HEIST AT WALMER JEWELLERY STORE NETS THOUSANDS
Thieves break in through the roof at Ritter’s in shopping centre after ‘faulty’ alarm deactivated
HUNDREDS of thousands of rands in jewellery and cash was stolen during a late-night heist at Walmer Park Shopping Centre yesterday. Police say the burglary at Ritter’s Jewellers had taken place between 9pm on Wednesday and 8am yesterday – after the alarm was deactivated due to an apparent fault.
About R700 000 worth of diamond and gold jewellery, including necklaces and rings, and several Krugerrand gold coins were stolen.
The break-in follows the pattern of a similar heist in which cellphones worth about R2-million were stolen from the iStore in the same shopping centre in January.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer Alwin Labans said the culprits had lifted a ceiling board, climbed into the office section of the store and forced open a safe.
“They also opened several jewellery boxes and stole items as well as money. At this stage it is unclear how they opened the safe and the exact time at which it happened,” he said.
“The CCTV cameras were also avoided during the incident.” Labans said the police forensic unit, as well as detectives, were gathering evidence to help identify the culprits.
“The burglary happened out of view of the front of the store, in the office section behind the scenes. The suspects came through the roof of the centre into the ceiling and then into the office.”
The burglary bears a striking resemblance to the iStore burglary, where criminals also came in through the ceiling in the dark of night.
Labans said the alarm system at Ritter’s had been partly deactivated due to a suspected technical glitch which occurred on Wednesday evening.
He confirmed diamond and gold items – including Krugerrands – worth an estimated R700 000 – had been stolen.
According to police, an Atlas Security technician went to the shop at about 7.30pm. A sensor was thought to be faulty, resulting in the office alarm being deactivated.
The alarm system for the rest of the store remained active.
Labans said the technician as well as store employees would be questioned by detectives.
Atlas Security operations manager Monty Montgomery said the store manager had noted the faulty zone after being unable to activate the alarm at closing time.
“He alerted us and a technician was sent out. On site, the technician identified that part of the alarm in the roof had been tampered, which resulted in the alarm not setting,” he said.
“The manager agreed to arm the rest of the store and bypass that specific zone until the morning when the issue could be fixed.”
Montgomery said it was suspected that the alarm in the ceiling had been tampered with during the day.
Walmer Park centre portfolio manager Leonie Scheepers confirmed the incident, but failed to give details. “We were only notified about this at 8.30am [yesterday] and until there has been a full investigation we are unable to comment.”