A spectacular break-in attempt occurred at a jeweller's shop in the West Flemish coastal municipality of Koksijde on Sunday night. Two suspects, believed to be French, used considerable force as they battered the entrance door of the jewellers with a manhole cover for almost a minute. The door held firm and when the smoke alarm went off, the two men fled.
The owner of jewellery shop Yves Roose (54) is still in shock. He has been running his business on Zeelaan in Koksijde for 25 years but has never before experienced such a violent attempted burglary.
“At around 3 am on Sunday night, I received a report from the emergency dispatch centre telling me that there had been an attempted break-in. I was able to view the footage straight away on my smartphone, and I was quite shocked”.
“There were two men dressed in white that were wearing gloves and had their faces covered. They were banging on the front door of my shop with a manhole cover for almost a minute. They were going at it like crazy, but my door didn't budge.’
Smoke alarm
Mr Roose rushed straight to his shop. In the meantime, the police and fire brigade had also been alerted, as the shop’s smoke alarm had gone off. “When a thick cloud of smoke billowed into the street, a neighbour from across the road called the fire brigade to report that there was a fire in the building. When I arrived at the scene, I could only conclude that measures I had taken to prevent a burglary had worked well.’
“My security door is 8 layers thick and withstood 23 heavy blows and kicks. The burglars had no choice other than flee quickly, as they could no longer see anything through the smoke. Noting was taken”, Mr Roose told the VRT.
The Westkust Local Police Service is investigating the attempted break-in.