Jewels, furs taken in $100,000 raid

Press, 16 January 1986, Page 7

Jewels, furs taken in $100,000 raid

By

PETER LUKE

Mr John Cardwell knows two things about the burglars who broke into his tourist shop early yesterday morning. They have fine taste in jewellery and a mighty taste for chocolate. Goods worth more than 5100,000 were taken from New Zealand Scene, in Armagh. Street, after burglars forced their way through the roof.

Mr Cardwell said that the haul included fur, leather

and sheepskin clothing, hand-woven and handknitted garments, jewellery and a video set.

The burglars used the store’s cartons to package the goods, then removed security bars near their entry point, and carried the cartons back over the roof to a waiting truck, he said.

Between trips the burglars found and sampled the store’s stock of chocolate. Mr Cardwell said that the burglars were very fussy

about what they stole. “They took the cream of my stock. With the opals, they took all the expen-sively-mounted ones, but knew enough to leave all the trinkets.” The store had been stockpiling for a year to cater for the tourist season, and much of the hand-made clothing could take months to replace. But most of the stock came from Canterbury and suppliers were rallying to refill the shelves, he said.

Some of the goods would be very hard for the burglars to sell, but the fur coats were “probably already on their way to Australia.” Mr' Cardwell praised the police, who had responded quickly to his call, and had helped him make a stock inventory.

He said that new security devices were already being installed and he was confident these would prevent burglars from having another feast at his expense.