Two brothers fall victim to Rolex Rippers months apart
Elderly siblings living 80 miles apart targeted by gang blamed for at least 14 robberies in affluent areas
ELDERLY brothers living more than 80 miles from one another have fallen victim to a gang of thieves dubbed the “Rolex Rippers” in separate attacks, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
The criminals, whose identities are not known, have stolen watches from pensioners in at least 14 robberies in affluent areas and exclusive golf courses in Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey.
In every case, victims have reported being approached by one or two women with eastern European accents carrying a blue clipboard and asking for signatures to help a charity for deaf and dumb children.
Within minutes, the thieves grab the expensive timepieces from their victims’ wrists before making off in a car.
This week, this newspaper uncovered two more victims – brothers Michael and David Parry who were separately targeted months apart in different counties by women matching the same description.
Michael Parry, a Gloucestershire farmer from the Cotswolds, had his £13,500 Rolex stolen by an eastern European woman posing as a charity worker while out shopping in his local village supermarket on July 8. “The modus operandi was exactly the same as the other cases – it was two people, with a blue clipboard asking me to sign it for charity to help deaf people,” Mr Parry said.
“I took the clipboard and signed it as I did not have any money on me.
“Then she put her hand out, which I thought was to thank me, but then she grabbed hold of me and pushed me against my car door and started screaming at the top of her voice.
“The change was just so sudden and enormous, she was screaming her head off. It was like she was having a fit. It was so out of the blue.
“I was trying to push her away because I worried that if anyone came around the corner, they would have thought that I was attacking her. What I hadn’t realised that she was doing was that she was scratching away at my wrist and eventually she pulled my Rolex watch off.
“Then she jumped over the wall and ran into the car and they were off.”
His brother, David Parry, 91, was targeted in a similar attack in Farnham, Surrey, in February, when the thieves carrying a clipboard and asking for charity donations made off with £300 in cash he had just taken out of the bank. The conwoman in both incidents was described as white, “very slight” and around 5ft 3in tall.
“She was wearing a surgical face mask and a baseball hat, so it would be difficult for me to describe her facial features,” 84-year-old Mr Parry recalled from the Gloucestershire robbery.
CCTV images later revealed that the woman who robbed Mr Parry of his Rolex had been sitting in a car with a male accomplice waiting for a victim.
After spotting Mr Parry and snatching his Rolex, the pair quickly drove off in a silver Citroen C1, which police have established was registered in Oxfordshire.
The 84-year-old farmer called the police to report the incident but officers took two hours to arrive and take his statement. No arrests have been made and Mr Parry’s watch has never been recovered.
“The gang would have gotten rid of that watch so fast it’s not true,” Mr Parry added.
He criticised the police response, saying the gang is able to “exploit” the poor communication system between different county forces across the country.
“It’s the inability of the county police forces, which are so autonomous they don’t want to talk to each other.
“All it takes is for a simple email to be sent to other police forces warning them that this crime is recurring and then residents can be notified by neighbourhood watch.
“But instead, these gangs can exploit the system where our police forces do not communicate.”
‘She pulled my Rolex watch off. Then she jumped over the wall and ran into the car and they were off’