You’ve heard of Crimewatch UK, the popular BBC crime programme that helps to nail criminals with the help of the eyes and ears of the British public. Well, this is WatchCrime, a new Click Tempus series which looks at crimes committed relating to stolen watches.
Watches are high value items that are easy to steal in great quantities with relatively little security problems, provided the criminals are sufficiently determined to attempt a daring day time raid on a watch or jewellery store. Only recently we reported on thieves making off with a giant haul of watches from Selfridges in Manchester.
Victorinock-off
Three people have been arrested in the US in connection with the theft of more than 600 Victorinox watches from the brand’s warehouse in the town of Monroe, Connecticut.
It is believed the missing watches are worth in the region of $1 million (£620,500) and were stolen by an executive sales assistant, a watch repairman and an accomplice.
According to Connecticut’s CT Post, Linda Thanassi, Gilberto Nieves and Mark Bancroft were arrested in connection with the thefts. Thanassi is currently on bail while Nieves and Bancroft are awaiting trial.
Thanassi worked as a sales executive at Victorinox and was charged yesterday with first-degree larceny. It is believed that she had siphoned off large quantities of watches, sending them to a man based in Texas. She had used the company’s Swiss Rewards Program, an incentive program for sales reps, as her cover.
Thanassi had posted watches from the Victorinox mailroom to her contact in Texas, where police recovered 30 timepieces and a set of knives, worth about £19,000.
Nieves, a watch repairman at Victorinox, and Bancroft – who appears unrelated to the company – were also charged in connection with the thefts.
Bike heist
While his partners in crime live off the proceeds of a £42,850 watch haul, a robber abandoned by his gang after a Rolex watch heist at a branch of Fraser Hart in Kingston upon Thames has been jailed for six and a half years.
Luke Doyle, 27, was one of four men who rode up to the Fraser Hart Branch in the Bentall Centre in Kingston and smashed their way into the store with sledgehammers. The gang stole 12 Rolex watches with a combined retail value of £133,150.
During the raid Doyle’s accomplices left him behind at the scene after he failed to mount the back of one of the motorbikes and he was caught by police with the bag full of Rolex watches. There are still four Rolex watches missing, however, that are worth a a total of £42,850.
We’ll have more WatchCrime news as we get it.
