A Shiels store in Smithfield was robbed at knifepoint.
Shiels robbed again, Police close in on thief
2.7 k views | Posted September 18, 2012 |
A Shiels Jewellers store was robbed last week, with a man stealing a gold chain and threatening staff with a knife.
The suspect entered the Shiels store in Smithfield, a suburb of Adelaide, last Monday afternoon, using a grey motorcycle helmet to hide his face from security cameras. Brandishing a knife, the suspect took a gold chain before fleeing on a scooter driven by an accomplice.
Despite the attempt at disguising himself, Shiels director Toby Bensimon said he believed South Australia Police were about to make arrests and that footage clearly identified the pair.
“I think they’re very close to sealing the deal on this, they know who the robbers are,” Bensimon said. “The footage is insane, their images were everywhere across the media moments after it happened.”
Bensimon has previously praised the Police’s efforts in apprehending jewellery thieves and was confident his stock would be returned. He said he was baffled by why these brazen robberies still occur.
“People who rob jewellery stores are idiots,” he said. “They always get caught. It’s not well thought out. You only have to do a Google search to know these robberies don’t work, thieves get caught every time.”
Bensimon said the Shiels staff that were threatened in the robbery responded well to the situation and followed their training.
“They were extremely calm,” he said. “It is a harrowing event, and they did it by the book, policy and procedure.”
Bensimon admitted that drawing the media’s attention to the robberies may have subsequently brought Shiels stores more attention from criminals, but that it was a strategy to minimise jewellery robberies across Australia in the long term.
“It’s a catch 22,” he said. “If you announce that you have been robbed there are copycat burglaries. Many jewellery stores don’t mention when they’ve been robbed, they’re cagey about it. That approach would have a long term negative effect on us.”
“In the apprehension of the last big robbery that happened at Shiels I think it paid dividends to involve the media,” he continued. “The more publicity we get about how stupid these things are, the better. I don’t know how long it will take for the message to sink in with the public [before we start seeing decreases in thefts].”
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