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mystery man who was caught outside louvre on the day of crown jewel robbery He has been identified as 15-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux.
The teen, a fan of Sherlock Holmes, was shocked when he realized the photo had been viewed millions of times. hercule poirot Joe lives with his parents and grandfather in Rambouillet, 30 km (19 mi) away. ParisDecided to play with the suspense of the world.
As theories began swirling about the sharply dressed stranger in the “Fedora Man” shot — spies, insiders, AI fakers — she decided to shut up and watch.
“I didn’t want to say right away that it was me,” he said. “With this photo, there’s a mystery, so you have to make it last.”
For his only personal interview since that photo turned him into an international curiosity, he appeared for the AP cameras at his home the same way he had that Sunday: in a fedora hat, Yves Saint Laurent Waistcoat borrowed from his father, jacket chosen by his mother, neat tie, Tommy Hilfiger trousers and a restored, war-damaged Russian watch.
The fedora, at this exact angle, is his tribute to French Resistance hero Jean Moulin.
In person, he’s a bright, happy-go-lucky teenager who, by chance, wandered into a global story.
From photo to fame
The image that made him famous was meant to document a crime scene. Three police officers lean on a silver car and stop it louvre entrance, just hours later thieves carried out a broad daylight raid on the French crown jewels. To the right, a lone figure in a three-piece suit strides forward – a glimpse of film noir into a modern-day manhunt.
The internet did the rest. “Fedora Man”, as users dubbed him, was presented as an old-fashioned spy, an inside man, a. Netflix Pitch – or not human at all. Many were convinced that he was AI-generated.
Pedro understood why. “In the photo, I’m wearing 1940s clothes and we’re in 2025,” he said. “There’s a contradiction.”
Even some relatives and friends remained hesitant until they saw his mother in the background. That’s when they knew it: The Internet’s favorite fake detective was a real boy.
The real story was simple. Pedro, his mother and grandfather came to visit the Louvre.
“We wanted to go to the Louvre, but it was closed,” he said. “We didn’t know there was a robbery.”
He asked the officials why the gates were closed. Seconds later, AP photographer Thibault Camus caught Pedro in the middle, documenting the security cordon.
“When the photo was taken, I didn’t know,” Pedro said. “I was just passing by.”
Four days later, an acquaintance messaged: Is that you?
“He told me there were 5 million views,” he said. “I was a little surprised.” Then his mother called and told that he was in the New York Times. “It’s not every day,” he said. Cousins in Colombia, friends in Austria, family friends and classmates followed with screenshots and calls.
“People said, ‘You’ve become a star,'” he said. “I was amazed that with just one photo you can go viral in a matter of days.”
an inspired style
The look that stunned millions is not an outfit designed for a museum trip. Inspired by 20th century history and black-and-white images of suited politicians and fictional spies, Pedro began dressing this way less than a year ago.
“I like to be cute,” he said. “I go to school that way.”
In a sea of hoodies and sneakers, he appears in a three-piece suit. And the hat? No, it’s its own ritual. The fedora is reserved for weekends, holidays, and museum trips.
His style has already started spreading in the school without uniforms. “A friend of mine came over with a tie this week,” he said.
He understands why people projected the perfect detective character on him: the impossible heist, the impossible detective. He loves Poirot – “very handsome” – and likes the idea that an unusual crime requires someone who looks unusual. “When something unusual happens, you don’t imagine a normal detective,” he said. “You imagine someone different.”
That tendency fits the world he comes from. His mother, Félicité Garzon Delvaux, grew up in an 18th-century museum-palace, was the daughter of a curator and an artist, and regularly took her son to exhibitions.
“Art and museums are living places,” he said. “Life without art is not life.”
For Pedro, art and imagination were part of everyday life. So when millions of people projected stories on a frame of him in a fedora next to armed police in the Louvre, he recognized the power of an image and let the myth breathe before moving on.
He remained silent for several days, then changed his Instagram from private to public.
“People had to try to figure out who I was,” he said. “Then the journalists came and I told them my age. They were very surprised.”
He is confident about whatever happens next. “I am waiting for people to approach me for films,” he said with a smile. “It will be a lot of fun.”
In a story of theft and security lapses, “Fedora Man” is a suave defendant – a teenager who believes that art, style and a good mystery belong in ordinary life. A photograph turned him into an icon. Meeting him confirms that he is convincingly real.
“I’m a star,” he says – less a boast than an experiment, as if he’s trying on words the same way he does a hat. “I’ll keep dressing like this. It’s my style.”