Man Broke Into Museum Amid COVID-19 To Take Selfies With Dinosaurs

While the world is practicing social distancing to limit the spread of the coronavirus, visiting the museum at night seems like a perfect fit. However, museums are closed at night, so a simple, harmless visit is actually considered a crime.

But it appears that this 25-year-old man doesn’t care or don’t know the law when he broke into the Australian Museum to take selfies with dinosaurs.

Recently, a German student from a local university, who seems to like going on adventures, entered the Australian museum in Sydney at 1 AM. The Guardian reported that the museum has remained closed since August 2019 for renovations.

The student was said to spend 40 minutes wandering around the museum, making himself at home. He took a cowboy hat from the staffer’s coat rack and posed with a T.Rex’s open jaws. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care about the security cameras that were tracking him the whole time.

The New South Wales police tracked him down easily. They published the CCTV footage at the museum on the internet and asked the public to help. The man in question turned out to be Paul Kuhn, who turned himself in voluntarily. The young man showed up at the police station and was charged with breaking, entering, and refused bail.

Meanwhile, instead of criticizing Kuhn, social media offered to buy him a beer. On the contrary, Sean Heaney, deputy chief inspector, reminded people that this is not a comedy movie, this is the real world where lawbreakers will be punished.

“If this gentleman is watching, all I can say is it’s not going to be a movie producer knocking on his door, NSW police will be knocking very shortly.”

Luckily, the worst thing Kuhn did was removing a picture from the wall and taking the cowboy hat. Nothing else from the $21 million worth of exhibition was stolen. He even rang a doorbell to request access to a locked room, which suggests he didn’t have any malicious intentions.

Museums being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in several incidents, but not as funny and harmless as the one with Kuhn. In March, someone broke into the Christ Church Picture Gallery at the University of Oxford and stole three paintings with a total worth of over Rs 90 crore. The thieves were able to do that because the place was closed and everyone was in quarantine, no one protected the painting.

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