Man walks away with $140k of stolen jewels

30 January 2009
From Straits Times

A MAN tricked the employees of a downtown jewellery shop into handing him more than $140,000 worth of jewels last weekend, the police said yesterday.

The culprit walked away from Raffles Jeweller in the Fullerton Hotel on Sunday with a haul that included two diamond rings and a half-dozen other jewels after convincing staff that he had paid for the items.

But the police said he had not parted with a single cent.

The shop declined to comment on the the incident, and details of what actually happened remain unclear.

A day before the theft, the man had walked into the jewellery store and looked around for a while, but left without making a purchase.

He returned the next day and spoke with the shop's manager. He asked to buy four rings - including two encrusted with diamonds - two bracelets, two necklaces and two pairs of earrings worth a total of $141,300.

Claiming he had to get money, he went to the lobby of the hotel, accompanied by the shop manager.

It is unclear why the manager went out of the shop with the suspect.

The man later doubled back to the shop, where he told employees there that he had paid for the jewels. The employees handed over the gems to him, and he walked out through the front doors.

It was only later that the manager and staff realised the jewels had not been paid for.

The suspect remains at large. The police said he was wearing a dark blue suit, was about 1.7m tall, and had a fair complexion.

The police also said he is believed to be a foreigner, and spoke in English with a foreign accent that led them to believe that he may be from India or Pakistan.

CHERYL ONG