Smokescreen raiders in £100,000 gems haul
Date published: 06 February 2012
A FIRE extinguisher is set off outside the shop by a hooded raider to help the gang escape.
ARMED raiders stole £100,000 of jewellery from a shop while the owners slept upstairs.
The four masked men — captured on CCTV with a crow bar and a hammer — smashed up Bhatti Jewellers in Werneth Hall Road, which was not insured for theft.
Joint owner Nadeem Rashid rushed for the panic button when he heard the shop’s roller shutter door being forced. The raiders took fire extinguishers on the raid and set them off outside in a bid to make an easy and undetected escape.
They also broke glass in the door, smashed two cabinets and a window display and snatched more than 50 gold earring and necklace sets.
Nadeem’s cousin and part-owner Faiz Ali Yousaf, said: “It’s the first time this has happened but it’s one of those things. They’ve taken everything and we can’t do anything about it.
“Nadeem set the panic button off and then he came down to check on me — I’d been sleeping on a sofa in the back room.
“We were thinking about going to confront them but we didn’t know what we would be faced with at the time.”
Pawnbrokers around the town have been advised to be on the look-out for the expensive jewellery sets.
The thieves dressed all in white — including gloves, balaclavas, hooded tops and tracksuit pants.
They quickly left the scene in a dark Audi.
The incident took place at around 6am on Saturday, January 28.
Anyone with information should ring police on 101 or the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800-555 111.
