Robbers ram their way into Sharjah warehouse

Thieves drive off with hundreds of thousands of dirhams' worth of appliances

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SHARJAH // Robbers rammed a vehicle into a warehouse filled with electric appliances this morning and fled with approximately Dh250,000 worth of goods, police have confirmed.
The robbery happened between 4am and 6am after the warehouse's security guards had left the premises at around 3:40am, said Fathima Syed Ali, the owner of Start Electrical Switch and Gear Maintenance LLC in industrial area 15.
"They were professional thieves as they pushed the security cameras to look up and stole all its tapes and a hard disk to evade any evidence," she said. "My staff were shocked in the morning to find two doors broken and tyre marks inside the warehouse."
The perpetrators brought a lorry into the warehouse after gaining entrance and used it to remove their plunder, police said. Authorities were at the scene by 8am taking fingerprints as part of an investigation to find the culprits, who they theorised may have been behind a number of other thefts in the emirate.
"We believe there is a gang of robbers now targeting the industrial areas as a few similar cases have been reported recently," a police spokesman said. "Officers are working hard to find the gang, bring it to justice and secure property safety in the area."
The robbery may have been pulled off by the same group that broke into another electronics warehouse in the industrial areas in a similar manner last week. Police are still investigating that incident as well, the spokesman said.
The incident comes two weeks after authorities arrested a five-member gang of teenagers allegedly involved in breaking into parked cars in industrial areas and stealing the valuables inside them. The juveniles, between 15 and 17 years old, stole mobile phones, cameras, cash, laptops and other valuables, police said.

ykakande@thenational.ae