DUBAI —Hunt is on for a masked man, who entered a jewellery store in Al Qasr Hotel in Jumeirah on Monday around 10.45pm and after intimidating the two workers present there, escaped with jewellery and precious stones worth about Dh24 million.
The Arab woman employee told the police that the masked robber smashed the shop’s windows with a hammer, picked whatever jewellery he could and fled the scene.
The other employee, an Indian national, told the police that he chased the robber, but could not catch him. While fleeing, the robber left behind a ring worth $750,000 and a necklace worth $330,000.
The masked man’s images captured by the hotel’s surveillance cameras were being examined by the investigators.
In March 2006, a gang of robbers stole jewellery and items worth Dh15 million from two stores at the Wafi City and the BurJuman Centre.
Later, the Dubai police arrested a Yugoslav woman, who had assisted the gang, and she was sentenced to three years in jail by a Dubai court.
The mastermind of the gang was captured in Germany on June 21, 2006 and was handed to the Interpol who extradited him to the UAE.
In April 2007, an armed robbery took place at Wafi City in which masked men smashed the display windows of a jewellery store and escaped with more than Dh14 million worth of diamonds and other valuables.
The Dubai Court of First Instance later sentenced a Serb national to 10 years’ imprisonment for being an accessory to the crime.