Jewellery raid haul put at £40m

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

Robbers stole nearly £40m of items from a London jewellers in what police say was Britain's second biggest robbery.

Two men with handguns threatened staff at Graff jewellers in New Bond Street on 6 August before taking 43 items.

They dragged a female member of staff outside as they left the shop and fired a shot, although no-one was injured.

CCTV images of the two men have been issued. The £40m haul is exceeded only by the £53m raid on a Securitas depot in Kent in 2006, a Met spokesman said.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8195740.stm

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The same branch had £23m worth stolen in 2003, and £10m from another London branch of the same firm in 2007. You'd think they'd review their security - eg how much of the jewellry can be accessed as a time.

[sledgehammer]

1. In an unrelated, but nonetheless coincidental story...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/norfolk/8188479.stm

[sofa king]

2. How can one possibly fence that much loot?

And if it's only 43 items, it must mean each one is worth over a million bucks--not exactly something you'd want your girlfriend to be sporting at the next dinner party. If the pieces are dismantled they must lose most of their value, even before the fence gives you pennies on the dollar for it. Getting caught is a guaranteed life behind bars (until, as noted above, you're at death's door).

It's much, much more profitable to start a war on false pretenses. But I guess you have to go to Yale to learn that trick.