Shiels robbed again, at gunpoint

2.1 k views | Posted July 23, 2012 |

Two Shiels Jewellery staff members were threatened at gunpoint in a terrifying robbery of a store involving a sawn-off shotgun and a tyre iron.

A man brandishing a gun terrorised shoppers at a mall in Spearwood, Western Australia, when he pulled the weapon on attendants at a Shiels Jewellery store. The gunman then used a tyre lever to break into display cabinets and stole jewellery, before running through the mall and fleeing in a car. No one was injured in the raid.

“I saw a guy with a shotgun," an employee from a shop in the mall told Yahoo News. “He shouted at everyone to get down. I looked out to the food court and everyone was on the floor, then I went back [to my own shop and saw] he was still smashing all the glass cabinets [in Shiels]."

Shiels Jewellers owner Albert Bensimon told Jeweller that the violent robbery could have after-effects on witnesses and his staff.

“It was very traumatising for the two women in the store,” he said. “It's a slow process to recover when someone holds a gun to your head. Our staff are pretty resilient, sometimes that experience can have a detrimental effect, but we have a lot of training to prepare them for these situations as much as we can.”

The robbery is the latest in a slew of jewellery store burglaries in Western Australia. Several Shiels Jewellery stores have been robbed this year, and Bensimon worried that the trend would continue.

“It looks like burglars are targeting jewellers at the moment,” Bensimon said. “They see articles about the price of gold every day and are addicted to drugs or money and break in. It's unfortunate if it keeps going this way and robberies become a continuous thing, like in New South Wales.”

Until this latest incident, Western Australia Police have arrested and charged alleged thieves over all previous robberies at Shiels this year. Bensimon was surprised this didn’t seem to deter robbers.

“It’s brazen, it’s mad,” he said. “They know that they’re being filmed and they don't care if they get caught. All the other thieves in Western Australia have been caught, and these criminals know that they are known to the Police.”

Bensimon said he was confident that the latest robbery would be resolved soon, and he paid tribute to Western Australia Police.

“The Western Australia Police are, in my opinion, the best Police force in the country,” he said. “They always seem to catch the felon, because they want to get them off the street. In other states, the Police show a real lack of interest and they don't seem to care about property loss. In WA, they get suspects on Crime Stoppers, they want to catch them, they are proactive; they search and prosecute.”

Bensimon also warned the Spearwood gunman might re-offend if he is not caught first.

“One thing that I've learned over the years is that when a thief gets away with something, they come back,” he said. “If they rob one store, you can guarantee there will be more in the next month, they think it's easy, they get the taste for it.”

Anyone with information regarding the burglary should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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