When 15-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux realised a news photograph of him at the Louvre on the day of the crown jewels heist had drawn millions of views, his first instinct was not to rush online and unmask himself.

Quite the opposite. A fan of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot who lives with his parents and grandfather in Rambouillet, 30km from Paris, Garzon Delvaux decided to play along with the world's suspense.

As theories swirled about the sharply dressed stranger in the Associated Press "Fedora Man" photo - detective, insider, AI fake - he decided to stay silent and watch.

"I didn't want to say immediately it was me," he says.

"With this photo, there is a mystery, so you have to make it last."

For his only in-person interview since that snap turned him into an international

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