Burglars ‘tunnelled’ into upmarket London jewellers
Written by News on 27/03/2019
An upmarket jewellers has been hit by a gang of burglars who reportedly “tunnelled” their way in before helping themselves.
The burglars broke into George Attenborough & Son jewellers on London’s Fleet Street at some stage during the weekend, possibly as thousands of competitors ran past for the London Landmarks Half Marathon.
Police were called just before 2am on Monday.
Detectives said a “quantity” of jewellery had been stolen but no arrests had been made.
The jewellery store was founded in 1843 and describes itself as “one of the final vestiges of Victorian England”.
It advertises items worth many tens of thousands of pounds on its website, including a diamond ring worth just under £100,000 and bracelets with price tags approaching £70,000.
The Sun reported that the thieves had dug a tunnel to get inside the building but police have not confirmed this.
The newspaper said the gang had broken in through a hidden passageway which linked the jeweller to another shop next door.
They could have spent up to two days inside as the jewellers was closed all weekend.
A police spokesman said: “Enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances and identify those responsible.
“We are not providing further information at present, and we are not disclosing details of what was stolen.”
The burglary happened only a short distance from the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company, which was raided by a gang of thieves in April 2015.
Just weeks ago, alarm specialist Michael Seed became the 10th person convicted for this crime.
He was found guilty of conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to handle the proceeds after £143,000 worth of jewels were found in his bedroom.
Of the £13.6m of property stolen in that burglary, only around one-third has been recovered.
(c) Sky News 2019: Burglars ‘tunnelled’ into upmarket London jewellers
