Drive through jewellery smash and grab
2.5 k views | Posted August 21, 2012 |
By Dean Millard • Staff Journalist
A stolen vehicle has been used to smash through the front door of a jewellery store in an early morning robbery.
South Australian Police are investigating a third jewellery store robbery in Port Lincoln in the space of six months after thieves ram raided a store in Tasman Terrace.
CCTV footage showed a silvery grey Toyota station wagon reversing through the front door of Pedemonte Jewellers at around 5:30am on August 15. Once inside, two men smashed display cases to gain access to a number of watches, rings and necklaces before driving the damaged vehicle out of the store and abandoning it in a residential street in Mallee Park.
The vehicle used in the robbery had been reported as stolen from a Port Lincoln residence earlier that morning.
Crime Prevention Officer Sergent Rene Stene told Jeweller the Pedemonte store manager was still finalising the inventory from the robbery at the time of publication, but it was estimated the value of the stolen jewellery was around $30,000.
Stene said a link between Wednesday’s robbery and the two previous robberies in Port Lincoln this year had neither been established nor ruled out, however he added the method used to gain access to the premises in the current case was different to the two previous cases.
“Police are still working on it and following up some leads, but at this stage we can’t say either way whether or not this robbery is linked to the previous two in Port Lincoln,” Stene said.
Stene urged anyone who had any information on the matter to contact either Port Lincoln Police on 08 8688 3020 or to call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.
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