Post: $65 Million stolen in Jewelry Heist
Options
08-12-2009, 01:32 PM
#1
Originally posted by another user
LONDON (AP) -- Two well-dressed thieves walked into a London Bond Street jewelry store last week and, after brandishing handguns at shop workers, made off with $65 million worth of gems in one of Britain's biggest jewelry heists, police said Tuesday.
Security camera footage released by police shows two men in crisp suits entering Graff Diamonds' flagship store Thursday afternoon. It was the third time a Graff store in London had been targeted in a high-profile raid in the past six years.
The men stole dozens of high-end rings, bracelets, necklaces and watches worth 40 million pounds, or $65 million, and fired two gunshots into the ground as they escaped in a series of getaway cars, police said. No one was hurt.
It was among the biggest heists in British history - far outstripping the 1963 Great Train Robbery in which 2 million pounds were lost.
Last week's theft, however, was topped by the 2006 robbery of 53 million pounds in cash from a security company depot in southern England, and was rivaled by the 1987 theft of an estimated 40 million pounds from the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Center in London.
Police declined to rank Thursday's robbery, saying only that it was one of the country's biggest. Items stolen included a pair of white diamond double hoop earrings, a flowing flower necklace with yellow diamond petals, a platinum white Marquise diamond ring and a Chronograff watch, police said.
Graff's store, a classical stucco and stone town house in London's jewelry district, has been targeted by thieves in the past.
The same store lost jewelry worth 23 million pounds in 2003 when it was robbed by jewel thief Nebojsa Denic, a Kosovan Serb and a member of the notorious gang of Balkan robbers known as "the Pink Panthers." Denic was caught and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In 2007, another smartly dressed pair was chauffeured to the store's Sloane Street branch in a Bentley Continental Flying Spur. They whipped out handguns and made off with 10 million pounds worth of gems.
Security camera footage released by police shows two men in crisp suits entering Graff Diamonds' flagship store Thursday afternoon. It was the third time a Graff store in London had been targeted in a high-profile raid in the past six years.
The men stole dozens of high-end rings, bracelets, necklaces and watches worth 40 million pounds, or $65 million, and fired two gunshots into the ground as they escaped in a series of getaway cars, police said. No one was hurt.
It was among the biggest heists in British history - far outstripping the 1963 Great Train Robbery in which 2 million pounds were lost.
Last week's theft, however, was topped by the 2006 robbery of 53 million pounds in cash from a security company depot in southern England, and was rivaled by the 1987 theft of an estimated 40 million pounds from the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Center in London.
Police declined to rank Thursday's robbery, saying only that it was one of the country's biggest. Items stolen included a pair of white diamond double hoop earrings, a flowing flower necklace with yellow diamond petals, a platinum white Marquise diamond ring and a Chronograff watch, police said.
Graff's store, a classical stucco and stone town house in London's jewelry district, has been targeted by thieves in the past.
The same store lost jewelry worth 23 million pounds in 2003 when it was robbed by jewel thief Nebojsa Denic, a Kosovan Serb and a member of the notorious gang of Balkan robbers known as "the Pink Panthers." Denic was caught and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In 2007, another smartly dressed pair was chauffeured to the store's Sloane Street branch in a Bentley Continental Flying Spur. They whipped out handguns and made off with 10 million pounds worth of gems.
That's a ****load of money.
08-12-2009, 01:50 PM
#4
KINGLAWLOR4
UP THE RA
08-12-2009, 02:13 PM
#6
Zero Thunder
Climbing up the ladder
08-12-2009, 05:38 PM
#8
Aston
Brute
Yeh and the police dont have a clue where they went they said, they fleed the store and got into a Black BMW, then got into a Silver Mercedes and then switch to another car which they dont know what type or make and drove off. ( Thats 150k spent already 
)
So they have a picture of 2 guys who are probably sitting in the coutnryside somewhere where nobody will see them waiting 5years to sell all these jewels.gust
EDIT: This was on MSN News today, 13th August.
'Make-up man disguised gem robbers''Make-up man disguised gem robbers'
pa.press.net
Two robbers who pulled off Britain's biggest ever jewellery heist may have concealed their identities with film-style rubber masks, it has been reported.
The duo were said to have hired an unsuspecting professional make-up artist to disguise their faces using liquid latex shortly before they made off with a £40 million haul in a raid on an exclusive London jewellers.
According to The Sun, the 29-year-old freelance make-up artist, who cannot be identified for his own safety, also altered their hair colour and skin tone in a four-hour session, for which he charged a £450 fee.
The newspaper reported that forensic experts had seized items including hairbrushes, gowns and bank notes from a make-up studio in Covent Garden, west London. However, a Metropolitan Police spokesman declined to comment on this line of inquiry.
Poor quality footage recorded by an eyewitness on a mobile phone captured the moment the robbers fired a gun as they escaped with 43 items of jewellery. The men can be seen calmly walking towards a blue BMW holding a woman staff member as someone shouts: "Call the police, call the police."
Several security men and possibly one passer-by then move towards the smartly-dressed pair before a gunshot rings out. A source close to the inquiry said it could not be ruled out that the men intended to harm or kill one of their pursuers and it was not a warning shot.
Investigators have been trawling through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage to piece together the robbers' exact escape route. They are looking for at least two accomplices who helped the men escape from Graff Jewellers in London's West End last Thursday.
Officers have recovered a blue BMW abandoned in a nearby street after it collided with a black taxi just seconds after the raid. They have also found a high-powered motorbike possibly used to spirit away a bag holding the stolen gems.
Detectives believe the two men, whose images were caught on camera as they walked into the Mayfair store, may still be in London.
Officers arrested and questioned a 50-year-old man in Ilford, east London, on Monday in connection with the robbery. They suspect that the man, who has been released on bail, may have been involved in planning the raid, although he was not in the West End when it took place.
)So they have a picture of 2 guys who are probably sitting in the coutnryside somewhere where nobody will see them waiting 5years to sell all these jewels.gust
EDIT: This was on MSN News today, 13th August.
'Make-up man disguised gem robbers''Make-up man disguised gem robbers'
pa.press.net
Two robbers who pulled off Britain's biggest ever jewellery heist may have concealed their identities with film-style rubber masks, it has been reported.
The duo were said to have hired an unsuspecting professional make-up artist to disguise their faces using liquid latex shortly before they made off with a £40 million haul in a raid on an exclusive London jewellers.
According to The Sun, the 29-year-old freelance make-up artist, who cannot be identified for his own safety, also altered their hair colour and skin tone in a four-hour session, for which he charged a £450 fee.
The newspaper reported that forensic experts had seized items including hairbrushes, gowns and bank notes from a make-up studio in Covent Garden, west London. However, a Metropolitan Police spokesman declined to comment on this line of inquiry.
Poor quality footage recorded by an eyewitness on a mobile phone captured the moment the robbers fired a gun as they escaped with 43 items of jewellery. The men can be seen calmly walking towards a blue BMW holding a woman staff member as someone shouts: "Call the police, call the police."
Several security men and possibly one passer-by then move towards the smartly-dressed pair before a gunshot rings out. A source close to the inquiry said it could not be ruled out that the men intended to harm or kill one of their pursuers and it was not a warning shot.
Investigators have been trawling through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage to piece together the robbers' exact escape route. They are looking for at least two accomplices who helped the men escape from Graff Jewellers in London's West End last Thursday.
Officers have recovered a blue BMW abandoned in a nearby street after it collided with a black taxi just seconds after the raid. They have also found a high-powered motorbike possibly used to spirit away a bag holding the stolen gems.
Detectives believe the two men, whose images were caught on camera as they walked into the Mayfair store, may still be in London.
Officers arrested and questioned a 50-year-old man in Ilford, east London, on Monday in connection with the robbery. They suspect that the man, who has been released on bail, may have been involved in planning the raid, although he was not in the West End when it took place.
08-12-2009, 05:40 PM
#9
Oneinfamous2
Banned
Copyright © 2026, NextGenUpdate.
All Rights Reserved.
