Phones burglary mystery goes on
Investigators find ceiling alarm sensors sabotaged before R2-million worth of items taken from iStore
THE sophisticated, brazen burglary of a high-end IT store at the Walmer Park Shopping Centre last week still has the police baffled. The biggest mystery is that there is no structural breach of the complex’s roof even though the thieves gained entry to the iStore from the ceiling after closing time and emptied the vault of almost R2-million worth of Apple iPhones.
The burglary was discovered on Monday morning last week when the store manageress opened up and found that about 150 iPhone cellphones and gadgets had been stolen from the strongroom at the back of the store.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the burglars broke into the shop on Sunday night.
Walmer Park centre portfolio manager Leonie Scheepers said yesterday: “The safe had been cleaned out – except for two cellular devices which, incidentally, were the only two devices which had tracking monitors in them.
“According to in-store CCTV footage, the safe was burgled at approximately 11pm as a partial image of a suspect coming through the ceiling in the strong-room was noted.”
Scheepers said alarm sensors in the ceiling had been sabotaged and did not activate during the burglary.
“At no stage were the alarms in the ceiling void above the iStore activated, nor was the alarm in the safe ac- tivated,” she said. Some of the devices were found in the ceiling, where the suspects had removed all the devices from their packaging.
“It is still unknown how many people were involved,” Scheepers said.
“Ongoing investigations still do not reveal how the suspect [or suspects] gained entry to the roof and ceiling void as there is no breach to the roof structure.
“It is also still unknown how the suspects left the ceiling or the centre.”
She said that all the devices had been locked in the backroom and the entire incident took place in the vault – out of view of patrolling security.
“All centre security staff have been polygraphed and all of them have passed.
“The iStore internal cameras and alarm system are monitored remotely from Johannesburg.”
Scheepeers said iStore was also conducting an internal investigation.
Police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidu said officers were still investigating.
She said the heist had been well organised and planned.