[MSN] Portsmouth Olympic Harbour building in Kingston: Thieves target antique show; Stolen jewelry worth thousands of dollars

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Thieves target antique show; Stolen jewelry worth thousands of dollars
Posted By Rob Tripp
Posted 7 hours ago

The Portsmouth Olympic Harbour building in Kingston was locked up tight as a
drum Sunday morning when organizers arrived to reopen the weekend-long Cabin
Fever antique show.

A security guard had been on duty all night.

Yet tens of thousands of dollars worth of gold jewelry had vanished, the
victim of what organizers believe was a carefully planned heist by a
professional thief or thieves.

"I think it was and the cops seem to think it was, but no one really knows
what happened," said John Ford, who has helped to stage the show for
decades.

"This is our 27th year," he said. "Nothing has ever happened and we've
always handled security in the same manner."

Ford said the jewelry disappeared overnight Saturday. He arrived, he
believes, at about 9 a.m. to relieve the security guard who had been on duty
overnight.

While it's uncertain how the bauble bandits got away undetected, Ford has a
theory.

"We think somebody hid out in the building and, at the appropriate time,
managed to get out through one of the fire escapes," Ford said.

He said they believe the thief secreted himself in the building after the
show closed Saturday night.

The theft was discovered Sunday morning when a Port Hope dealer, Chatwood
and Simmons, was preparing for the reopening of the show.

"I saw the girl, she turned white and grey and started shaking," said Ford.
"She said, 'My jewelry case is missing and it was the best one.'

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"The person who took it knew what they were doing and I guess it was pretty
horrific."

Const. Mike Menor of Kingston Police said the value of the jewelry that was
taken hasn't been clearly established, although it's certainly in the tens
of thousands of dollars and could be as high as $100,000.

Ford said it's feared clever bandits would have had the solid gold jewelry
melted down by now, making it untraceable.

"They're professionals," Ford said. "Let's face it, they're just dishonest,
rotten sons of guns, that's for sure."

The dealer who was robbed provided police with detailed descriptions of the
stolen goods.

"I think in the future we'll tell dealers, if you've got something really
pricey, don't leave it overnight," Ford said.

The Cabin Fever show featured 51 dealers this year, all selling high-quality
antiques and jewelry. More than 1,000 people attended the show.

rtripp at thewhig.com
Article ID# 888766

http://www.thewhig.com/