The Louvre thieves used a furniture lift in their heist. Now the company that makes it is hoping to cash in.

German businessman Alexander Böcker was reading the news with his wife last Sunday when she told him about a robbery at the Louvre in Paris.

“My wife said, ‘Well, look at this: Somebody broke into the Louvre. There’s a robbery going on!'” he recalled in an interview with CBS News.

Right away, his wife, Julia Scharwatz, noticed something familiar: the lift used in the robbery looked just like one that their company makes. 

“If you know the product, you can really quickly identify that it was your product,” Böcker said on Friday. “It became clear to us that this is a reprehensible act, and they have used our machine for it.”

The machine was the Böcker Agilo, a lift that can be used in construction or to hoist furniture to apartments through upper-story windows. 

It is just one of the machines that Böcker’s company — called Böcker — manufactures. And as more details of the robbery emerged — particularly that no one had been hurt — Böcker and Scharwatz, who works alongside her husband as the company’s head of marketing, began getting messages from colleagues and employees asking: “Can’t we make something out of it?”

The next day, the brainstorming began as they tried to think of new ways to advertise in the wake of the heist, which saw thieves run off with an estimated $102 million in jewels. The robbers used the Böcker lift to get to a second-story balcony where they accessed the Louvre by cutting through a window, and officials say they got in and out in just four minutes. 

One proposed ad slogan was: “‘Well even criminal professionals are using the best machinery,’ something like that,” Böcker said.

But it was Scharwatz who had the winning idea — to focus on the speed of Böcker machines.

“We bought the picture, and then we had to decide: Shall we do it or not? And I said, ‘Well, I hope everybody gets our sense of humor.’ You know, normally, the Germans are not very famous for having a sense of humor,” Böcker said.

He said he felt like it was “a very thin line,” but because no one had been hurt, “we said: ‘Let’s go for it.'”

The final ad, published on social media, shows an image of the Böcker machine positioned outside the Louvre after the robbery. 

“If you’re in a hurry,” the tagline says. That’s followed by details about the product: “The Böcker Agilo carries your treasures up to 400 kg at 42 m/min — quiet as a whisper thanks to its 230 V electric motor.”

The response to the campaign has been mixed. Many have found it funny, with some who work in marketing and advertising reaching out to the company calling it smart.

It has also gotten a lot of attention. Posts on the company’s social media sites typically draw 15,000-20,000 views per post, Böcker said, but this one garnered more than 4.3 million views on Instagram and Facebook.

“So, yeah, it is quite an unusual event for us,” Böcker said.

That publicity, though, has not translated into sales, at least yet.

“The normal customer base, especially in Europe, they know the product pretty well. We are (a) market leader in that segment,” Böcker said. “Maybe now, in other countries where this product is not so well known or not so known at all, there is maybe an interest.”

Böcker wanted to make clear, though, that neither he nor his company support the robbery at the Louvre.

“We are against, completely against, criminal activities, and we are also a serious company. 620 employees in Germany. Everything is produced in Germany, and we are also for safety,” Böcker said. “It was just a world event happening with one of our machines, and we tried to use it. And we really do not want … anybody to get bad feelings about that. And if so, we are sorry for that.”