Staff at a family-run jewellers in Richmond fought back against hammer-wielding raiders during a brazen daylight attack on Saturday morning. Video footage captured by a witness shows two men using a large hammer to smash through the front window of Gregory & Co jewellers in the west London town centre.
After breaking the glass, the pair began scooping valuables into a blue bag from the display area. Workers inside the premises desperately attempted to retrieve items before the raiders could grab them, striking the robbers with what looked like a small box, though this had little effect. The attackers escaped as stunned witnesses watched.
The raid is the latest in a string of similar attacks on jewellery shops across London. Just two days earlier, on Thursday, a group of men struck Sultan Jewellers on Uxbridge Road in Shepherds Bush, using a sledgehammer to break windows. Officers arrived within three minutes but were confronted with a hammer as the gang attempted to escape on mopeds. Police arrested a 33-year-old man at the location on suspicion of aggravated burglary, and he remains in custody.
Following the Richmond incident, a police cordon stayed in position for over 12 hours, with fragments of glass and jewellery scattered across the pavement. Jack Stones, landlord of the nearby Defectors Weld pub, discovered fresh blood outside the jewellers at 7am, more than three hours after the raid.
A local resident noted similarities to a previous robbery in October 2019, when three sledgehammer-wielding attackers used a Range Rover to smash into the same premises. During that incident, the vehicle was driven through the window of e-Smart Money foreign exchange, which connected internally to the jewellers, before a helmeted raider emerged with a sledgehammer. Passers-by intervened to stop one suspect, Ben Wegener, as the gang tried to escape on foot toward Westfield shopping centre. Wegener later received a 10-year prison sentence after admitting robbery, dangerous driving, possession of an offensive weapon, criminal damage and receiving stolen goods.
Mr Khan, a local resident, said: “It's Shepherds Bush, there's always young people causing trouble, kicking the doors of shops down and drinking. Crime around here has got so bad lately.”
