Man runs off with brooch worth $12000

Press, 13 July 1984, Page 4

Man runs off with brooch worth $12 000

A $12,000 diamond and platinum brooch whs snatched from a Colombo Street jeweller’s shop yesterday morning by a young man who had asked to look at it.

The man went into White’s Jewellers about 9.30 a.m. and asked to look at the brooch. After a few minutes he left the shop, only to return about five minutes later and ask to see the brooch again.

After a few moments he suddenly snapped shut the lid of the brooch box and ran out of the shop. He was pursued by the shop’s owner, Mr Ray Hornsby, and a passer-by who heard Mr Hornsby’s cries. The thief was chased through the City Mall to Ljchfield Steet. The passerby continued the chase but lost the man when he headed in the direction of the Christchurch Polytechnic. The brooch is described as Victorian style with 197 single cut stones. The diamonds in the brooch weigh an estimated four carats

and the weight of the whole brooch is about 22 grams. The brooch is thought to be old but is in very good condition. Mr Hornsby said it could be antique or could have been made recently using stones taken from an older piece of jewellery. He was selling it on behalf of a customer. The man who took the brooch is described as European, aged about 21. He is about 1.83 m tall (about 6ft) and of slim build. He has shoulder-length sandy hair and was wearing silverrimmed glasses described by his pursuers as Langetype glasses. He was wearing faded jeans, brown shoes, a cream bomber jacket (which he discarded in the chase), and a white shirt. He had bad facial acne and a scar on the right cheek.

Mr Hornsby said he thought it was an opportunist theft. The brooch had been in the shop about three months and its price was clearly displayed in the lid of the box. He was not aware of the man’s having been in the shop before.