Smash-and-grab gem raiders smash—but fail to grab
RAIDERS were defeated for the 10th time when bullet-proof glass stopped them grabbing gems from a jeweller’s store London’s East End this afternoon. The daylight raid was the latest attempt on Rankin’s in Bethnal Green
By Jessica Mudditt
RAIDERS were defeated for the 10th time when bullet-proof glass stopped them grabbing gems from a jeweller’s store London’s East End this afternoon.
The daylight raid was the latest attempt on Rankin’s in Bethnal Green.
The window was shattered—but held firm and prevented the smash-and-grab thieves getting even a fist through.
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A customer inside the store was cut when shards of glass landed in his face.
PACKED STORE
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The small store was packed with six customers, two children and five staff members.
“This is part and parcel of being a jeweller,” part store-owner Robbie Rankin, 37, told the East London Advertiser.
“I’ve got used to it. This is the 10th time this has happened to me in this store in the last two years.”
But the would-be raiders fled empty handed—like all their luckless predecessors.
NOTHING SNATCHED
“Nothing has ever been stolen,” added Robbie. “Our emergency system has worked every time and the front window is made of bullet-proof glass.”
Police arrived at the store in the busy Bethnal Green Road, packed with market shoppers, minutes after a silent’ alarm went off at 4.15pm.
The injured customer, a 31-year-old man, made his own way to hospital with laceration to his eye after shards from the smashed window landed in his face.
The window had a 2ft diameter dent where the raiders had hurled a heavy object at it—but remained intact.
