A brazen armed thief who escaped with gems worth £10.4million from a billionaire’s row mansion was almost caught by a maid.
Footage obtained by the Mail Online shows the masked raider crossing a landing 63 seconds before the woman walked along the same spot. Detectives are hunting the crook who is said to have spent 19 minutes cracking a safe and searching through two floors of the 13-bedroom home in Primrose Hill, North London. He pulled off one of the country’s biggest heists despite there reportedly being around eight residents and staff members in the property at the time. Rewards totalling £1.5m have been offered by the homeowners to help catch the thief and recover their stolen items.
Primrose Hill burglary as brazen thieves get away with £10m of diamonds, sapphires and emeralds
A Boucheron emerald and diamond necklace that was stolen
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The burglar’s huge haul included a Graff 10.73-carat diamond ring, two De Beers butterfly diamond rings and a Hermes Niloticus Lumiere necklace. The suspect, a white man aged in his late 20s to 30s, was wearing a dark hoodie, cargo trousers and a grey baseball cap when he broke in through a second floor window. Internal CCTV shows he got into the house on Avenue Road at 5.11pm and went downstairs where he gained access to a safe holding some of the stolen jewels.
A Van Cleef & Arpels brooch that was stolen
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A spokesperson for the family told the Metro that a member of staff entered one room around a minute after the raider had left it. “Everyone is OK, but only by 63 seconds a member of staff would have been in direct confrontation with the robber had they entered the room slightly earlier,” the spokesperson said.
Shafira Huang in Paris in 2019
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Shafira Huang, an art collector and cultural ambassador of the Halcyon Gallery on Bond Street, was one of the victims, it has been reported. A source told the Guardian that the suspect’s weapon appeared to be a canister of noxious spray and that internal CCTV showed him reaching for it when he heard a noise from people in the house. The film reveals that he came close to bumping into a maid at one point, it was reported. It is unclear if the crime was opportunistic or if the suspect had inside information.
A Katherine Wang bracelet bearing the word “Shafira” that was stolen
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Also among the haul were Hermes Kelly crocodile handbags worth £150,000, and £15,000 in cash. The Metropolitan Police are also trying to trace a Hermes 3.03-carat ring, a Hermes watch, an aquamarine ring and a Van Cleef & Arpels gold clip studded with diamonds and sapphires. A Fleur Des Mers ring is missing, along with a diamond, sapphire and platinum necklace and bracelet.
A Boucheron emerald and diamond necklace and a Katherine Wang bracelet were also swiped. Csaba Virag, the chief of staff to the family, who was in the mansion, told the Guardian that the video footage showed the jewel thief “had definitely done it before”. Mr Virag said though the crime appeared to have been carried out by a “lone wolf”, the raider will need a wider network to sell the gems.