Steve Stanulis, Kanye and Kim's former bodyguard, gives his thoughts on the Paris robbery. Photos / Splash News, Getty Images
Steve Stanulis, Kanye and Kim's former bodyguard, gives his thoughts on the Paris robbery. Photos / Splash News, Getty Images
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's former bodyguard Steve Stanulis says the robbery in which Kardashian lost millions of dollars worth of jewellery was definitely an inside job, and could've been much worse.
Stanulis, 42, worked for the celebrity couple before he was "let go for supposedly hitting on Kim". He's a former police officer and has 22 years' experience in the security business.
He spoke to Polly and Grant on The Hits this morning and gave his views on the situation.
French police officers stand in front of Kim Kardashian's luxury apartment Hotel de Pourtales, where she was robbed at gunpoint. Photo / Getty
By "inside job", Stanulis isn't necessarily talking about someone who the couple knew, but either someone who works for them or even someone in the hotel that "was privy to their comings and goings".
First, he says it makes no sense that no one can identify the five offenders who were dressed as police - "it's not like they were wearing a gorilla mask, you could see their faces".
Second, they went to a building that no one really knows about and is shrouded in secrecy, and did so when the only bodyguard the family had was away at a nightclub.
But most importantly: "They didn't even ransack the room. They knew exactly where the jewellery was."
He says it could even have been a matter of someone paying off hotel staff to learn the star's movements and patterns.
"You give someone making that much money $20,000 or $30,000 ... it's life-changing".
WHY WASN'T THERE MORE SECURITY?
Kim Kardashian with her current bodyguard Pascal Duvier. Photo / Splash News
Recent reports claim there was only one unarmed guard and no CCTV cameras at the hotel, and Stanulis has heard reports that Pascal Duvier was the only bodyguard there in Paris protecting Kim and her two sisters, Kourtney and Kendall.
Extra security isn't exactly pricey by Kim and Kanye standards, so why didn't they have it?
Stanulis says: "I don't know why there wasn't an armed police officer watching Kim for a couple hundred bucks - it might have deterred the whole situation.
"They don't pay much - I didn't change my life working with them. What I'm saying is, I know what they pay so if you're flashing around a ring worth millions of dollars, what's a couple hundred bucks to have someone protect you? Especially when you're on foreign soil."
COULD IT HAVE BEEN A PUBLICITY STUNT?
Stanulis says Kim and Kanye staging the robbery for publicity wouldn't be surprising, but it seems unlikely. Photo / AP
"I don't think so. But would it shock me? No," Stanulis says.
"If we find out at the end of the day this was a set up hoax, I'd be like 'Okay, pass the mustard.' It wouldn't shock me at all.
"The thing is, they've been down a little bit on popularity and ... if this was a PR stunt it sure as hell worked because I myself have been on every major show in the world talking about her so how do you think it worked for her?
"If it was that, it was a success or you and I wouldn't be talking," he told Polly and Grant.
But ultimately, Stanulis believes "there were too many wheels in motion for it to be a hoax".
WHY WASN'T PASCAL THERE?
Kim Kardashian West doesn't blame her bodyguard Pascal Duvier for the attack. Photo / Getty
As someone who's done the job before, Stanulis is sympathetic to Kim's current bodyguard Pascal Duvier, who also had a duty to protect Kim's sisters who were in the club with him when Kim went back to the hotel.
And, he says, it might be better that Duvier wasn't there.
"Even if Pascal was there, what was he gonna do?" he says, saying one bodyguard doesn't have much of a chance against "five guys with guns".
"It's maybe a blessing ... because if he'd tried to fight them off it might have gone sideways."
