$14,000 grab

Press, 19 January 1979, Page 1

$14,000 grab

Detectives ate still hunting the smash-and-grab thieves who escaped with articles worth more than $14,000 from a Christchurch jeweller’s shop early yesterday. In the biggest smash-and-grab raid in Christchurch for years, the thieves threw a rubbish tin through the plate-glass window of Peterson’s Jewellers, Ltd, in New Regent Street just before 4 a.m., and fled with 45 diamond and sapphire rings, and several expensive watches. It was the third time the shop has been raided in the last three years. Mr K. P. Morrison, the owner of the shop, is

shown clearing the broken glass. The thieves had torn a protective grille off after smashing the window, Mr Morrison said. Most of the stolen rings and watches had been taken from display boxes. A police patrol car was only a few hundred metres away in Gloucester Street when the burglar alarm was set off, but there was no sign of the

thieves by the time it arrived on the scene. “The police were there in less than a minute, and so the offenders must have moved fast. It could have been a lot worse,” said Mr Morrison. He said that many watches and rings had been left lying on the window floor after the thieves dislodged the shelves in their haste. “We thought originally

that only about $lOOO worth was missing. We got a shock when we checked with our stock lists and found it was more than $14,000,” said Mr Morrison. The two previous smash-and-grab raids at the shop were much smaller. One involved $5OO and the other, $350 worth of goods. A squad of detectives was assigned to the case, but no arrest had been made by late last evening. “Inquiries are continuing. It is the worst case of its type in Christchurch for some time,” said a C. 1.8. spokesman.