An eyewitness to the heist at a jewellery store in Queensland has spoken out about leading the alleged thief to the custody of off-duty police officers.
An individual allegedly entered the Prouds valuables store at a Tweed Heads South shopping mall yesterday morning, splashed petrol onto the counter and demanded valuables from Jordan Gelbart, who was inside the store at the time.
As the accused started snatching jewels, Gelbart contacted the authorities and proceeded to film the incident on his phone.
“I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing, and then he started dousing the counter with petrol,” recalled Gelbart.
As if to say, “Don’t come near me,” he made a vague gesture towards me while holding the petrol bottle. Seeing me in the store was probably not something he anticipated.
“So when he made an exit, that’s when I decided, we’ve got to go after this guy.” The man was then driven from the store by him.
“As I was chasing him I was saying ‘get down, get down’,” stated the man.
“He had a look behind, saw me, saw me chasing him, I tried to sound as intimidating as possible.”
As the accused robber dashed out the door of the shopping mall, dragging Gelbart behind him, two off-duty policemen happened to be pulling up outside.
“I had some serious luck – two undercover police officers pulled up, sort of wedged him between a little bit of a ditch, and that’s when they detained and arrested him,” said Gelbart.
The man was denied bail after being accused with robbery while armed with an offensive weapon.
A woman wanted by the police in connection with an alleged jewellery robbery is on the run.
The bag of stolen jewellery and she allegedly fled the scene in a red Hyundai i30.
