Jewelry worth £10.4 million (approximately Rs 111 crore), designer handbags valued at £150,000 (around Rs 1.6 crore), and £15,000 (around Rs 16 lakh) in cash were stolen from a house in London, marking one of the largest burglaries in the UK.
The Metropolitan Police described the thief as a man in his late 20s to 30s. He broke into the property on Avenue Road in St John’s Wood on December 7 by entering through a second-floor window, as reported by the BBC.
The homeowners have offered a £500,000 reward (roughly Rs 5 crore) for information that leads to the suspect’s arrest. They are also offering 10 percent of the value of any recovered items.
Detectives are searching for the “lone wolf” burglar, who entered the 13-bedroom house at around 5:11 pm local time, spent five minutes searching upstairs, then moved downstairs, where he found the valuables. The thief escaped through the same window at approximately 5:30 pm.
The 19-minute heist took place in the 22,000 sq ft mansion, where the thief broke into a safe containing the stolen jewels. The security cameras in the five-story home captured the suspect, who was armed with a weapon, rummaging through rooms with his face covered.
At the time, eight people, including staff and family members, were in the house. According to the police, the thief stole bespoke jewelry worth £10.4 million, Hermes Crocodile Kelly handbags valued at £150,000, and £15,000 in cash.
Among the stolen jewelry were a Graff 10.73-carat diamond ring, two butterfly diamond rings from De Beers, a 3.03-carat Hermes ring, an aquamarine ring, and a Niloticus Lumiere necklace. Pink sapphire butterfly-shaped earrings by Katherine Wang were also taken.
The suspect was dressed in a dark hoodie, cargo pants, and a grey baseball cap during the crime. His weapon appeared to be a “small flamethrower or canister of noxious spray” used to incapacitate anyone he encountered.
The CCTV footage revealed that the burglar frequently checked for his weapon whenever he heard a noise, at one point nearly encountering a house staff member.
