Reply With QuoteBloody hell, its nuts at the moment
A report in today's Evening Standard that Watchfinder on Avery Row was attacked at 11:20 this morning.
The gang used sledgehammers and axes, but the glass and doors held firm.
Local builders managed to detain one of the suspects, and nothing was stolen.
Again, the rest escaped on scooters - the number of scooters used is not clear at this time.
It must be worrying for staff and customers alike, wondering when the next hit will occur !
Last edited by W124; 10th October 2017 at 16:59.
Bloody hell, its nuts at the moment
I hate to link to the Mail but here it is.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/new...Avery-Row.html
Check out the guy with the umbrella!
Seems they got one!
“The group managed to detain one who was tied up with cable ties from a building site by the have a go heroes.”
PS - I guess unlike watchfinders, Mapin does not have a two door buzz in system?
I wonder if the pay-back from the guy they left behind is that he does a deal with the Police in exchange for names?
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Watchfinder in daylight robbery shocker!
And that's just the pre-owned Rolex prices...
Lmao. Gotta love "local builders" - axe and sledgehammers? C'mere and get some lad. 10 out of 10 the uk public
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They were only after a set of stickers and hang tags.
I'm surprised all jewellers, the big ones at least, don't have this glass...looked pretty indescribable!
Brilliant!Originally Posted by 01101001
"Have that you ruffian (jab). And that (jab, jab)"
It does make you wonder where all these nicked watches end up... out of the country maybe ? The retail price might be thousands but you would think that the "dodgy" price is nowhere near that?
Or spare links for their bracelets!
Wasn't that Major, The Honourable John Steed?Brilliant!
"Have that you ruffian (jab). And that (jab, jab)"
https://youtu.be/z2PdaP8m6oI
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Last edited by BillyCasper; 10th October 2017 at 19:01.
Makes a change Watchfinder not doing the robbing
A robbery in broad daylight in a crowded place ? Stay classy Britain!
Doesn't seem that hard to describe!
Yes this NEVER happens anywhere else in the world...A robbery in broad daylight in a crowded place ? Stay classy Britain!
I’m sorry to point this out, but through my involvement with Safergems and having been a keynote speaker on high value watch crime at a national police forum earlier this year I can tell you for a fact that the U.K. is plagued by an epidemic of jewellery crime perpetrated by Eastern Europeans.A robbery in broad daylight in a crowded place ? Stay classy Britain!
Not such a clever or indeed classy comment then, ironically.
Is it me or are these types of robberies happening more and more?
Is at because of austerity? The “bling” culture?
Or is it just that it’s more visible now because of phones with cameras and people doing these kinds of break-ins instead of stealing cars/house burglaries etc?
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I suppose the British robbers have become too lazy or just feel generally unimpressed by these foreigners coming in and taking their robbing jobs. Hopefully the British robbers will get on their bikes at some point and find a new robbing opportunity.
God bless the EU eh.
There are organised schools — I use the term deliberately — of Eastern Europeans from whom teams will travel over to perpetrate crimes and then fly out before an investigation has even begun.
Typically, an earlier recon team has visited sites and blatantly filmed as much as possible of the store, systems, cameras and escape routes. Not in itself a crime, of course.
One, when caught, pleaded only that he serve his prison time in Britain rather than at home, where it would be a distinctly less pleasant experience. Therein (with our lack of armed police) lies the attraction of UK away-days to our friends from across the sea.
Last edited by Haywood_Milton; 10th October 2017 at 21:41.
What they should have done is welded a scaffold pole to the back of a Toyota Hilux and reversed hard Into the shop that would do it.
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The only answer, for anyone interested, is not to fill your windows and counters with Rolex watches. I scatter a couple on display, the rest can only be viewed individually on request after being retrieved from strongroom safes. Gives me immense pleasure when we’re being cased and the baddies’ frustration is obvious.
“But I like see them all. You show me all together, yes?”
“You want bag-full grabby-grabby, EasyJet bye-bye? Here no good, maybe just have snip-snip (many specialist barbers here) and much black leather jacket shops also.”
😂😂 indestructible (autocorrect ffs 🙄)
These guys target the lowest hanging fruit. Banks don’t hold any cash these days so nobody bothers to rob them.
Ultimately high end jewellery is a commodity and can be easily fenced. I’d expect to start seeing clean room / airlock style doors on high street boutiques as new shops come nil every or are redeveloped.
Seem to be indicating a Turkish element to this business Haywood or am I misreading that.
Not so specific. Eastern Europe, to include crooks from a number of countries therein.
Makes me wonder about guys selling Rolex on Gumtree and the like with a F2F meet.
You really are taking a bit of a risk selling in this way.
Great explanation
It must be unnerving though for yourself and staff seeing obvious robbers walking around casing out the place knowing a robbery could be imminent?
- - - Updated - - -
More of a risk being the buyer off gumtree!!
I used to love Crimewatch. I remember one robbery in Southampton and Police recovered a Ford Fiesta involved and found a Liverpool Echo on the back seat - priceless.
Because armed criminals wouldn’t come over here if there was passport control would they ? Oh wait a minute there IS passport control.
Criminals will always go where either the pickings are relatively easy or they can retire in comfort. Spain is no doubt looking forwards to returning our criminals from the Costa del Crime if no EU deal.
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Lets not go down a bear pit style left/right wing argument.
Haywood is just giving some real life observations from the sharp end so lets just take it for what it is.
As an echo to Haywood's words.
This is an epidemic and although crime capers on TV often end with 'villains banged up' and the 'good guys' sharing drinks together. In reality the factory of East European ex militia is seemingly inexhaustible. Perhaps spare a thought for the many (particularly young part time) people in the industry who are often left traumatised by these attacks.
It is unlikely that this kind of event confronts most of you at your place of work, but please bear a thought for those of us for whom it may.
JW
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Haywood, are you able to say how they dispose of the watches before they leave?
Why would they dispose of them before they leave?
And this brings us neatly to the "ship a collection abroad" thread 😀😀
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I was in a well known high street AD a couple of months ago and the sales person left four Rolex on a tray on the desk in front of me whilst she went to ask a colleague a question. This AD doesn’t have security doors or anything like that. I could have been out the door in 30 seconds with £30K+ worth. Some stores really don’t help themselves!
I was thinking that it would be hard/risky for them to take them with them or ship them home. Do they sell them to someone in the UK already lined up?
Normally we might expect to see a few watches from any number stolen to be identified and recovered in the following months or years.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/175170...it-was-nicked/ (and look at the connections in that one!)
http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/...after-13231658
Some of those stolen from Watchfinder in recent times have individually been recovered quite quickly but larger recoveries as in the second link above are occasionally made.
Crucially, though, I have seen very few recoveries arising from the watches taken by the Eastern European gangs, even when the individuals themselves are caught.
My own belief is that many of these watches leave the country very quickly, most probably headed for parts of the world where scruples and law are not, perhaps, what we might hope.
The appeal of small, high value items that can readily be liquidated means that crime will always be a side to our trade. I am well aware of two significant UK investigations at the moment which, with luck, will be major news stories here in due course.
H
You must have an honest face. Seriously, I went into a cash converters type shop recently to look at a watch in their window display. They insisted I hand over a credit card before they would let me see it........
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Post them to themselves?
Thanks Haywood. I hadn't realised what a well organised (and nasty) criminal enterprise it is.
If intercepted, that might give the police a few clues to track them down :)
By what Haywood said they obviously can get them out of the country, whether posting, smuggling, etc. A friend had his stolen Range Rover recovered from a container at Harwich on it's way somewhere East so I guess watches are easy by comparison.
I believe there are several gangs operating across Europe that come from Albania, Romania and Bulgaria. They go in hard and are very brazen and must say would not want to be on the end of one of their attacks. They are animals
Some ADs in malls don't even have doors, they are just walk in.
This brings to mind an apocryphal slogan from the, probably mythical, Ukrainian Tourist Authority - "Come to the the Ukraine; your car is already here!"
In the past I've used Shiply to move bits and bobs between London and Berlin. It wouldn't be difficult to put a few watches in a chest of drawers; they'd hardly show up even if customs somewhere did decide to X-ray the van.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
If they are an organised criminal gang, they could have them delivered to a mail box, and send a disposable lackey to pick them up.
True but Carlton-Browne's method seems a bit more sustainable.
Where is Jim Banana when we need him?
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