William and Kate were sleeping: burglars at Windsor Castle

Great excitement at Windsor Castle: As the British newspaper “reports, two masked men entered the property in October while heir to the throne Prince William, his wife Kate and their three children were sleeping in their nearby home Adelaide Cottage. King Charles III and Queen Camilla is said not to have been at Windsor at the time.

According to the report, the burglars climbed over a 6-foot fence at night to steal farm vehicles. The fleeing thieves then used a stolen truck to break through a security gate at the royal estate.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police now confirmed the incident to the newspaper: “At around 11.45pm on Sunday October 13th we received a report of a break-in at a property on the Crown Estate off the A308 in Windsor. The Perpetrators broke into a farm building and stole a black Isuzu pickup truck and a red quad bike. They then set off towards Old Windsor/Datchet.” No arrests have been made yet and the investigation is ongoing.

The thieves are said to have struck at Shaw Farm, a working farm within the castle’s security zone. The Sun quoted a source as saying: “They must have known before the break-in that the vehicles were stored there and when was the best time to escape without being caught.” The perpetrators would probably have been watching Windsor Castle for a while. “There are alarm systems at Windsor Castle, but the first time anyone knew of a break-in was when they crashed through the security barrier at the Shaw Farm Gate exit. The barrier had to be replaced as it was so badly damaged.”

While Charles was in Scotland at the time, his eldest son William was said to have been at home with his family. Their house, where they have lived since summer 2022, is only five minutes away. The destroyed gate is the nearest exit for them. “It was a Sunday evening during a school week, so the young princes and princesses had probably gone to bed at Adelaide Cottage, just around the corner but still on the premises,” said an insider.

The Sun previously reported that armed police were withdrawn from the castle’s two main public entrances. This was due to a lack of qualified civil servants. In addition, armed police officers would make tourists nervous. However, there are still said to be armed police officers patrolling the site. However, they now only appeared in public at the changing of the guard ceremonies in front of the castle.

It is not the first incident at Windsor Castle: on Christmas Day 2021, an intruder armed with a crossbow climbed over a fence and threatened to kill Queen Elizabeth II. The then 23-year-old was sentenced to nine years in prison for treason. In February this year, an unarmed man was discovered in the gardens outside the royal apartments at Windsor Castle. He was arrested and detained on suspicion of trespassing.