Luxury Double Bay jewellery store targeted in early morning ram raid

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in high-end jewellery, handbags and shoes have been stolen from a Double Bay luxury store in a smash-and-grab ram raid after thieves used a stolen car to smash open the shopfront.

PH Luxury Consignment in Transvaal Avenue was robbed at 4.30am on Thursday after the two thieves repeatedly backed a Volkswagen into the store before emerging from the vehicle and ransacking the shop.

Footage captured by nearby security cameras show the ram raid unfold before the crew flee the scene in a black Audi getaway car, which had been stolen from Bondi 24 hours earlier.

Most of Transvaal Avenue was closed on Thursday morning as police inspected the store and vehicle. Officers carried brown evidence bags from the premises and consulted detectives at the crime scene.

The Volkswagen, which has been seized for forensic examination, remained on the footpath outside the store for several hours as forensics police combed through it.

PH Luxury was still determining the exact value of goods stolen. It is expected to be closed for some time as owners confront the damage caused to the property.

“At this stage, the owners are still collating all the items that were stolen because the store was extensively smashed up. They believe it’s in the multiple hundreds of thousands,” Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command Detective Inspector Adam Solah said.

The resale business was founded in 2018 by eastern suburbs resident Paris Krimotat.

“They’re trying to put together the [inventory] of what’s been stolen, and it’s a challenge for businesses when they have these things happen to them because now they have to recover,” Solah said.

“The owner of that store in particular is very upset by what has occurred.”

The thieves remain at large. Police are still searching for the Audi getaway car.

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