Wilkie Arthur, the man the police believed to be the mastermind behind the Jai’s Jewellery Store heist has been charged with robbery, along with Jo’ram Rigby, who investigators said was among his four other cohorts, including a female.
On Saturday July 10, four men, three of whom toting guns and the other a machete, with the apparent assistance from a woman, barged their way into Jai’s Jewellery Store on Grace Bay, where they cleaned a section of the store of all its Rolex Watch inventory, said to have valued $USD193,966.
The crooks fired apparently at the security officer, who hurriedly locked the door on seeing the men coming. However, the bulletproof door prevented the bullet from hitting the security officer.
Arthur was charged and when appeared in court was remanded in custody at Her Majesty's Prison Grand Turk until Monday, July 26, when his case would again be set for mention. Rigby was also charged for robbery and was taken to Providenciales Magistrate's Court 1 on Wednesday 21st July 2010. As part of their investigation the Police said they would be charging two other males – Lorenzo Caesar and Franklyn Saintelmon and a female Roxanne Lockhart for Robbery.
The police said a number of exhibits have been recovered, including a .22 revolver, clothing worn by the suspects and two vehicles - a gold coloured Acura motorcar and a black Mercury mariner SUV – which they said were used during the commission of this robbery.   The details of the robbery were captured and surveillance camera and placed on social networking site Facebook, for almost two days, before it was removed.
The surveillance video showed the woman, after being let into the store by the security officer, appeared to have dropped her hand bag inside the entrance, and appeared to have little interest in picking it up. At that moment four men with weapons in hand, who parked their vehicle across the road, darted for the entrance but the alert security officer pulled the woman inside and locked the door.
The inside store camera clearly showed one of the gunmen firing into the glass apparently at the security officer, but the bullet-proof glass prevented penetration and ultimately the injuring of the officer. Seconds later the criminal wielding the machete chopped into the glass, but the tough glass also repelled the impact.
At that point the woman who the security officer and viewers of the tape believed was rescued from the gunmen, rushed to the door unbolted it and forced her way outside, also allowing the criminals to enter.
Her action readily drew the question as to why after being safely behind a bullet-proof glass, decided to open the door to face danger, supposedly cognizant of the fact that such move would allow entry to the criminals. The surveillance camera clearly showing her calmly walking away from the scene after letting her self out, and void of the hysteria showed by her while inside the store.
A few minutes later, three of the gunmen could be seen rushing from the store to their get-a-way vehicle. However, the third one who stayed behind a little longer, found himself in difficulties when the door refused to open. And after anxious moments during which he showed actions of panic, was finally released from the building after his friends returned to the scene to pry the door open.
It understood that one the vehicles featured in the robbery was stolen from a car wash after a man it was reported that a man turned up and paid for the car-cleaning service before driving away.
Posted July 23 2010