Greater Manchester Police handout CCTV stills showing masked raiders stealing a 500,000 pounds ($810,000) haul of luxury watches from high end department store Selfridges in Manchester, northern England late Wednesday Sept 19 2012. They walked into the premises in Exchange Square wearing high visibility jackets and trousers shortly after 1800 pm . Police said the trio then smashed display cabinets with an axe and crowbars and stole 100 watches by luxury makers such as Cartier, Jaeger le Coultre and Hublot..(AP Photo/ Greater Manchester Police)

Thieves snatch luxury watches in brazen Manchester heist

| the associated press

First Published Sep 20 2012 12:02 pm • Last Updated Sep 20 2012 12:04 pm

London • British police say masked thieves wielding an axe and crowbars stole luxury watches worth 500,000 pounds ($810,000) from a high-end department store in Manchester as stunned shoppers looked on.

Police say three men entered an open Selfridges store in the northwest English city just after 1800 GMT (2 p.m. EDT) on Wednesday evening, smashed display cabinets with the axe and crowbars and stole around 100 watches before escaping in a black Mercedes getaway car driven by a fourth offender.

Police on Thursday called it a brazen attack which was "clearly well planned and executed."

Greater Manchester Police said the men were in and out of the store in less than 80 seconds and managed to steal timepieces by luxury makers such as Cartier, Jaeger le Coultre and Hublot.

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

About Reader Comments

---

Reader comments on sltrib.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Salt Lake Tribune. We will delete comments containing obscenities, personal attacks and inappropriate or offensive remarks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. If you see an objectionable comment, please alert us by clicking the arrow on the upper right side of the comment and selecting "Flag comment as inappropriate". If you've recently registered with Disqus or aren't seeing your comments immediately, you may need to verify your email address. To do so, visit disqus.com/account.
See more about comments here.