Police arrest three gold thieves in Abu Dhabi over heist worth Dh2.4 million

The trio posed as customers so that they could identify weaknesses in the shop’s security to then determine the selection of tools they would need to rob the shop, said Lieutenant Colonel Hamdan Saeed Al Mansouri, Director of Bani Yas Police Station.

“The thieves divided robbery operation roles among themselves and monitored the outlet for two days during morning hours before executing their plans,” he said.

After investigation, it turned out that these suspects were jobless and selling goods as street vendors in the residential and commercial areas of Abu Dhabi.

The police said that they were hiding in a room in a residential apartment of the industrial area of Abu Dhabi when they found them. The police recovered the stolen gold bars and cash from their possession.

The robbers wanted to sell the gold to different jewellery outlets by using the identities of others to become instant millionaires.

They confessed to the crime during questioning.

Brigadier General Musallam Mohammad Al Ameri, Director of Directorate of External Police in the Criminal Security Sector, said that Bani Yas Police Station received a call that there had been an incident at the Bani Yas Gold Market, on the outskirts of the capital, late at night, and immediately started patrolling the scene.

“In a very short span of time, security measures led to the identification and arrest of the perpetrators. They were hiding in a room, which turned into something of a hideout for the robbers in the industrial area of Abu Dhabi.

“We have found gold bars and jewellery in their possession, and some stolen cash,” he added.

Police are now urging gold jewellery traders to take precautionary measures and install metal fences on the facades of glass windows, use solid locks, deposit money and jewellery in vaults, and fix sophisticated surveillance cameras that can cover the whole area of the outlet, while connecting it with a smart internal and external alarm system.