More Than 300 Boxes Targeted in Hatton Garden Heist, Security Blunders Emerge

(IDEX Online News) – Details are emerging of the raid at Hatton Garden, the heart of the London jewelry district, that took place over the long Easter weekend holiday. According to media reports, burglars used heavy cutting equipment to access hundreds of safe-deposit boxes in a vault at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit.

The location was also the target of a 2003 burglary in which £1.5 million ($2.2 million) in jewelry and cash were stolen.

The thieves are believed to have cut through the roof of the building, before abseiling down a lift shaft to access the vault and disabling the alarm system. The fact that the heist occurred over the Easter holiday weekend meant that the thieves had four days in which to sift through the deposit boxes.

Although the alarm sounded on Friday, no action was taken as the front and back doors of the building appeared to be secure, reported The Telegraph.

A source at the safe deposit company told The Times that a member of staff checked the alarm but gave the all-clear. The paper also said that the main caretaker, who would likely have called in the police, was not informed about the alarm.

“It was also reported that there is no CCTV footage of the theft because the gang stole the system's hard drive, which was stored nearby, suggesting some level of insider knowledge,” reported The Telegraph

According to The Guardian, there were rumors that a half-cut aqua diamond worth £500,000 ($744,875) is among the items that have been taken.

Local diamond jewelry expert Lewis Malka told the newspaper that the boxes are used to store both jewelry and lose diamonds. “I know for a fact that some of my work colleagues have got boxes down there and we are talking about hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds in goods,” he said.