Moment thieves brazenly smash and raid window of family-run jewellers in Richmond
This is the moment a family-run jewellers tried to fend off hammer-wielding thugs who were trying to break into their shop in broad daylight.
The men smashed the window of Gregor & Co. in Richmond, west London on Saturday morning before snatching valuables on display.
The brazen daytime heist was filmed by horrified onlookers close to the family-owned jewellers and shared widely on social media.
Londoners can be heard shouting at passers-by to stand back and telling people to call the police.
The two men can be seen peeling away the glass of the shop as brave staff members try in vain to hit the robbers with a small box.
The jewellers desperately claw back the valuables as the thugs stash what they can into a blue bag.
The men then fled the scene and ran down the high-street with locals watching on.
An employee at a nearby store told the Daily Mail that the two men ‘appeared out of nowhere’ before they began ‘smashing it up’.
A spokesperson for the Met said: ‘An investigation is under way following an aggravated burglary at a jewellers in Paved Court, Richmond.
‘Officers were called at 10:34hrs on Saturday, 31 January after suspects smashed the front window of the store and stole a number of items. No injuries were reported.’
The raid comes months after two men were found guilty for plotting a £1.38 million jewellery shop robbery in the same area.
The shops manager, Oliver White, 27, was tied up and put in a headlock during the raid, took his own life the next day as a direct result, a court was told.
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More than 70 high-value watches were taken from the 247 Kettles shop in Richmond on May 25 last year.
Kyle Mehmet, 40, of Rotherham, and Michael Holmes, 34, of Sheffield, were convicted of conspiracy to rob after a trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
The heist is the latest luxury shop to be attacked by robbers in London.
On January 23, ram-raiders ransacked an Yves Saint Laurent store in London and escaped with a haul of bags and other luxury items.
They ploughed a black SUV car into the Bond Street shop front before running inside and plundering thousands of pounds of stock earlier today.
Metro understands that a number of ‘high value items’ were stolen at around 3am by three unarmed raiders, who then fled the scene separately.
One left in the car, another left on a moped and the third escaped on an e-bike.
A Rolex store in Knightsbridge was also raided by robbers armed with machetes. They crashed a motorbike through the front door before fleeing with tens of thousands of pounds worth of watches.
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