Axe raiders f led with £250k haul
ARMED robbers who struck at a shopping arcade escaped with 18 l uxury watches estimated to be worth a total of £250,000. Shoppers ran for cover on Wednesday afternoon as four men wielding axes and sledgehammers burst into the Argyll Arcade in Glasgow city centre.
The gang attempted smash-andgrab raids on four jewellers’ stores but only managed to steal from one, Rox. They targeted three neighbouring stores – Mappin and Webb, Laings of Glasgow and Lewis Grant – without success.
Laings’s security system released thick smoke that could be seen by shoppers on the city’s busy Buchanan Street. The gang fled down a lane and made their getaway in a white hatchback.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Rox confirmed it had lost stock, saying: ‘ Luxury watches f rom brands including Hublot and Bell & Ross were taken. I nitial estimates suggest that around £250,000 of stock was taken. A full list of stock with serial numbers has been issued to the police.’
He said the shop had reopened for business yesterday, adding: ‘We have employed a full-time security guard in the shop to give our staff, who are still badly shaken, extra peace of mind.’
A female shop assistant who was working in a nearby jeweller’s in the arcade yesterday described the raid as ‘terrifying’.
The woman, who did not want to be named, said: ‘We were working away and I heard one of the security guards shouting, “Get out, get out! Run!” I panicked and at first I thought it was maybe a terrorist attack.
‘I went out to the entrance of the shop and saw smoke coming round from Laing’s. There was three of us working at the time so I shouted at the rest of the girls to get out and quickly locked the shop door.
‘We ran to the Argyle Street exit of the arcade and the security guards made sure everyone was out before they put the arcade shutters down.’
After the attack, an elderly man wearing a grey waistcoat – believed to be a security guard – was wheeled
out by paramedics and taken into an ambulance.
A colleague of the woman shop worker said the man was a security guard called George who had been ‘hit on the back of the legs with a baseball bat by one of the robbers’.
Laings’s directors – Wendy Laing and her husband Joe Walsh – posted a message on the store’s Facebook account yesterday afternoon saying ‘Laings of Glasgow can confirm they had an attempted robbery in their flagship store within the Argyll Arcade yesterday, Wednesday September 24th 2014 at 12.50pm.
‘All security procedures were followed by our quick-thinking staff, resulting in no one being hurt from our store or any stock being taken. Laings thank everyone for their concern and well wishes – Wendy Laing and Joe Walsh.’
The four suspects are described as 5ft 8in, slim and wore dark clothing. Anyone with information should contact Police Scotland on 101.