How do you steal a 10-ton pharaoh statue? Three thieves tried a crane.

The three thieves came equipped with handheld diggers, a heavy crane and some mighty big plans.

Their intended target? A 10-foot granite statue of Ramses II — who ruled for 68 years as one of ancient Egypt’s mightiest pharaohs — weighing almost 10 tons, Egyptian officials said.

“They tried to lift the statue of Ramses II and excavate antiquities in the area,” prosecutors said in a statement posted on Facebook, announcing that the thieves had been detained by police and the treasure was not removed from the quarry in southern Egypt’s Aswan region.