NSW:Super-heist points to 'meticulous' thieves

AAP General News (Australia)
12-30-2011
NSW:Super-heist points to 'meticulous' thieves

SYDNEY, Dec 30 AAP - Sydney police say burglars suspected of more than 100 break-ins
have been so meticulous in pulling off their heists that many people didn't know they
had been robbed until police returned their valuables.

Fairfax media says there are others who don't know yet, and the full scale is only
emerging now after police found treasures worth millions of dollars.

Police say the sophisticated thieves broke into more than 100 homes and businesses,
mainly in Sydney's north.

Fairfax says police uncovered the super-heist at a storage centre in Waterloo during
a search, estimated at $6.5 million, including $4 million in Australian cash.

They also found foreign cash, 120kg of silver bullion and thousands of pieces of jewellery.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Mal Lanyon said a high level of planning went into the robberies.

"They are using a method that if you were first to walk into a room you wouldn't realise
that a break and enter had happened," he said. "There certainly is a level of sophistication.

"We believe there may be a number of owners of both commercial and residential premises
who are unaware that their safes have been tampered with and entered and that their property
has been taken."

So far no-one has been charged but police have identified a father and son, aged 56
and 33, from Randwick, as people of interest.

They have not been interviewed by police because they were extradited to Victoria earlier
this month for allegedly trying to pull off a similar heist on a storage centre in Melbourne,
Fairfax reports.

AAP wz/apm/jfm

KEYWORD: BURGLARS

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