A REWARD has been offered in a bid to catch thieves who stole several items of expensive jewellery from an Accrington antiques store.
Hammer-wielding thieves smashed their way into a glass display cabinet inside the premises of Selitall, in Blackburn Road, Accrington, on Sunday night. It appears they entered the premises by climbing up a drainpipe and then smashed a window on the second floor. Once inside, they made their way downstairs and smashed up the display cabinet.
They snatched several items including three gold watches, a marble antique clock and a quantity of cash. The watches were a Rolex, a Rotary and a Conterais. The incident happened just hours after a power blackout hit the Blackburn Road area at around 2pm on Sunday. It is thought the thieves targeted the store after the power cut affected the alarm system and security lights.
Now the owners have put up a £1,000 reward for the recovery of the stolen goods or information leading to the conviction of the offenders.
A spokesman for Selitall said: "We have set our stall to stock items of value which include rare investment antiques such as 19th century silver, rare Royal Doulton and valuable jewellery and furniture. The robbery will not deter us from continuing this process and we are determined to assist the police in arresting the perpetrators. With this in mind we have offered a reward to get the items back.''
A spokesperson for United Utilities said an underground mains fault caused the electricity to fail. She added: "There was an intermittent power supply late on Saturday night. The power went off on Sunday at around 2pm. Like all other electricity companies we cannot guarantee a continuous uninterrupted supply. We would like to apologise to our customers and we worked as quickly as we could to get the power back on."
Sergeant Mark Porter, from Accrington Police, said: "We would like to appeal to anyone who has been offered these items in the pub or wherever, or anyone who has information about the break-in itself, to contact Accrington CID or myself. We have a burglary team which is looking into it and our investigation is ongoing. Any assistance from the public would be greatly appreciated."
If you can help, contact Accrington CID on 353740, Sgt Porter on 353702 or Crimestoppers, in confidence, on 0800 555 111.
