Thieves steal $777,000 car as owner dines

A visitor looks at a Maybach super luxury car in New Delhi, February 24, 2006. Thieves have stolen a Maybach luxury limousine worth 530,000 euro ($777,000) while the car's owner had dinner in a Moscow restaurant, Russian media reported Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Thieves have stolen a Maybach luxury limousine worth 530,000 euro ($777,000) while the car's owner had dinner in a Moscow restaurant, Russian media reported Wednesday.

Thieves bundled the owner's chauffeur into the back seat and threatened to kill him, the Kommersant newspaper reported. The driver was later abandoned outside Moscow's ring road.

Police said they suspected the car was stolen to order by a special gang for sale in Kazakhstan or Ukraine.

The Maybach has been adopted as the ultimate status symbol by Russia's super-rich. There are only a few dozen in Russia and this was the first case of one being stolen, the daily said.