they decided to make public their discovery.

Musulin earned less than 2,000 euros a month in the Loomis job he had held for 10 years, media reports said, yet had managed to buy a Ferrari sports car.

He lived a quiet life in Villeurbanne, near Lyon, where he liked to pump iron at the local gym.

A colleague at Loomis told French radio that he was "slightly odd" and always complaining about being badly paid and warning that one day "the bosses are going to pay."

Musulin declared the Ferrari stolen in April, according to investigators. He had also emptied his bank accounts and his apartment before the heist, leading to suspicion of an inside job.