A collection of rare books worth more £2.5 million that were stolen from a London warehouse in January 2017 have now been recovered following a search of a property in Romania.
The collection of books, which includes volumes by Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton, was due to travel to Las Vegas for a specialist book auction when it was stolen from the warehouse in Feltham, West London.
Despite having security systems in place, the thieves cut holes in the roof of the warehouse and abseiled in to avoid the sensors protecting the property, the Express and Star reported.
The theft has been linked to a Romanian organised crime gang, with 13 people arrested for their involvement in this and other similar burglaries in the UK. 12 of the 13 have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary, while the final defendant is due to go on trial next year.
Detective inspector Andy Durham, from Specialist Crime South, described the recovery of the books as “the perfect end to this operation”. He added that it’s a “demonstration of successful joint working between the Met and our European law enforcement partners in Romania and Italy – and at Europol and Eurojust”.
It’s believed that this group was involved in a further 11 burglaries across London, where they used the same method of entry to steal a further £2 million worth of goods between December 2016 and April 2019.
This just goes to show the importance of considering every aspect of your building’s security, and why it’s so important that your premises have intruder alarms in Slough, or wherever you’re based.
Earlier this year, homeowners were also warned about the possibility of a spike in burglaries as lockdown was lifted. With localised lockdowns in force in certain parts of the country, this is something that homeowners may want to consider if they live in an area currently experiencing restrictions.
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