LONDON // The gang members, dressed in fluorescent vests and hard hats, calmly carried bags and wheeled rubbish bins into a high-security storage facility in London’s diamond district.
After two nights of work, they left with the contents of dozens of safe-deposit boxes, in a methodical heist that has fascinated Britain – and put police on the defensive.
On Saturday, the Daily Mirror newspaper published surveillance-camera images that appear to show the thieves in action. The footage shows several men, their faces covered with dust masks, entering and leaving the building repeatedly over the Easter holiday weekend.
London’s Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the footage. The force has acknowledged that a burglar alarm at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit facility was triggered just after midnight on April 3, the start of the four-day weekend, but no one was sent to check on it. The crime was not discovered until businesses reopened on Tuesday.
John O’Connor, former head of Scotland Yard’s armed-robbery squad, said that the thieves appeared professional and well-prepared, but police had been “utterly incompetent” in not answering the alarm call.
Police say the thieves climbed down an lift shaft and drilled through concrete walls 2 metres thick into the vault. They stole the contents of 72 safety deposit boxes, which are used by many local dealers to store jewellery.
Police have not disclosed the value of the stolen goods.
Britain has a soft spot for a good heist, and newspapers have revelled in the emerging details of the robbery.
Under the headline "Diamond Geezers," the Daily Mirror dubbed one red-haired raider in the video footage "Mr Ginger," another "Mr Strong" and a third, who appeared to be wearing expensive shoes, "The Gent".
Hatton Garden, the centre of Britain’s diamond trade, has been hit by several audacious robberies in the past.
In 1987, two armed robbers made off with an estimated 60 million British pounds (Dh322.6m) worth of jewels. In 1993, robbers handcuffed shop workers, broke through high-security doors and cracked a safe to steal millions worth of diamonds.
* Associated Press