Harry Potter Plot Smashed  6/5/05

Police have smashed a plot to sell a stolen copy of the new Harry Potter novel, six weeks before it is released. Britain's Sun and Daily Mirror newspapers were both offered a copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by gun-toting thieves, who fired a shot and threatened a Sun reporter when he tried to snatch the book without paying. 

Arun Lamert, 19, claimed he stole the book from a distribution warehouse where he was working as a security guard. He told Sun reporter John Askill, "The price starts at #50,000 and I want a lot more than that. This book is being guarded like the Crown Jewels." 

But both newspapers, who secretly filmed the meeting in Kettering, England, had tipped off the police. Lambert and a 37-year-old man were later arrested on suspicion of theft and firearms offences. Two copies of the book were retrieved, which are now being kept in a secure place by cops. Askill says, "I looked down the barrell of a gun - and thought I was going to die for Harry Potter."